Football Orphan: I hope Trapattoni has a DVD collection the size of Blockbuster video.
Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni has openly declared that he will not attend any games involving Irish players in the future. He instead would rather stay at home and watch DVD’s of the players to assemble his squad.
As the highest paid manager our national team has ever known, I can’t help feeling that we’re being cheated. There are talented Irish players nestled in the four corners of not only our country but all over the UK. Two examples that come to mind are Keith Fahey and Conor Sammon. Fahey was a class act playing in Inchicore with St Pats before moving on to Birmingham City. Sammon came to prominence with Kilmarnock before earning a move to Wigan Athletic. Does this mean the criteria for playing for Ireland is to be at a big club?
Well, with that in mind, how often do either St Pats or Killie get live coverage in Italy? Conversely, I’m sure that Manchester United get lots of attention but how often does Ireland squad regular Darron Gibson even appear for the Red Devils? There are a list of players playing first team football that I could mention that should be ahead of Keith Treacy of Preston or Paul Green of Derby County. Wes Hoolahan is having a superb season with Norwich, Steven Reid is also performing well at West Brom but retired from international football due to being continuously frozen out of the squad previously.
The Stephen Ireland situation has never been handled well, granted Trapattoni inherited that predicament but the Andy Reid blow out could, and should have been put to bed long ago. The truth is that it is Giovanni Trapattoni’s responsibility to assemble the best squad, select the best team and choose the tactics for qualifiers. This is something that is impossible to do without watching games involving Irish players in person.
Results have up to now been middle of the road. The tactics are negative with the emphasis on achieving an acceptable and safe result. Given the method of squad selection, I think it’s arrogant, lazy, clumsy and downright disrespectful to players and fans. The first eleven is likely to include Robbie Keane who has hardly kicked a ball all season instead of Shane Long who is on top form at club level with Reading. Darron Gibson instead of Keith Fahey who is fresh from a trophy win with Birmingham City. There is no doubt that Trapattoni has been a fine manager over the years, but I hope managing Ireland hasn’t put him out of his way too much.
Football Orphan 