Damien Duff is leaving Fulham after five years at the club. (Image: Jamie McDonald/Getty Images)

I’ve spoken a lot about fresh starts recently but with every revolution there are always victims. One of Fulham’s is Damien Duff.

In this modern era, it is especially hard to find footballers who can combine a boundless amount of talent and technique with sheer doggedness and graft. It’s even harder with Fulham’s ill-thought, backwards transfer policy.

But Duff is just that; a footballer who has always had the creativity and flair of a premium-rate player, yet with an edge, too. A competitiveness that, somewhat surprisingly in a sport so passionately followed, isn’t always prevalent among the elite.

When he arrived, he was a bold signing. His stock had fallen at Stamford Bridge but the Irishman was still a coup for Roy Hodgson who, we had no idea, was building a team that would compete to the very bitter end in Europe.


His pace, a major component in his game, was dwindling but he could compensate. Like any professional, he learned how to adapt and eventually became an integral cog in one of our club’s most successful ever teams.

Unlike Bryan Ruiz or Adel Taarabt, his trademark was not his proficiency on the ball and not even his knack for cutting inside and scoring from distance.

No, he was adored because he tracked back, covered the defence and adhered perfectly to a tactical plan that was, for all intents and purposes, almost flawless.

It’s sad because, in truth, he will not go down in history or be immortalised by the fans. He was merely a very good player in a very good team.

There was something to him, though, that earned him the utmost respect from a group of fans who, let’s face it, did not appreciate his Chelsea heritage. He worked hard, above all, and that will always win people over.

His words upon leaving struck a chord, too. The 35 year-old said his ‘most enjoyable time in football has been at Fulham’ and that he has ‘loved every minute if it’.

It becomes all the more pertinent when you consider how turbulent his time at Craven Cottage has actually been, with injury regularly curtailing his momentum.

Many people have walked through this club in the past five years but Duff has left a mark that will never be tarnished.

I’m sure I wouldn’t be alone in thanking him for what he has done. We wish you all the best.

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