O’Shea out to impress Trap in busy season’s end
“We’re looking forward to meeting up for the games at the end of the season, because then it’s the summer break, pre-season and the next thing you know we’ve got World Cup qualifiers,” says the Manchester United man. “So it will be a vitally important time for us to get to know the new coaching team and for them to get to know us. Most of the lads feel the same — they can’t wait to get in and see what the whole set-up is about, what ideas he wants to get across and how he wants us to play. It’s like when a new manager comes to a club, there’s excitement but also the sense that you have to prove yourself again. And that can only be good.”
O’Shea has no doubt the FAI have come up with a winning combination in the new management team.
“When we were in for the Brazil game the appointment was fairly imminent and most of the lads were speaking about it and we had a fair idea who it was going to be,” he says. “He came into the picture very late and that’s obviously when the FAI spoke about taking their time to get the right man in charge. And I think they have done. For a man to come to Ireland when he’s already had such success throughout his career, then obviously he wants to achieve more. With his experience and the team he’s brought in — including Liam (Brady) beside him — it’s got to be positive.”
At Old Trafford, O’Shea says he has heard good things about Trapattoni from manager Alex Ferguson and midfielder Owen Hargreaves.
“Owen worked with him at Bayern Munich and he was very positive about him too. Owen was quite young when he worked with him and he said that he (Trapattoni) was very positive towards the young players.”
And O’Shea insisted the Irish players would have no problem with Liam Brady’s appointment, even if the former international has had occasion to be critical about some of them in his role as an RTÉ pundit.
“Not at all. That’s part and parcel of being involved in football these days. It’s not worried me anyway. And I’ve not heard anything like that from anyone else. Liam was such a talented player himself, and he has proved a success at Arsenal in bringing through talented players too, so his experience is going to be very important in the connection between the players and the new coaching team.”
Speaking of club matters, O’Shea says that United’s FA Cup exit at the hands of Portsmouth was the kind of frustrating experience which means the next game can’t come quickly enough. It also helps, of course, that United are still chasing League and Champions League honours, and the presence of four English teams in tomorrow’s draw for the quarter-finals of the latter, O’Shea believes reflects the status of the Premier League as the best in Europe.
“The strength of the four teams has been proven over the years and I think it was only a matter of time before that happened,” he says. “It’s an exciting time. Depending on the draw, you could be very familiar with your opponents. We’re also very familiar with Roma from the group stages last year. But that’s what it’s all about at Manchester United at this time of the year, when you’re going for the league and going for the Champions’ League. To win the Premiership back to back, when other teams want it so much, is a huge achievement, and when you see four English teams in the last eight in Europe, that underlines what an achievement it was to win the league last year. So to do that again would be huge.
“The Champions’ League is something that has been beyond the club for going on the 10 years now. We should have been in more finals. We’ve got another chance this year and I think we could come close. People have spoken about how we have one of the best squads ever at Manchester United but we’ve got to be up there winning the Champions League before we can talk about the best squad ever. To have the potential is great but to realise it is much better.”
Meanwhile, O’Shea is dismissive of talk that Italian football is in decline but reckons Ireland might just have a not-so-secret weapon when it comes to confounding the Azzurri in the World Cup qualifiers.
“I’m trying to remember who won the last World Cup,” he grins. “They’re a talented team and they’ll always have talented players. But we might have a bit of inside knowledge from the manager.”
John O’ Shea was speaking in Dublin at the launch of the 2008 National Irish Bank FAI Summer Schools, which this year will see 23,000 children participating in 270 camps nationwide, including four Irish language camps, two Football For All camps in association with Down Syndrome Ireland and St Joseph’s School for Deaf Children, and an Intercultural Camp in Mosney. For further information and booking go to www.fai.ie or phone 1890653653.
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