Tonight marks the end of an era as one of the most recognisable faces among Irish football fans, Liam Brady, closes out his career as a pundit for RTE Sport.
The Republic of Ireland's home clash with Gibraltar on Monday night will be the final game covered by Brady after 25 years with the national broadcaster.
Brady, 67, leaves as the last remaining member of the iconic RTE panel which was made up of Eamon Dunphy, John Giles and the late Bill O'Herlihy at the helm.
READ MORE - James McClean is asked about Liam Brady's scathing comments on Ireland players
"I think things have changed with football now. I'm not in love with the game anymore. I like watching it and watching the players - the best players - but all the things that surround it, it's not really for me," Brady said on RTE Radio 1 this afternoon.
"And then I suppose, the arrival of social media in the last 10 years. I'm an old dog and you can't teach me new tricks so Twitter and Facebook and things like that, they're all gobbledygook to me."
When asked if he'd completely fallen out of love with the game, Brady explained: "The outside of it, the business side of it, yes! It's huge now, it's a multi-billion euro business... The ownership of clubs in England, the arrival of these countries like Qatar and Saudi Arabia, I don't think it's been that good for the game, to be honest."
Brady, whose first game as a pundit for RTE came at the 1998 World Cup, dismissed suggestions that his decision to leave had anything to do with the broadcaster dulling pundits' analysis of on-air sports.
"Times have changed, you have to move with the times, I think RTE have done that but that's not the reason I'm leaving. I'm leaving because I'm 67 years of age and I've done 25 years of it and it's a good number. That's why I'm going," he added. "But I think the punditry that we used to have with Eamon, Johnny Giles and Bill O'Herlihy, you probably just can't do that anymore."
The Arsenal and Ireland legend made headlines last week, when he branded the current crop of Irish internationals as the "worst group of players that any manager has had in my lifetime" but today he has apologised if it sounded disrespectful towards the players, though he maintains his opinion that Stephen Kenny's squad pales in comparison to Ireland teams of years gone by.
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