Italian media left under-whelmed by Republic’s big arrival

OVER 150 journalists and photographers milled into the RDS Concert Hall yesterday for Giovanni Trapattoni’s first meet-and-greet but interest in the veteran manager’s latest job has been much more sedate in his native Italy.

Only two Italian media organisations sent representatives to yesterday’s unveiling and although the lack of any notification from the FAI may have had something to do with that, the low numbers are indicative of how Trap has long vacated centre-stage in his nation’s eyes. Even the presence of Ireland in Italy’s qualifying group for the next European Championships wasn’t enough to convince most sports editors to dispatch a correspondent to keep an eye on events in Dublin.

“We are curious, certainly,” said Gazzetta della Sport’s Fabio Licari who was joined only by a camera crew from state broadcaster RAI. “It will be strange to see Trapattoni compete against Italian football.