Sean Boyd reveals Jose Mourinho's glowing praise for Damien Duff in message to Shelbourne squad

He was talking about the manager (Duff) and who he was as a player. He said 'Youse have a man in front of you who I had as a player, who didn't want to be a star but did everything he could to be as good as he could... If you take an inch of what the manager gave me as a player, and put that into a performance, then no matter what happens, if you win the league or you don't, you can look at yourself after the game and think I'm a champion.'

But then he said 'If you put them all together and do all these things, ten times out of ten you're going to be champions anyway.' It was a nice message, a lovely message.

Boyd also detailed how former Shelbourne player Stuart Byrne got onto the team bus ahead of their drive home and delivered a passionate message praising them for their efforts.

It's understood that players were also made aware of a message sent by Roy Keane to Duff to pass on congratulations.

Read at Irish Independent