“He has played all over the world from Swansea to India”

​

He started his career playing with Glasgow Rangers and made his debut against Forfar in a Scottish League Cup match. He has played for several teams all across the world. Duffy currently plays for Scottish League one team Airdrieonians FC.

​

Duffy has played for Airdieonians for a year since joining on loan last year from St Mirren and then signing a permeant deal with the Airdrie based club. 

​

What is it like playing for Airdrieonians FC and what is it like playing under Ian Murray?

He said, “Its good, big club, big stadium, it’s one of the biggest clubs in this league. The gaffer has come in and made a lot of changes, he’s got the fitness levels up. It’s good it’s enjoyable.”

​

How do you find it different playing in Scotland to playing in England?

​

​

Football is different everywhere you play and as a fan watching I can see that the game is played in different ways depending on your surroundings.

Duffy said, “The tempo is a lot higher down south, the games a lot quicker, try and play a bit more football, a bit direct up in Scotland so I would say the tempo and the Style of play.”

​

What’s your favourite memory of playing football so far and is there any mangers that have influenced your career?

​

He said, “I really loved my time at Falkirk, playing under John Hughes at Falkirk, he really got the best out of me, he just left me to it; let me do what I kind of though naturally to do from game to game. There was a few times he gave me a real earful, but yeah probably John Hughes at Falkirk and winning the double and getting promotion into the Premier League is probably one of my favourite moments as well and I was top goal scorer that season and I got young player of the year so all and all it was good individually and good for the team.”

​

Duffy played 44 games for Falkirk that season and bagged an impressive 27 goals. These goals helped Falkirk gain promotion into the Premiership and helped the team get the Bells Challenge Cup.

​

What was it like playing in India and how did you adapt to the lifestyle?

​

Darryl played in India with three different clubs and spend a large part of his career in the country. The teams that he played for are Salgaocar, Goa and Mohan Bagan. I wanted to find out more about how he adapted to playing in a different continent.

​

Duffy said, “Well, I wanted to come home after three months while I was in India, I was desperate to come home, it’s just different in India in every single way. The weather is ridiculously hot, humid and the food was mega spicy and when you every tried asking for anything plain they can’t help themselves throwing a bit of spice in it, but once you got used to the weather and the culture, you need to be very respectful over there. Religion is a big thing so many different religions over there and different languages. Once you kind of adjust to that and find restaurants that can understand the way your foods cook and the way you eat then it was fantastic. The lifestyle out there is second to none, shorts and t-shirts every day and spending your spare time by the swimming pool and the beach.”

​

Was there a lot of foreign players over there?  

​

Darryl said, “The team that I played for in my first year there was a lot of African players, the African players come over and are a bit cheaper than the European boys, I was literally the only Scottish guy but a guy from Australia which was good and in my third season one of my mates from Hibs came over so that was another Scot, a Scottish boy and a Scottish coach, so that was good, later on a couple of British guys came over for the opposition teams but cause of the size of the country, travelling and that it was impossible to see them unless you were playing against them, so yeah it was kind of mixed.”

​

What were the fans like in India?

​

Duffy mentioned, “Really passionate, really passionate, they love you treat you like a God when you are winning and playing well and they abuse you, abuse the life out of you when you’re not doing well, yeah so they are very passionate it was good. It gives you that extra bit of motivation.”

​

What is your opinion on ‘VAR’?

​

Darryl said, “Good timing after last night’s game (Tottenham and Man City in the Champions League). I’m kind of mixed on it, overall it is a good thing like when it’s about hitting the bar from distance, from a short distance to see whether it’s over the line, and I think it’s good from that kind of perspective but the penalty Manchester United got against Paris Saint Germaine in the Champions League went to ‘VAR, and I don’t think that was a penalty and was the one in last night’s game (Tottenham and Man City in the Champions League) a hand ball, when you slow it down with ‘VAR’ it’s quite difficult so I think like goal line its great and for offside its good but for things like hand balls and penalties I’m not a big fan."

​

Do you feel younger players look up to you as you are an experienced player?

​

As an experienced played there will be a lot of players that Duffy has played with throughout his long career that would have taken notes from his performances especially in his later years.

​

He said, “Not any more, I think when I was young and I was coming through, you know it was completely different. You wouldn’t even dream of speaking to a first team player and you’d be walking on egg shells round about them but the players these days don’t seem to have that same fear they seem to stroll about and do what they want when they want, it’s completely different from when I was coming up but hopefully they can pick up some stuff from my past experiences.”

​

Who would you say the best player you’ve played with and played against? 

​

Darryl said, “I’ve played with a lot of good players, I’ll stick with Scotland and I’ll stick with Russell Lataby at Falkirk, Russell was coming to the end of his career at Falkirk but he was an absolute genius he was 35, 36 by the time I was playing with him, you could just give him the ball. His vision and execution of pass was the best I’ve ever played with so Russell is head and shoulders above the best. Played against, I played against a lot of good players when I was younger in the Scotland ranks. I played against Holland so Robben and Sneijder were playing and I played against Benzema, but probably first team again I’ll try stick to Scotland, probably Bobo Balde at Celtic. You remember him, he was a monster.”

​

Yeah, big guy

​

Darryl continued, “He was massive, he was strong, he was quick he had everything.”

​

Player like Russel Lataby and Bobo Balde are only an example of the type of player Duffy has played against and with throughout his career.

​

Final question do you see yourself in the future as a manager or a coach

​

“Duffy mentioned, ”Yeah I’d like to think so, I am going to start dong my badges actually before I went to India I started doing my badges and was due to sit my first assessment in September, then I went to India in August. I could have done my badges in India but they would only be valid in India. If I do them in Scotland they would be valid worldwide so I put it on the back burner whilst I was in India and I was just getting my feet back into Scottish football when I signed for St Mirren and that kind of didn’t work out so after my loan at Airdrie I came here again to get regular games, so now that I’m getting more regular games, they are defiantly something I am going to start working towards.”

​

Hopefully we will be seeing more good performances by the Airdrieonians team and good matches by Darryl Duffy in the years to come and hopefully he can get his coaching badges.

​

By Stuart McDougall