The sidekick centre stage

EARLY ON in our interview at a Dublin hotel, Marco Tardelli offers an apology.

“My English is very bad,” he says. “I hope to improve it.”

He does himself a disservice. The chance to learn the language, he admits, was one of the bonus attractions of the package when the newly appointed Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni asked him to be his assistant. And he’s made fair progress since then, even surviving the considerable dent to his confidence of an early trip to Glasgow to watch Aiden McGeady playing for Celtic.