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"Would he kill his granny?": A look back at some of John Giles' best moments on screen

On Sunday night, the final of the European Championships takes place, where either France or Port...



"Would he kill his granny?...
Soccer

"Would he kill his granny?": A look back at some of John Giles' best moments on screen

On Sunday night, the final of the European Championships takes place, where either France or Portugal will be crowned champions. 

While some players may decided to hang up their boots with the international set up after tonight, there is one departure that was confirmed months ago that will be noticed by Irish fans: John Giles will be leaving the panel on RTE. 

The sight of Giles, Liam Brady and Eamon Dunphy covering everything from World Cups to the Champions League has been a familiar one for decades, and after the departure and sad passing of Bill O'Herlihy, there may well be an emotional evening in store for viewers at home. 

With that in mind, here are a few of the finest moments from Giles' on screen career as the senior analyst. 

Having played at the highest level, Giles was always able to weigh in with a comment or two on the pressure of playing in a bit match situation. While not meaning to, the former Leeds man put a bit of a smackdown on Richie Sadlier, who was too polite to note that he had indeed tasted the big time: scoring in a European U18 UEFA third place play-off.

Never one to shy away from expressing his opinion, Giles made it perfectly clear that he had...well a not so high opinion of Robin Van Persie during his time at Manchester United. 

Having played in the middle of the park, Giles sometimes had some disparaging words for other positions and players on the field...and management systems...and tactics. Anyway, here he is calling a number of England's players "brainless."

Several years before the Iceland debacle, Giles and the panel noted that there would be further trouble in store for the England team after the World Cup due to the fact that "Roy Hodgson hasn't been down any back alleys," and sometimes you need a bit of grit in your side.

Looking back to his days with Leeds, Giles noted that Scottish player Bobby Collins would "kill his granny" to win a match, and that had to be the bar that was set for players to reach.

Styles of play and management tactics go in and out of fashion in football, but you could always rely on Giles to cut through the hype and look at where the shortfalls are in relying too heavily on one system or another.

Here, he notes that it's all well and good to have a holding midfielder, but their role needs to be something more dynamic than just passing the ball off to someone else. 

Giles, as the senior analyst, also had to put up with the other two on the panel picking his brains off screen, and taking a few of his thoughts on the game for themselves. The price of success...

Of course, Giles knew that Apres Match had a bit of fun at his expense, but showed that he was open to extracting the Michael out of himself the odd time in a bizarre but hilarious Cadbury's ad a few years back.

He will be missed on our screens, but he's not leaving our radios just yet, as John will still be in with the Off the Ball crew to share his opinions on the game for a while to come yet.

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