Emmet Malone on a player whose bubbly personality is not hard towarm to
Judge Clinton Morrison by the British tabloid headlines that have repeatedly cast a shadow over his career and you could be forgiven for thinking that the 24-year-old striker should let his football do the talking while contenting himself with the standard grunt and go that gets a number of his fellow pros through the grind of press conferences.
There is no doubt that Morrision could have done without some of the recent attention, but as he slips into the basement function room of the Irish team's north Dublin hotel, his grin says he is willing to forgive, forget and then some. The worst thing you could say about the chatty Londoner is that he might fancy himself, but as he talks unstoppably for the next 20 minutes, he makes it clear that he besotted with the Irish supporters and even has a soft spot for the media here. In short he loves us all and by the time he leaves it would take a man with a heart of stone not to love him back.
"The press! Bring 'em on, bring 'em all on," he laughs as he kicks things off and just before he leaves he issues an open invitation for any hacks in need of cheering up to get in touch any time. In between, he pushes the conversation this way and that, playing with us as though we were third-rate centre backs.
His club career has not quite taken off in the way that many anticipated when he sprang to prominence with Crystal Palace a few years back. When Birmingham paid a club record £5 million for him last year it seemed as if his invitation to the big time had finally arrived.
After scoring just six goals in 29 appearances for Steve Bruce's side, however, his employers' decision to recruit a couple more strikers ahead of transfer deadline suggests that their confidence in the Republic of Ireland international might just be wavering.
Morrison's belief in himself, though, remains firmly intact and before the not-so-serious business of the press conference gets under way he takes time out to rib a journalist who has suggested in the morning paper that he will not be a regular at City this season. When asked if he is concerned about the added competition his amusement at the idea seems genuine. "No way, I never worry about the other guys," he says, "I have faith in myself.
"And anyway," he adds, through a broad grin "when I played with Mikael Forssell at Palace, I brought the best out of him, maybe I can do the same now at Birmingham."
Of more immediate concern this week is whether Morrison will add to the 11 appearances he has made for the Republic since comically mishandling his decision to play for the country. If the striker doubted his Irishness then, he has more than come to terms with his new identity since.
"Obviously people can say I wasn't born over here," he says, "but I can say I have adopted this country and I enjoy it and I love it. I love everyone here," he adds, warming to the theme, "and I'm even trying to learn the accent but I'm struggling at the moment cos I've got that Ali G talking accent but I'll sort that out soon."
Asked if he now becomes emotional when waiting for an international game to start he replies in another burst of enthusiasm: "Definitely, I love the national anthem, I love it, I love it to bits and I look at the flag and everything. When I first declared for Ireland I was a bit nervous because I didn't know how people were going to take to me, but they took to me well here and all I can repay them is by playing well and keep scoring goals."
Five goals in 11 appearances (nine of them from the bench, he points out) is a healthy return on his international efforts to date and enough, he hopes, to persuade Brian Kerr to him a first competitive start this weekend.
Five months out with a shoulder injury have deprived him of the opportunity to build on a decent display and a goal in Glasgow in Kerr's first match, but he views the winner against Australia as having provided a timely reminder to the manager.
"International football? I don't know really, it took to me straight away really," he laughs. "To play in this game, though, would be the biggest achievement of my life. It would be brilliant, it will be the best feeling ever and if I score it will be outrageous.
"I don't know yet if I'm going to be in the team" - he will have been a little wiser after yesterday's training session in which everyone bar Colin Healy took part - "but if I am then it's difficult to call who I would like to play with.
"There's a lot of good strikers and I can't say which one I would like to play with but I would like Duff definitely, he does it for me."
