DAMIEN DUFF SAYS he will be supporting Mason Melia as a League of Ireland supporter after his record-breaking transfer to Tottenham Hotspur.
The Premier League club confirmed a €2 million fee with St Patrick’s Athletic yesterday, rising to €4m with add-ons, and the Shelbourne boss admits the 17-year-old’s physicality marks him out as “a beast” for someone his age.
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Duff does feel that the new Brexit rules, which means Melia will remain with St Pat’s until he turns 18 in September, will see him playing catch up once his five-year contract at the Premier League club begins on 1 January 2026.
“It looks great, yeah, I guess that’s the benefit of having him stay until he’s 18. If he went at 15 of 16 he’s probably going for five or six figures, not seven figures. It’s brilliant for him, brilliant for St Pat’s financially and I guess brilliant exposure for the league. I’ll be intrigued to see how he gets on,” Duff said at the launch of the 2025 League of Ireland season in the Mansion House earlier today.
“The standout with Mason, he’s physically a beast and has been like that for quite a few years. It’s the Catch 22 of this rule, going away to England, he has stayed here and got first team exposure and we have kept the best players here. But at the same time, he has missed two or three years at an elite [club] one of the biggest clubs in the world, so there are pros and cons for everything.
“He will be going to Spurs at 18 and I will be supporting him as a League of Ireland fan, as an Irish fan, but if you call a spade a spade, he is playing catch up. I’d imagine he’s not going into 18s or 20s, he’s going into the first team so let’s see what you’ve got.”
Duff drew on his own experiences of joining Blackburn Rovers at 16 and training with their first team at the same age.
“You can talk about it all day long, it is what it is. All I can speak of is my experience. I went to England at 16, granted it’s an awful long time ago, and I wouldn’t change it.
“I went and lived at the training ground, literally, for two years until I was 18 and probably touched the football more than any kid in the world – training two or three times a day and at night time I was down at the astro playing. I lived it. There was nothing in my way. Life is different now. Looking back at it now, would I have been happy going at 18? No, I was happy the way I did it and that’s it. Life is life.”
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'I will be supporting him as a League of Ireland fan, but he is playing catch up'
DAMIEN DUFF SAYS he will be supporting Mason Melia as a League of Ireland supporter after his record-breaking transfer to Tottenham Hotspur.
The Premier League club confirmed a €2 million fee with St Patrick’s Athletic yesterday, rising to €4m with add-ons, and the Shelbourne boss admits the 17-year-old’s physicality marks him out as “a beast” for someone his age.
Duff does feel that the new Brexit rules, which means Melia will remain with St Pat’s until he turns 18 in September, will see him playing catch up once his five-year contract at the Premier League club begins on 1 January 2026.
“It looks great, yeah, I guess that’s the benefit of having him stay until he’s 18. If he went at 15 of 16 he’s probably going for five or six figures, not seven figures. It’s brilliant for him, brilliant for St Pat’s financially and I guess brilliant exposure for the league. I’ll be intrigued to see how he gets on,” Duff said at the launch of the 2025 League of Ireland season in the Mansion House earlier today.
“The standout with Mason, he’s physically a beast and has been like that for quite a few years. It’s the Catch 22 of this rule, going away to England, he has stayed here and got first team exposure and we have kept the best players here. But at the same time, he has missed two or three years at an elite [club] one of the biggest clubs in the world, so there are pros and cons for everything.
“He will be going to Spurs at 18 and I will be supporting him as a League of Ireland fan, as an Irish fan, but if you call a spade a spade, he is playing catch up. I’d imagine he’s not going into 18s or 20s, he’s going into the first team so let’s see what you’ve got.”
Duff drew on his own experiences of joining Blackburn Rovers at 16 and training with their first team at the same age.
“You can talk about it all day long, it is what it is. All I can speak of is my experience. I went to England at 16, granted it’s an awful long time ago, and I wouldn’t change it.
“I went and lived at the training ground, literally, for two years until I was 18 and probably touched the football more than any kid in the world – training two or three times a day and at night time I was down at the astro playing. I lived it. There was nothing in my way. Life is different now. Looking back at it now, would I have been happy going at 18? No, I was happy the way I did it and that’s it. Life is life.”
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