Trapping the light fantastic with groovy Gio

It might look like Giovanni Trapattoni is doing il pollo tremarella — the funky chicken — but it’s only the veteran Italian making a point to the media in his own inimitable style.

Despite his 73 years, Ireland’s football manager is never shy about getting physical if he feels some energetic mime can help compensate for his still slippery command of the English language.

Yesterday, at a press conference at the Clarion Airport Hotel in Dublin, he was especially animated and, at times, not a little angry, in the wake of a controversy about striker Shane Long’s omission from the Irish side which drew 0-0 with Serbia in Belgrade on Wednesday night.