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Damien Duff: set to leave with Shamrock Rovers. Morgan Treacy/INPHO
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Damien Duff set to take coaching role with Celtic reserves

The former Ireland international will take up the position on a full-time basis.

DAMIEN DUFF WILL continue his career in football as the former Ireland international is set to take up a coaching role with the Celtic reserve team.

Reported in today’s Irish Independent, Duff will return to Celtic in the new year to take up the full-time position, following on from talks with the Scottish club last month.

“I spoke to them last week, I went over to the training ground, obviously so impressive,” Duff confirmed on RTE’s Champions League coverage in November.

“For me and most Irish men, it’s the biggest club in the world. There’s a role going there with the reserves and we’re still talking to them.

“Listen, what route am I going to go down after football? That’s all I know, I don’t have a school education, nothing, so I can’t go down that route so absolutely obsessed with football, obsessed with learning and improving, and that could be an amazing environment to do so.”

Damien Duff training the U15 boys Damien Duff takes the Shamrock Rovers U15 side for a training session. Morgan Treacy / INPHO Morgan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO

Over the last two years, the former Chelsea midfielder has continued his football education as Shamrock Rovers U15 head coach and has been quite vocal in his opinions toward underage coaching in Ireland.

“I get slaughtered for it in this country for training my lads five times a week, training half six in the morning doing double sessions and you’re back at half six at night. I get slaughtered,” he said speaking on RTE.

“That’s ‘dinosaur mentality’. You have to train five times a week. We went to play Chelsea during the season, they train seven times a week. But most teams train twice or three times a week, so that’s a problem already.

“Do we play enough games? Absolutely not. We had our first game on 25 March and it ended at the end of October. Six months of football. For me, there should be another four months on top of that.

“They do not touch a ball enough, and that’s an absolute fact.”

Duff, a two-time Premier League winner, has worked with Celtic first team manager Brendan Rodgers when he was a coach with Chelsea.

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