For all the player comings and goings this winter, the most trumpeted and intriguing close-season signing was a manager.
And three months after joining Shelbourne, Damien Duff will tonight tick the box on another career milestone by managing a senior team competitively for the first time.
The Republic of Ireland legend, 42, has always been box office. And yet he has never craved the media limelight. In fact, he detests it.
And the thought of fronting up for weekly media duties in this role probably makes his skin crawl.
Yet every word extracted is a gem. On point, often withering and pulling no punches, his opinions carry weight.
But although fully immersed in the task at hand, the intrigue about ‘Duff the manager’ still centres on his temperament.
Cutting his managerial teeth in Ireland, the perception is that Duff could jump ship if aspects of his working relationship with this side of Irish football hits the skids.
The abrupt departure from Stephen Kenny’s Ireland staff - and his exit from Celtic where he was a first-team coach - leaves him open to those pot shots.
But it’s not the picture painted by Luke Byrne, the Shelbourne captain who knows his new manager better than most.
Byrne was Duff’s assistant with Shelbourne’s Under-17s before his November appointment as Ian Morris’ first-team successor.
And before that, the pair also coached Shamrock Rovers Under-15s together.
Byrne, 28, said: “He has brought amazing standards. He’s setting standards every day that I haven't been asked to reach before.
“I haven't seen a dressing room in the country - that I've been in - having to meet those standards. Joey O'Brien (assistant) would be a huge part of that as well.
“They’re two people who have worked at the highest level and they don't see playing in the League of Ireland as a reason not to try and reach those standards.
“It's the most intense schedule I've ever been on in terms of contact hours, days on, days off and just being in the sessions and the demands on you.
“There’s no let up. Every detail is under the microscope but that’s how players get better and how teams get better. It's been incredibly enjoyable.”
Defender Byrne continued: “He’s connected with everyone. I'd have seen that when I worked with the underage team with him.
“They're not professional and are that bit younger. Some are very quiet, some are more outgoing but he had connections with all of them.
“He has brought that to the first-team and that’s what successful managers need to be able to do.
“They have to have the football side of things unlocked but they have to be able to understand people and work with them and he does that incredibly well.”
And that is why Byrne feels Duff won’t have any issues managing adults, compared to the teenagers in his previous Shelbourne role.
“I'm seeing him in a first-team dressing room and it's the same. He's demanding and intense but that’s what all great managers have to be.”
And Byrne offered an insight into Duff’s drive and determination behind the scenes no matter what age group he’s in charge of.
He continued: “He left Celtic for very good reasons which he spoke about. It was for his family and no other reason.
“He left Ireland for his own reasons, again I wouldn't be one to comment as I don't know exactly why he left.
“But when I worked with him at Rovers Under-15s for three years, he was doing it for free.
“He was spending his own money on kids from passports, to boots, to meals, to lifts to training, he was up there at 6.00am. He couldn't have been more committed.
“Then he came to Shels, in and out of lockdowns, coming from the level he worked at down to Under-17s League of Ireland.
“But his commitment was five and six days a week, Zoom meetings in the evenings, clipping opposition games, one-on-one sessions with players.
“I don't know what more he would have had to do to prove his commitment I understand people see him walk away from a couple of jobs and people think that's in his makeup.
“But he's one of the most committed and loyal people I've ever met. I would have zero worries about it.”
Byrne also has no qualms about changing his working relationship with Duff this season as he goes from sidekick to player.
Byrne - who lifted the First Division trophy with the Drumcondra side last year under Ian Morris - said: “I’d always wanted to play under him and I have that chance.
“It was a very straightforward conversation of ‘I'm not your assistant any more, I'm your player’. But it would have come from him and that’s good.
“Our relationship is probably not like I've had with other managers in the past considering I worked with him.
“But there’s no preferential treatment or blurred lines. I know where I stand with him. I'm a player and that's it.”
Meanwhile, Byrne feels Shelbourne have the right characters in their dressing room to prolong their stay in the top flight.
They were relegated at the end of the 2020 season and Byrne has no issue saying the attitude in the dressing room was all wrong.
“Unfortunately we learned the hard way, and very late in the day, that the dressing room just wasn't right and that’s something I’ll openly say,” he continued.
“The season went up in smoke because the dressing room wasn't right. We shouldn't have been relegated considering the position we were in with five games to go.
“We were fifth when we went up to Derry in the 14th game of the season and we capitulated.
“When you start losing games, you see how people react and you see that maybe the characters aren't what you need when you're in a fight.
“Things just snowballed and we got what we deserved in the end.”
But the 28-year-old believes that Duff’s Shels are going in the right direction and added: “The club has gone full-time, maybe before they intended to.
“But there has been huge progress from within the club and our job is to establish ourselves in the Premier Division. We can't be a yo-yo club.”
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