Cheerio Darren O'Dea. He smashed a Hun. UNLIKE his Lennoxtown locker, Darren OâDea was emptied by Celtic long ago. His boots and belongings may still be at the clubâs training ground, but his head has been somewhere else for years. Loaned to Reading, Ipswich and Leeds, then Euro 2012 in Poland as a squad member of Giovanni Trapattoniâs Ireland. Itâs only now, though, that the 25-year-old has been hit with the reality his Hoops career is finally over and he is an unemployed footballer without a team. OâDea said: âWhat am I going to do? Look for a club. âThere are a few possibilities but, to be honest, I havenât even thought about it. Iâll need to now, right enough. âThe Euros was the only thing I was thinking about and I just left the other stuff to my agent. âHeâs been working on things while I have been concentrating on being here in Poland with the Ireland team. âWhen I go back now, itâll be a case of seeing where I go. âItâs been tough leaving Celtic because itâs a big club, but Iâm ready to move on. âTheyâve got good players now and the club is moving on â it doesnât wait for people. âI thought I could have done well there, especially considering I really liked Neil Lennon as a manager. And I still do. âThere is no bitterness or anger. Celtic have given me everything, and I donât mean in football, I mean in life. Iâm married to a Scottish girl and we have a Scottish baby. When I finish with football, Iâll live in Scotland. âIâve grown up as a Celtic fan and was taught by the very best in Tommy Burns, so itâs really disappointing for me. âBut I wonât be moping about because of it. Iâve been moving around for two years and I have got my head around it. âWhen I first went to Ipswich it was maybe a little bit of a surprise for me but, since then, Iâve just got on with it. âI need a club now, a stable club, where I can move my family to. My wife was six months pregnant when I moved to Ipswich, which is in the middle of nowhere compared to Glasgow. âAt Leeds I continued to live in Glasgow and just drove up and down because my little one wasnât really settling down there. âI need to move my family and get settled again, but then Iâm sure my football will take care of itself. âI still havenât actually cleared out my locker at Celtic. Itâs like Iâve had one foot out the door for the last two years. Iâve been back for pre-season and then gone away again on loan. âOnce I get back from the Euros, Iâll probably go back to Glasgow, see a few people and say cheerio. I have a lot of people to thank there. I want to leave in a proper way.â OâDea could easily look at the state of Scottish football right now and say heâs better off out of it. But he wonât. The defender added: âNo, Iâd still say I would give a lot to play for Celtic. âI donât know what is going to happen with Rangers, but there are leagues and cups to be won at Celtic â and there arenât many places you get to do that unless youâre with one of the top three or four clubs in England. âI donât think youâd ever pass up the chance to play at Celtic, but my future will be down south in England. âThere are plenty of decent teams in the SPL and itâs not the case that Iâd turn my nose up at them. But other factors come into play â money probably being one of the main ones.â OâDea headed home from Euro 2012 very much looking towards the future. He may not have kicked a ball at the tournament but that hasnât made him any less determined to reach a major finals again. He added: âSure, it would have been great to get on the pitch at some stage. âI knew coming into the finals that Richard Dunne and Sean St Ledger would probably be the first-choice defenders, but you still dream. âWatching the games from the touchline, and seeing the class, you still learn even if youâre not playing. âFor us itâs about qualifying for future tournaments and I hope the experience of this one will stand us all in good stead.â Leicester defender St Ledger â a perennial Celtic target â admits the Irish players were astonished by the way Spain thrashed them 4-0 and sent them spinning out of the tournament. He said: âI never expected Spain to play at that level. I donât think anybody did. âIâve seen the stats of how much possession they had against a side like Croatia and itâs just incredible. âWe always knew we were in a difficult group. But sometimes youâve just got to hold up your hands and say weâve lost to three very good sides, which are all ranked in the top ten. âI wanted to come out here and win football matches and thereâs nothing that can replace that. Itâs hugely disappointing. âAt least in the final game against Italy we had a go. We didnât create much, but I think everybody saw the fight and the spirit in our team.â Ireland failed to win a point from their three games and returned home with their tails between their legs. But St Ledger said: âListen, we havenât been to a European Championship for 24 years, so excitement is always going to be there. âWe feel like we let people down, but we all tried our hardest and it wasnât to be. âThereâs another campaign coming up and we will give everything to get there. âHopefully the fans will cheer us in Brazil.â
I liked Darren O'Dea - he did provide some memorable moments on the pitch but unfortunately he just wasn't good enough to hold down a regular place in the team. In any case, I wish him all the very best.
Always liked him. Good attitude there too it seems. Never moaned when not picked. Thought when he first came through he'd make it, but wasn't to be. Needed a bobo balde type to play along side him IMO but we haven't had one of them for a while. Hope he gets a club and goes on to have a decent career.
Good luck to him but he's crap. We've got plenty of crap CBs as it is. Couldn't care less if he was/is a celtic fan.
Thought he was back-up standard for Leeds, but clearly has some natural ability attacking the ball whether on the ground or in the air. Still, bit of a headless chicken at the wrong times and that makes him an easy target for critics. An 'ups and downs' sort of player rather than a consistently average one. He'll probably end up at a low-end Championship club, somewhere like Bristol City or Barnsley.
Whereas I thought he was probably one of the worst defenders I have ever seen in a leeds shirt I hope he ends up somewhere thats good for him though because he does have the right attitude
i agree to an extent that he is limited, however i would not say he was the worst defender i have seen in a leeds shirt. that honour would go to roque junior . after that michalik was especially bad and more recently i would say both bruce and bromby are far worse. O'dea needed some experience beside him.
