Andy Reid and a handful of pundits may not agree but Giovanni Trapattoni’s decision to sign a two-year extension to his Republic of Ireland contract is a massive boost for soccer in this country. Ireland may not have played the most expansive or exhilarating soccer under the Italian but it has been superbly efficient and organised.

That is no small achievement for a team that was a shambles prior to the Italian’s arrival. Remember the 5-2 defeat to Cyprus?

And while its nigh on impossible to imagine Italy collapsing sufficiently in the final two games to surrender top spot in Group 8 the fact that we’re still in with a slim shout of topping the group is testament to Trapattoni’s ability.

While those who say he doesn’t attend enough games in Britain may have a point those who criticise him overlook one key point: While we have some quality players, notably Shay Given, Richard Dunne, John O’Shea, Robbie Keane and Kevin Doyle, we simply have not got the calibre of players of Europe’s elite or indeed past Irish teams.

The most talented Irish player in his generation, Stephen Ireland won’t play while injury has deprived us of our second most talented midfielder, Steven Reid, for most of the campaign.

Trapattoni has been criticised for his failure to convince Ireland to end his international exile but the simple fact, as the Manchester City star’s most recent comments on the subject make clear, is that he simply does not want to play for the national side.

All Trapattoni can do, as he has done, is make clear that he does want Ireland to return. The Ireland issue is a tricky one for Trapattoni but his most recent comments on it, that he still wants Ireland back despite reports of the City star accusing him of arrogance were quite clever. Had Trapattoni hit out at Ireland’s comments, any lingering hopes of his return would have been effectively over.

By not getting involved in a war of words, Trapattoni ensured that there may yet be a route back for the Cobh man in the unlikely event of his changing his stance.

Trapattoni’s refusal to bring Andy Reid back into the squad is somewhat surprising but the fact remains that while talented Reid simply isn’t a top international player.

Trapattoni’ s contract extension may have been bad news for some but few would deny that, until now at least, he’s done a pretty good job with limited resources. And with a bit of luck he might just lead us to South Africa.