Good ‘furbo’ Italian took Ireland as far as he could

“Of course Trapattoni would never be sacked. He’s a furbo,” said the butcher in my village yesterday.

Luciano knows his football as well as his meat — he was president of the local club for 10 years and he’s a lifelong Juventus fan as well, so he knows his Trap as well.

Furbo is one of those Italian words that tell you a lot. You can be a bad furbo or a good one. A bad furbo is the prime minister who pushes through a law giving the prime minister immunity from prosecution. A good furbo is the farmer who acquires a useless piece of land in the knowledge that the electricity company will have to put a sub-station there.