Trap keeps tabs on McClean
The Ireland manager will be at Stamford Bridge to watch James McClean, the former Derry City man who has made a splash in the Premiership since breaking into Sunderland’s first team.
Trapattoni said yesterday the Irish management team have been monitoring the player for some time but, while impressed with what McClean has shown them to date, the Italian was at pains to point out that any newcomer will have a job on his hands to dislodge established squad members ahead of the Euro finals next summer.
“When you in the media know a new name, you immediately ask if he comes in squad,” said Trapattoni. “We have to have respect for these new players, but we must also have respect for the players who qualified. These players showed us good results, they achieved qualification and they deserve to go.
“McClean we know and I have his phone number. It’s important when they play that they keep improving. We will follow him again, we have time, one or two months, until we decide on the squad. But if you (in the media) put him under pressure it’s not good. We are considering him, 100%. The door is open, clearly, but we just don’t want to put the player under pressure.”
Indeed, Trapattoni wouldn’t even go so far as to confirm that McClean would be called up for the friendly against the Czech Republic in Dublin next month.
“He really impressed me, so I am not going to discount him. But it has to be the right time. Rule number one for a coach is the balance of the team and you don’t make a change unless the new player can be fundamental to the functioning of the team. I don’t want to be put under pressure by you or have the player put under pressure by deciding now whether or not to include the player in the squad.”
Trapattoni welcomed the fact that McClean, who is eligible for Northern Ireland, has committed himself to the Republic but it seems the future of another dual candidate, Marc Wilson of Stoke, is of much less concern to the Ireland manager.
Wilson was one of the ‘disappeared’ who failed to turn up for the Carling Nations Cup game against Northern Ireland, having been named in the starting 11 the day before. His subsequent explanation was his phone had been switched off.
Yesterday, when asked about Wilson, Trapattoni linked the player – and another unnnamed squad member — to a breach of discipline for which the manager still appears to be awaiting an apology. Asked if he would pick Wilson again, Trapattoni said: “When he says sorry, I made a great mistake. When you work, you do not go in the night. It’s important that you have one line to follow.”
Apparently referring to the breaking of a curfew, Trap also mentioned “four or five” other players who broke the rules but who subsequently apologised and didn’t repeat the transgression.
“It’s important players understand they’re not indispensable because Ireland can win without them,” he said.
Trapattoni said he could “understand” Northern Ireland manager Michael O’ Neill’s desire not to have players defecting from north to south but the Italian insisted the decision had to be up to the players themselves.
“The players are adults, they can decide,” he said. “I can not keep a player in handcuffs, or force a player to come with us. They are clever and intelligent, they can decide their destiny.”
Meanwhile, some more shape has been put on Ireland’s pre-tournament schedule next summer. Although details have yet to be confirmed, it seems the Irish squad will train in Portmarnock from May 20 before playing a farewell friendly in Dublin, possibly against Bosnia, on the 26th. The following day they will fly to Budapest to play Hungary in a friendly on June 4 and then, the following day, fly on to their base camp in Poland for the tournament proper.
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