Let’s Give Trap a Chance

Irish Voice Sport

Let’s Give Trap a Chance

May 8, 2008

The Cathal Dervan Column

IT’S good to talk. Giovanni Trapattoni admitted as much amidst Football Association of Ireland (FAI) fanfare at the RDS last Thursday afternoon that promised so much as the Yes Men of Irish soccer heralded the arrival of their savior with the last throw of CEO John Delaney’s dice.

Trapattoni, 69 years of age and with every honor imaginable in the club game under his belt, certainly talks a good game, even with the limitations of a grasp of English that is as broken as a politician’s promise.

He likes to tell it as it is. He’s not going to make drastic changes to the Irish set-up in the coming weeks and months, “only little things,” to use his own words.

He has spent hours studying DVDs of Irish soccer’s recent past, a past he himself admitted is scarred by the horror shows of San Marino, Bratislava and Cyprus in the Staunton era. He will show his new players 10-second clips of their errors in those games, then spend more time ironing those costly lapses out of the Irish psyche.

He will sit down — or stand up, as he did repeatedly last week — with his players in Portugal next week and explain his philosophy when it comes to a game that has been, for the most part, a beautiful component of his varied life.

Initially though, Trapattoni has to talk to the disenfranchised, to the young men less than half his age who have already decided that international football is no longer for them.

Stephen Ireland, Steve Finnan, Andy O’Brien and Dean Kiely, who won promotion to the Premier League with West Brom on Sunday, are all due to hold Trap talks this week.

First up was the troubled young soul that is the Manchester City midfielder Ireland, still only 21 and already a man with more headlines than hairstyles, no pun intended.

Ireland, comically referred to at one stage in the RDS last Thursday as Stephen Italy in a Freudian slip by his new boss, can’t make up his mind about this international football lark, as Brian Kerr, Steve Staunton and Don Givens will all tell you.

Some days Ireland wants to play for Ireland. Other days he wants to drive around Manchester in his Jeep with the pink wheels — I kid you not — when his Irish teammates are soldiering in the trenches across Europe.

This is, after all, a very young man who pretended his granny was dead not once but twice to get back to see his girlfriend in Manchester, when the real story, a miscarriage, would have ensured the sympathy and understanding of the entire nation.

Trap — he likes to be known as Giovanni out of respect, by the way — was due to sit down in Manchester with said Mr. Ireland on Tuesday afternoon, long after the fanfare back in Dublin had died down.

The flies on the Manchester wall will have had a field day, not least because Trapattoni’s English is animated and broken yet he insists on using it, even when he can’t understand what is being said to him, and that in the presence of his official translator.

Young Ireland struggles to make his point at times as well, not because of his Cobh accent but simply because, I suspect, he is a young man who is still not sure exactly where he is going in life.

Whatever his feelings, we need him back on the field for Ireland. Giovanni himself said as much on Thursday, and how Stephen Ireland responds to the affable approaches from an affable man will tell us much about the Trapattoni era now upon Irish football.

The new manager — a world class manager to be fair to him — can certainly say all the right things and in many languages. He spoke last week of restoring pride to the international team and of the pride he wants his players to have in turning up for their country.

He referred, more than once, to the Greek model when they went to the 2004 European finals in Portugal as no hopers and went home with the trophy long after Trapattoni’s Italy had departed the tournament.

What Trap needs to know is that, for now at least, we are not that worried about winning the European Championships in 2012 or the World Cup in 2010. We just want to get there.

We just want to believe that he can reshape and recharge this scarred team in such a manner, and quickly enough, to compete with Italy and Bulgaria in the forthcoming World Cup qualifiers.

We’ve had enough of abject heartache for the last six years to do us a lifetime. We’ve had enough excuses from players, managers and the FAI.

As said earlier, this is the last throw of the dice for all concerned with Team Ireland. Giovanni Trapattoni has 18 months to convince us we can return someday soon to the promised land.

If that means bringing Johnny Giles back, never mind Stephen Ireland, then good luck to him.

I’m sick of watching Irish failure, sicker still of writing about it ,so let’s give the new man — not my choice I will admit — a chance.

If he succeeds then we’ll all lift our caps to him, even me. If he doesn’t then he can lead the players, his staff and the FAI in the race for the high jump.

Sideline Views

RUGBY: Brian O’Driscoll was all happy and delighted when Leinster lifted the Magners League title at the RDS on Saturday night, but I wouldn’t get too carried away if I was him. Firstly the Magners League is only a Mickey Mouse competition next to the Heineken Cup that Leinster have yet to get close to. Secondly, there’s a strong rumor going around that Dricco’s place as the golden boy of Irish rugby may be in jeopardy when Declan Kidney gets the Ireland job, so it might be high time for the Blackrock boy to get his finger out. If he can remember how to do after a couple of years living on his laurels, that is.

SOCCER: Manchester United are at Wigan on Sunday when Chelsea are at home to Bolton on the final day of Premier League action. A United win will guarantee the title for Alex Ferguson’s side; anything else will see Chelsea steal it at the death. For what it’s worth I can’t see United slipping up against their near neighbors, managed by their old boy Steve Bruce. Not that I’m suggesting that fact will have anything to do with it.

GAA: The summer will officially arrive on Sunday when the All-Ireland championships begin and live Gaelic football and hurling returns to our screens. It’s also time to put the money down and name the potential McCarthy Cup and Sam Maguire winners. I’m going for Kerry in the football and Galway in the hurling. And yes, I am going to put money on that double.

ATHLETICS: A Jamaican sprinter by the name of Usain Bolt is now officially the second fastest man in the world ever after posting a remarkable time of 9.76 minutes in Kingston last Saturday. I guess he’s so fast you could call him a Bolt from the Blue. Sorry!

RUGBY: The IRFU will name Michael Bradley as Ireland’s interim coach this week due to Declan Kidney’s Heineken Cup final involvement with Munster. I just hope they are sensible enough to confirm Kidney’s imminent appointment as well. Anything else will be a travesty.

SOCCER: Newcastle United are desperate to sign Richard Dunne from Manchester City, but me thinks he’d be far better off moving to Sunderland along with Stephen Ireland and Stephen Hunt, if weekend reports of interest in all three from Roy Keane are correct.

HERO OF THE WEEK

IRISH golf is going through a whirlwind of a renaissance at the moment, and Dubliner Peter Lawrie just had to join the party when he won the Spanish Open in a playoff in Seville on Sunday afternoon. Lawrie’s win is the third Irish triumph in succession on the European Tour after Damien McGrane and Darren Clarke both won in China, while Graeme McDowell won in Korea back in March. Maybe Padraig Harrington can keep the run going at the Irish Open at Adare Manor next week.

Idiot of the Week

MANCHESTER United will be crowned champions of England if they beat Wigan at the JJB Stadium next Sunday afternoon, but their manager Alex Ferguson really should ensure that his young Portuguese winger Nani is nowhere near the party. Nani didn’t just head butt Lucas Neill when he was sent off against West Ham on Saturday, he also feigned a head injury after delivering the guilty butt. Such play acting, as championed by certain other Portuguese players in the recent past, should have no part to play in the English game.

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