Why Trap should bring Reid back into fold
As if shedding more than a stone and half in weight in the summer and winning man of the match plaudits for Sunderland this season wasn’t enough, the 27-year-old Dubliner has also been a model of zen-like calm when it comes to dealing with the inevitable media interest in his continuing exclusion from the Ireland set-up.
Even in the face of what many would interpret on his behalf as an act of ultimate provocation – the late call-up of QPR’s Martin Rowlands for the final two games of Ireland’s World Cup qualifying campaign – Reid has presented an unruffled exterior to the world.
“I can’t sit in my house and worry about not getting into the Ireland squad,” he remarked this week. “I don’t pick the Ireland squad. I’m just concentrating on giving everything for Sunderland and hopefully the Ireland manager will notice my performances.
“As far as I am concerned my Ireland career isn’t over. I love playing for Ireland and if the opportunity came to play I’d be delighted.”
The contrast with that other celebrated missing linkman of Irish football, Stephen Ireland, could hardly be more acute.
Where the latter seemingly can’t help but make headlines, Reid studiously seeks to make peace, although beyond the ‘never say never’ mantra he routinely applies to all absent friends, there is no convincing evidence yet that Giovanni Trapattoni has been won over by the player’s wise decision to let his feet do the talking.
Perhaps Reid should consider taking up position beneath Trap’s balcony and serenading him on the banjo. Or, then again, perhaps not.
The last time the Sunderland man provided a musical interlude within earshot of the manager – late in the evening in the team hotel in Wiesbaden after Ireland’s opening campaign victory against Georgia – Trapattoni reportedly set about him with a rolled-up copy of the ‘Gazetta Dello Sport’.
Not even mean old Simon Cowell would deliver a verdict as damning as that.
But if the opera-loving Italian was less than impressed by Reid’s interpretation of r ‘n’ r – in both senses of the term – you would think that such a frank (and frankly comical) exchange of views was scarcely enough in itself to warrant the midfielder being sent into seemingly permanent exile.
And, indeed, he did duly return to the squad for the home game against Cyprus – although that was a close as he has come ever since to pulling on the green shirt, amid suggestions that the manager might not have been best pleased with what he took to be the player’s sullen, downbeat mood.
In the search for the reasons behind his exclusion, others cite Reid’s absence from Trapattoni’s inaugural training camp in Portugal last year, a viewpoint apparently bolstered by the fact that the boss man himself mentioned it again this week, in relation both to Rowlands’ recall and Reid’s omission. The Dubliner missed that original get together through injury but there has always been a suspicion that the manager wasn’t entirely convinced by his explanation.
All ancient history by now, of course, and while such considerations might not have exactly helped Reid’s cause, the bigger picture points to the much less lurid explanation that Trapattoni has declined to pick him mainly because he has considered him to be, to coin a phrase, a round peg in a square hole.
Or, to put it another way: if Trapattoni really thought that Reid would improve this Irish team’s chances of football matches, I don’t doubt that the pragmatist in him would select the player without a second thought.
The pity then is that the manager simply doesn’t appear to see Reid’s finesse, composure and vision as the kind of qualities which are essential or even applicable to the Irish cause. No room for “fantasia” here.
And, unfortunately too, the stats seem to back him up. Yesterday, this paper reported that Ireland play more long balls than any other team in the European qualifying groups – a whopping 306 to be exact. (Although, I’m guessing 300 of those came in the first half in Cyprus). To that extent, Reid might actually be saving himself a crick in the neck by being left on the sidelines.
LIKE Jack Charlton before him, Trapattoni is a firm believer in wedding the players to the system rather than the other way around. And, in so far as that strategy has brought Ireland to within touching distance of World Cup qualification, his game plan merits considerable respect.
Furthermore, even if the performances on the pitch are rarely of huge entertainment value, he must also be applauded for bringing qualities like organisation, discipline, resilience and self-belief to a side which was woefully short on all those fronts before he took over.
Victory against Italy tonight would leave Trapattoni virtually bullet-proof – results tend to do that for gaffers – but, should Italy’s midfield diamond sparkle and Andrea Pirlo dismantle the home side with his full range of passing, you can be sure that the name of Andy Reid will be back in the headlines again for the next few days.
But, in truth, it shouldn’t be a case of either/or. Far better that Ireland should prevail tonight, but not at the expense of continuing to overlook a quality player in the form of his life. It was the great Jock Stein who said that you wear your boilersuit for qualifying and save your dinner jacket for the finals. Here’s hoping that Ireland get to display all the finery at their disposal in South Africa next summer.
