Dion Dublin Interview Highlights: What he said
This brief summarises the salient themes and key concepts or pieces of information presented in the interview with former Manchester United forward Dion Dublin, who talks about form, club culture, and football today.
- Marcus Rashford’s Form and Future
Marcus Rashford: Dion Dublin reveals brutal fears over United star’s short-term and long-term future. Ole Gunnar SolskjaerDion Dublin share concerns and hopes for Rashford amid struggles at the world’s richest football club.. The striker has been struggling for form in front of the goal recently, and it has everyone talking. He insists that all Rashford needs to succeed is added belief, saying: “I still believe that Marcus Rashford… can be one of the best in the world.” But Dublin says the underlying issue is mental rather than technical: “It’s not Marcus Rashford’s ability to play football. It’s Marcus Rashford himself.” He hints that there’s an unseen problem, saying, “Something must be going on that we don’t know about for Marcus not to be able to play the football that we know that he’s capable of.
Influential voices in Dublin have put Rashford’s loss of form down to a “situation accumulating” under several bosses who “cannot get the best out of him”. And he lays the responsibility for a comeback firmly at the feet of Rashford: “Now Marcus has to decide.” “That sort of things is good for me… only Marcus Rashford can do that.” Despite the hurdles, Dublin is impressed by the kind of competitor he is and adds, “I see Marcus all the time on online and he’s training online. He’s working so hard. He’s doing everything right. He has a professional mindset.” The remedy, he believes, is for Rashford to “stop messing about and let’s get back to what I can do.” - Toxic culture at Manchester United and the exits of players
Dublin maintains only in fact sarcasm that the “culture” (so often the buzz word in any dressing room issue at Manchester United — he’s not tearing into any sort of leadership) is “a little bit toxic” and that the “ image of the football club could be better”, a problem he says “has been going on for a long time since Ronaldo was there.” He indicates that the toxicity is not just coming from one side and says that “there has been friction between the management” and players who “want more or they should be starting, they’re not getting their starts and stuff. They want to get elsewhere.”
Specific players. The terms of players, Dublin thinks if Sancho makes a transfer to Juventus, it would be a “what a move that would be for him” with his abilities, though he feels the youngster needs “consistency end of product”. He says manager Ruben Amorim should “move these players on if he’s to change that culture at the club.”
Dublin shrugs off worries over Alejandro Garnacho playing in an Aston Villa shirt supporting Rashford’s name: “It didn’t bother me one bit.” He tells fans not to “get in your way” or ruin your good time over such petty annoyances, but would rather “concern myself with ‘the player'” and their on-pitch output. - “Young Players: Discipline and Focus
Dublin has plain, “very old school” advice to any young player altogether. His general point is to focus on performance and professional behaviour more generally: ‘get on with your job, which is playing football on the pitch for your team, do it well and everything else will happen to you.’ He explains the essential need for humility and obedience: ‘Shut your mouth, put your head down, just do your job, and if you do your job, you’re going to have one of the best careers that’s out there. “But you have to just do it on the pitch, and you have to listen to your seniors and do what you are being told. - Aston Villa’s Rise to Prominence and the Role of the Striker
Aston Villa old boy Dublin is upbeat about the club’s future under Unai Emery. Emery has “changed everything” at the club, says Luiz, meaning “the outlook on Villa and the expectation of Villa has gone through the roof and rightly so”. Villa “will only get better” and “should be top six from now on”, according to Dublin. He points out they are “a European club with European fans” and a “European structure” beginning to develop.
Every striker he is coming into Villa, Dublin instructs them: “Try and sign and hit the ground running. Just try to get on the board as quick as you can. He points out just how much is required of the holder of the position, explaining: “you’ve got to put the graft in… it is a hard place to go and fill that shirt. He insists the priority is keeping Ollie Watkins, “their most important forward, if not their best, and I think every season he’s got that bit better”. - Development of the Women’s Game (WSL)
They are very positive and keen for women’s football to develop, exemplified by Olivia Smith moving to Arsenal for £1m. He describes this as a “fantastic” development and “the direction the game has to take.” Writing in his blog, he acknowledges the enormous strides in several areas – “The attendance has gone through the roof. The focus on the game is insane. Um,t the quality of the game has got so much better.” He believes this development will open doors for young girls and some role models from this section, while “it also credits education and schooling first before you go into football.” - Personal Endeavour: Further Education Campaign
Away from football, Dion Dublin gives a short account of his part in a drive to get people to return to education and learning. His rugby journey towards the end of his playing days has inspired him – he began to understand the value of all that he had learned. He wants to “motivate people that have been in my position, where you get to the backend of your career and you’re like, what am I going to do.” He emphasises that not everyone needs qualifications when he says, Don’t feel like you have to have all the qualifications in the world because I didn’t,” and urges people to “believe in themselves and believe in the knowledge they have within their genre and take it further and pass it onto the next generation.”
