Trap is set

AT THE END of it all, three words suffice: worth waiting for.

It might have taken something like an eternity, and ultimately it might have emerged more by accident than design, but confirmation that Giovanni Trapattoni will be the new manager of the Republic of Ireland is news that everyone involved in Irish football can wholeheartedly welcome.

You certainly can't accuse the FAI of doing anything by halves. When they appointed Steve Staunton as gaffer of the national team, they took a punt on an almost wholly inexperienced management rookie. In the veteran coach, Trapattoni, an iconic figure in Italian and world football, they have gone to the other extreme. It's hard not to avoid using the words 'feast' and 'famine' as the landscape of the Irish game undergoes another seismic shift. One small step with Stan has given way to a giant leap for Irish football.

That Trapattoni won't be able to take up his duties until May is not a matter of consequence at this stage; having waged a 100 day plus war in the battle to fill the hot seat, another couple of months will make no difference.

September, and the start of the World Cup campaign, is the only deadline that really matter, and Trapattoni will be will acquainted with all the salient issues by then.

He comes trailing a reputation for a defensive bias in the classic Italian mode, but you don't get to his exalted position in the game without developing a winning habit – and to do that, you need to be much more than merely hard to beat.

But that will still be a respectable place to start for an Irish side which, under Staunton and also Brian Kerr before him, often struggled to see out games they should have won. Addressing the brittle vulnerability of Ireland over the last four years ought to be high on the agenda when Trapattoni and his backroom team get down to business.

But as well as tackling the collective, he will need to focus on the individual. Whether Steve Finnan can be lured back to Irish football under a man who will be surely inclined to play him in his correct position remains to be seen, but it is even more imperative that Trapattoni makes one final, serious bid to get Stephen Ireland back in the international mood.

That the majority of Irish players favoured Terry Venables might seem to take some of the surface gloss off the appointment of Trapattoni. But footballers in the Premier League, of all places, should be well accustomed at this stage to working with managers from outside these islands. English football has benefited enormously from the foreign influence in recent years, and there is no reason to believe that the Irish game can't do likewise.

And yet, we shouldn't get carried away. Ireland haven't qualified for a Euro Championship or a World Cup. All that has happened is that a new manager has been appointed and, in the absence of a magic wand, there is no guarantee that he will have the satisfaction of seeing his his new charges overcome his own nation on the road to South Africa.

But all great journeys begin with a single step. And by appointing Giovanni Trapattoni as the next manager of the Republic of Ireland, we might just have taken a giant one.

Meanwhile Mike Kerley has signed a two-year contract as manager of eircom First Division side Limerick 37.