Martin O’Neill wasn’t the only one talking to the press today. It probably shouldn’t be too surprising that Richard Dunne also had a few microphones shoved in his face and of course was asked for his thoughts regarding some of the Irish players that Villa have been linked with recently.

He naturally spoke in glowing terms:-

Richard Dunne
Stephen Ireland is brilliant so, if he became available then absolutely I’d recommend him. But the manager does his own thing. Regardless of who comes or goes, he still ends up with a team that challenges for a top four or top five.

I would recommend the whole Irish team if he asked but he does his own thing and that’s the way he is. He picks a squad, we go into the dressing room and everyone gets along. I think that’s his basis of the team.

Yeah it’d be great but the two of them [Robbie Keane & Aiden McGeady] are at different clubs and as far as I know they’re happy there. Whether the manager is interested or not is different, but me personally I’d take the two of them.

It wouldn’t be the first time we’ve had at least four Irishman at Villa Park, but Dunne was hardly going to say anything different, now was he.

Dunne goes on to reflect on playing in Dublin this weekend, retirement and the likelihood of James Milner getting much playing time at Man City. The quotes once again come from extratime.ie who were at today’s press conference and I’d like to extend my gratitude to them for publishing extended quotes, rather than spoon feeding sound bites to illustrate a particular narrative.

Also, they’ll be covering Saturday’s friendly against Bohemians at their Live Matchtracker. I’m not sure what AVC will be doing yet, if anything, so that’s definitely worth keeping in mind.