REJUVENATED defender Richard Dunne claims his critics “don’t know anything about me” after vowing to ignore his detractors and listen only to Alex McLeish’s opinion this season.

Dunne’s imposing performances for Villa and Ireland during the past month have already gone some way towards repairing his reputation following a 2010-11 campaign to forget.

The 31-year-old centre-half admits criticism comes with the territory of being a high-profile Premier League and international player out of form, as he was for much of last season.

But Dunne, who is hoping to repeat the colossal contribution of his first year at Villa, takes exception to knockers writing him off and making unfair assumptions about his character.

“If I don’t play well people will say that and will write that and that’s fine and that’s fair enough, you’ve got to accept it,” said Dunne.

“It’s when people make judgments based on things they don’t know about or write you off because you’ve apparently done this or you’ve apparently been doing that.

“People don’t know anything about me, so that’s what annoys me.

“Fair enough if people don’t think I’m great, that’s fine, but I go out and try to give my best and thankfully this year things have turned around and it does seem to be going better.

“It’s crazy because one paper can say something and the next paper can be completely different. It’s not even game to game, it’s in the same game, it’s everything.

“It’s the way it is, you can’t go round thinking this or that about yourself.

“As long as the manager’s happy that’s the main thing. If he comes and tells you that you’ve done well then that’s good enough for me. I don’t need anyone else really.”