ALL news is local.
So the pitting of Shelbourne and Linfield against each other in a Champions League qualifier could be viewed in a number of ways.
Linfield are managed by Northern Ireland legend David Healy[/caption]
Duff has turned out to be as uncompromising a figure as his longtime Ireland teammate[/caption]
The most obvious is a clash between the league winners from either side of the border, competing to be known as All-Ireland champions, even if it is a title for which Linfield cares little.
Damien Duff said: “It’s a brilliant day for everyone at the football club, especially for those who have been through the dark times.
“Players and staff watched the draw together and there is already a great buzz at the prospect of an All-Ireland derby.”
It is also a tussle between two former Dundalk team-mates, Shels’ Sean Gannon and Chris Shields of Linfield, although both are suspended for the first leg.
In Scotland, it was being framed as a contest between teams led by ‘Celtic and Rangers heroes’.
David Healy had six months at Ibrox as a player which was long enough to win an SPL title and League Cup.
Duff spent 17 months as a coach at Celtic during which time the club won two league titles, a Scottish Cup and a League Cup.
Born just five months apart in 1979, the tie could be defining in the coaching career of both famed former internationals.
Healy’s first experience of European football as a manager was a 2-1 aggregate defeat to Cork City in 2016. He fell agonisingly short of leading Linfield into the group stages of the Conference League in 2022.
His side led Latvia’s RFS 2-0 in the first leg but lost a penalty shoot-out in Belfast after conceding an own goal in stoppage time at the end of extra-time.
Duff’s came last season when they edged past St Joseph’s of Gibraltar before being outclassed by FC Zurich.
Healy is regularly mentioned in dispatches for club jobs across the water. Duff would be, had he not made it clear he has no interest in uprooting.
But negotiating the first round of the Champions League – and making group-stage football a realistic proposition – might have a few more willing to test his resolve.
For now, though, he said he will relish the extra demands Europe’s premier competition will bring, believing the complaints of others about a congested fixture list are a relic of the League’s part-time past.
Duff said: “League of Ireland teams are like ‘ugh’ but we’re going to have to deal with it and lads are going to have to get their head around it. I dealt with it for 15, 16, 20 years.
“But I still always have that. ‘I have to go again?’… yeah, you do. It’s your f***ing job and it’s the best days of your life, playing football.
“That’s up to lads looking after themselves, recovering, putting in the best account of themselves and us as a staff trying to be wise and pick the right team at the right time.”
OTHER OUTLOOK
The argument from other coaches is that so much goes into preparing for a European tie – particularly a higher-ranked opponent – that fitting in domestic fixtures reduces your chance of success.
But Duff shrugged: “It’s just a mentality thing. The big teams all around Europe, they play on a Wednesday and they’re up for the game but they’re up for it again on the weekend.
“It’s absolutely alien, I get that, to our lads but it’s something that I’ll try to hammer home and it’s something that I’ve hammered at them or aimed at them for years gone by.
“It’s not just the Europe thing. ‘Oh, Friday, we have to go again Monday. Oh, I’m tired’, You’re not tired.
“They’re all young boys. A lot of them are still living at home with their mammies getting their washing done, their cooking done.
“You can sleep 20 hours a day if you want to. All I want to see you for is 90 minutes. So to be able to only attack mentally two games a week isn’t an elite mindset for me.
“It’s just an excitement. So you can sleep when you’re dead, I guess.”
Shels are due to host Linfield on either Tuesday July 8 or Wednesday July 9 with the return leg in Belfast the following week
