How the deal was done

IT took 113 days for the FAI to announce Steve Staunton’s successor but, as it turned out, the three wise men needed only half an hour to come to the conclusion that Giovanni Trapattoni was the man they were looking for.

Don Givens, Don Howe and Ray Houghton spent two hours talking football with the Italian in Salzburg last Sunday and after 30 minutes of a communal debrief back at their hotel, the decision was made.

“There were certain boxes to be ticked and Trapattoni ticked all of them,” Howe explained. “Regardless of the time factor, we certainly have a feeling now that all’s well that ends well. We got the top man, albeit it took longer than we hoped.”

Appointed after Staunton’s exit in late October, it was the turn of the year before Trapattoni’s name first crossed the radar.

Givens couldn’t recall exactly which of the headhunters threw the name in for consideration but he ran with it.

A stint with Swiss club Neuchatel Xamax during his playing career came in handy for Givens, who contacted his former club president Gilbert Facchenetti, whom he knew had some dealings with the man some have called “the Maestro”. Through Facchenetti, he made contact with an associate of Trapattoni and then the man himself. Talks with the 68-year-old proved the Salzburg coach was interested and then Liam Brady made his pitch.

“I subsequently found out that, (Trapattoni) phoned somebody whom he knew and worked with — as anybody would — to get more information about the FAI and the Irish team.

“That was Liam Brady, who obviously painted a positive picture of the squad, the Association and the Irish people. We then moved forward.”

Three or four more phone calls cemented the relationship between Givens and Trapattoni but hopes an announcement could be made at the FAI International awards in CityWest last Sunday week proved premature.

Givens received another 10 days from the FAI Board of Management to finish the job, which the three interviewers subsequently did at the weekend in Austria. John Delaney was phoned late Sunday night to inform him that Trap was set to sign.

Contracts were signed on Tuesday in Milan but some minor details remain vague. Former Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein is believed to have been involved in establishing contacts early on, while the role of agent Jerome Anderson’s Sports Entertainment and Media group was also a matter of discussion yesterday evening.

John Delaney admitted Anderson played a role in signing of contracts in Milan and that he acted on the FAI’s behalf at some stages of the procedure.

“It is the nature of the modern game, that things like this attract agents,” said Givens. “Once I talked to Trapattoni directly, that type of thing didn’t bother me. That is normal with modern deals.”

The bottom line is that the posse found their man and the delight shared by Delaney and those involved was evident from the smiles that seemed sculpted to the faces of the FAI chief executive and Ray Houghton.

“He will be out there on the training pitch with them at every given opportunity,” Givens predicted of Trapattoni. “That is why the idea of getting the players together for a week in a training camp in May appeals to him.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt we will be more difficult to beat under the new manager. You don’t achieve what he has without being ultra-professional. He will give everything, the twinkle in his eye tells you that.”