Damien Duff has wished Mason Melia well with his record-breaking switch to Tottenham - but fears the teenager will be playing catch-up.
Spurs smashed the League of Ireland transfer record by splashing out an initial €1.8 million fee for the 17-year-old wonderkid. That could rise to almost €4 million in time, while St Pat’s also retain a lucrative 20 per cent sell-on clause should Melia move again.
And in the meantime, Saints get to keep the striker in their squad for the 2025 Premier Division season with Melia moving to the London giants next January.
Shelbourne boss and Ireland legend Duff hailed the transfer business as “brilliant for him, and brilliant financially for St Pat’s.” Due to Brexit rules, players cannot move to British clubs until they turn 18 and that’s where Duff feels Melia will have to make up for lost time.
“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.
“I was 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, would I have been happy going at 18? No, I was happy the way I did it and that's it. Life is life.”
Melia will get another year’s experience of playing senior men’s football in the League of Ireland and that should stand to him before moving over. But Duff reckons this this particular pathway for Irish youngsters is not foot perfect.
“That's the standout with Mason, he's physically a beast and has been like that for quite a few years,” said last season’s title-winning manager. “It's the Catch 22 of this (Brexit) 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. I was training with Blackburn Rovers first team when I was 16 and he will be training when he's 18. I have two years on him, so that's the downside.”
Last season, Duff hit out at how some of the League of Ireland's best players had left Irish football for tiny transfer fees. And he insisted he would never agree to a minimum release clause being inserted into a contract if a player was signing for Shelbourne. So Duff admits the record-breaking deal struck by Tottenham is a positive sign for the League of Ireland.
Duff continued: “I guess that's the benefit of having him stay until he's 18. If he went at 15 or 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. If they are good enough to go, I will always wish them well.”