Why Trap needs to rewrite the book

IS there a man, woman or child left in the country who doesn’t know by now that Giovanni Trapattoni’s birthday is on St Patrick’s Day? Or who hasn’t seen his infamous Bayern Munich press conference on Youtube, the one which might best be described as being, at once, scary and hilarious?

Our learning curve for all things Trap has been steep. Even Denis O’Brien admitted to subjecting the new manager to a bit of the old google, and we’re forever being told that Irish football’s benefactor is something of footie nut.

But then, even those who like to think we know a thing or two about what our Italian friends call “calcio” — see how quickly we’re catching on? — initially felt obliged to double-check the spelling of the new gaffer’s name, just to be sure, to be sure that it was indeed two t’s and one p, and not the other way around.