Latest news with #JohnnyGiles
Irish Times
29-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Johnny Giles was the footballer, John Giles was the pundit – both were geniuses in their own way
Forget honesty of effort, forget doing your stuff. The first time I became aware of Johnny Giles , he was doing a rabona. Nobody called it that, not at the time he did it in March 1972 nor whatever year in the 1980s it was when I came to see it on video. But he pulled it out, insouciant as you like, in a famous passage of play during a Leeds game when they were 7-0 up on Southampton. Even now, when you look it up on YouTube, the astonishing thing is that none of the Southampton players went over and buried him for it. Leeds were, to put a Fifa-approved technical term on it, prick-acting about – Billy Bremner was doing keepy-uppies and back-heeling passes for no reason other than to embarrass the opposition. Given that it would have taken the wielding of a chainsaw to be sent off in those days, it was always a wonder Gilsey didn't get a slap for his messing. God alone knows why we had it on video. Ours was not a Leeds United house, nor anything close to it. But it was there, along with footage from the 1984 Uefa Cup final between Spurs and Anderlecht – again, no idea why, for we were even less of a Spurs house. I suspect it was more that we were a house where a football-obsessed little boy lived and so any small bit of it that was on, somebody hit record. READ MORE So that was my introduction to Johnny Giles. And for years, it was the only thing I knew about him. I was too young to have seen him play and his time as Ireland manager predated me too. I knew nothing of his attempts to make Shamrock Rovers a superpower and what I now know as his reputation for being a taciturn old grouch with the media couldn't have made less of an impression. All I knew was that he was adored by old men (back then, anybody over 19 was old). That, and the one time I'd seen him do anything with a ball, he'd waited for it to bobble over to him on a cabbage field of a pitch and calmly flicked his left boot behind his right ankle to whip it down the line to Allan Clarke. 'Poor Southampton don't know what day it is,' gurgled Barry Davies on commentary. 'Every man jack of this Leeds side is turning it on. Oh, look at that! It's almost cruel.' (The 'Oh, look at that!' was Gilesy's flick). Later, when I'd see him on RTÉ as a pundit, I initially found it impossible to square the circle. Hang on, so this guy who is forever preaching simplicity and not forcing it and doing the right thing, this is the same dude that's in the Leeds-Southampton video? How can that be? Johnny Giles in action for Leeds in 1974. Photograph: Allsport Hulton/Archive Eventually, I realised I was comparing two different people. Johnny Giles was the footballer, the guy in the number 10 shirt who could do anything with the ball. John Giles was the chap on TV in the sensible V-neck, sitting there impassively as the mad fella on one side of him shook his fist at the world and the mischievous Corkman on the other side twinkled away in the presenter's chair. My generation missed out on Johnny Giles. We got John Giles instead. And it was easy to feel shortchanged about that. Instinctively, plenty of us wondered what all the fuss was about. But over time, probably because we got older and (marginally) less dumb, it became clear. Eamon Dunphy kept going on about what a genius John Giles was, what he didn't know about football wasn't worth knowing. Bill O'Herlihy kept deferring to him. Over time, you saw what they saw. Uniquely in that world, the Aprés Match lads never seemed to know what to do with him. There was no gimmick, no hook. He was who he was – straight, knowledgeable, unshowy. Paul McGrath told a lovely story years ago about being on RTÉ doing a game, back when they had the Premier League highlights on a Saturday night. He was nervous as hell, afraid of his life of freezing up on TV. They were doing an Everton game and McGrath was blanking and couldn't think of anything to say about Kevin Campbell. So Giles fed him a line about Campbell looking fit since coming back from a spell in Turkey. When they came back from an ad break, Billo asked McGrath what he made of the Everton striker and McGrath duly delivered his assessment, saying the time with Trabzonspor had served him well and he was looking a lot fitter now. When Billo turned to Giles for his take, he went, 'Well I'd have to agree with what Paul said.' John Giles makes his way down O'Connell Street as Grand Marshall of the 2012 St Patrick's Day Parade. Photograph: Brenda Fitzsimons That was John Giles. He finished up with Newstalk during the week, bringing an end to a media career that lasted twice as long as his actual playing career. Throughout it, you could tell what he stood for, always. You could tell what he thought was nonsense, always. If it didn't make sense to send your centre-half up as a spare striker in the first five minutes, it doesn't make sense to do it in the final five either. The good players take touches that give themselves time on the ball, the less good ones take touches that cut down their time on the ball. If a midfielder has found himself ahead of the ball in the opposition half, he hasn't understood what being a midfielder is. Core beliefs. Changeless as canal water. John Giles has retired at the age of 84. Dunphy's podcast has wound up, probably for good. Dear old Billo went to the presenter's chair in the sky a whole 10 years ago . The world keeps turning and new voices take over, as they should. But out on the green the other night, someone passed me the ball and I nearly threw my knee out trying a rabona. Some things last forever.
Irish Daily Mirror
26-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Daily Mirror
End of an era as Johnny Giles announces his retirement from punditry
The legendary Johnny Giles has this evening announced his retirement from punditry. Giles has graced Irish screens and airways for many decades and has long been heralded as one of the most respected analysts in the land. The former Leeds United star was the face of RTE's soccer punditry from the 1980's until his retirement from television work in 2016. He has formed part of Newstalk's soccer coverage for over two decades, and spoke on Off the Ball this evening about his career breaking down the best players in the game. "I was really lucky. I fell into the television. Eamon [Dunphy] helped me a lot in that," Giles said on radio this evening. "When you're doing the job I was trying to do, you have to watch all the matches. You can't make it up as you go along. "I think it got to the stage where I was getting a bit stale trying to watch as many matches as I could and it became hard work. "Football has never been hard work to me, I have always loved it but there are so matches. "Even in the summer now, you see the teams over in America [for the Club World Cup]. "I have had a good run of it. I am 84, nearly 85. "I have enjoyed it. I loved playing. I fell into to the television, I had no intention of doing that when I was actually playing the football. "No complaints whatsoever." A legend of Irish soccer, Giles is regarded as one of the best players that this country has ever produced. He enjoyed a glittering playing career for the likes of Manchester United and Leeds, and on the International scene, he played 59 times for Ireland, operating as a player manager for the last six years of his time with the Boys in Green. After retiring from football, Giles took on the role of pundit with RTE and was synonymous with the Irish soccer team for many decades. Alongside Eamon Dunphy, Liam Brady and host Bill O'Herlihy, Giles was a key cog in the golden era of Irish punditry, an era that even now is very fondly remembered.
RTÉ News
27-05-2025
- Sport
- RTÉ News
Leeds United to meet AC Milan in Dublin in August
Leeds United will take on AC Milan at the Aviva Stadium in a pre-season friendly in on Saturday, 9 August. It will be Leeds' final friendly before their return to the Premier League a week later. The fixture will serve as an international date for Milan ahead of the Serie A season, which is set to kick off on the weekend of 23 August. It will be the first time the two sides have met since the UEFA Champions League group stages in the 2000/2001 season, having only ever met three times in all competitions previously. Leeds, who return to Dublin after nine years, have had many Irish internationals pass through their ranks in the form of Johnny Giles, Robbie Keane, Ian Harte and Gary Kelly. Kelly, who played 462 times for Leeds and amassed 52 caps for Republic of Ireland commented: "It's going to be an exciting game and certainly a great test for this Leeds side before their Premier League campaign kicks off. "I have great memories of the last time we played Milan, captaining the side against them in the Champions League. "Obviously as a proud Irishman I am delighted this fixture is coming to Dublin, which I know the locals will welcome, packing out the Aviva Stadium and creating a great atmosphere." The game kicks off at 3pm.
