QUEENS PARK RANGERS defender Jimmy Dunne feels his decision to reject a new contract at Burnley has already been vindicated.
After five years on the books of the Premier League club, Dunne turned down a new deal last summer to join QPR in the Championship.
The Irish centre-back has been thriving for the West London outfit, who are just two points adrift of the automatic promotion places as they aim to reach the Premier League for next season.
Dunne, who was named his club’s Player of the Month for December, scored his second goal of the season in Saturday’s 4-0 win over Reading.
The Dundalk man is a guest on the latest episode of The Football Family – the weekly Irish football podcast – which is now available to The42 members.
“It was kind of a matter of high risk, high reward,” he said of his departure from Burnley, for whom he scored in his Premier League debut against Leicester City in September 2020.
“It definitely would have been the cosier option to stick around, but looking at it now, I would have lacked game-time if I had stayed. I’ve had 20-odd games here now so already I feel like it’s been worth it.
“I feel like I’m definitely progressing. There are still loads of aspects of my game that I’m trying to improve but at least I’m playing and I’ve got the opportunity to work on them.”
Dunne experienced competitive football during loan spells with clubs such as Hearts and Sunderland, but his current unbroken run of 22 appearances for QPR is the longest stretch of successive games that he has put together in his career thus far.
“Those consecutive games have been really important for me. I haven’t had a lot of that,” said Dunne, who also had stints at Barrow, Accrington Stanley and Fleetwood Town.
“Even in my loan moves there’d be maybe 10 to 15 games and there was rotation and stuff like that, so to finally get into that routine of playing loads of games and getting robust enough to be able to do that has been really important in my development.”
In-form QPR defender @jimmydunne70 spoke to @PaulDollery about his international prospects on the latest episode of The Football Family podcast.
— The42.ie (@The42_ie) February 2, 2022
Sign up to hear the episode in full: https://t.co/gmmE7i3ndx pic.twitter.com/9FigWwSBr0
Although he was previously called into the Ireland squad by both Martin O’Neill and Mick McCarthy, Dunne is still awaiting his first cap at senior level.
Of his Irish ambitions, the former U21 international said: “To be honest, it’s not something I think of all the time. I’ve always understood to myself that if I concentrate on my club football and do well where I’m at, an international appearance will be a consequence of that.
“Hopefully, when we keep pushing and get promoted next season and I’m hopefully playing regularly at a higher level, then that is something that will come.
“I’ve always thought about it the same way; it’s always been a dream of mine but I’m definitely just going to focus on what I’m doing here, and when and if it comes I’ll be delighted.”
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