Trapattoni fancies the long haul

GIOVANNI TRAPATTONI has given his strongest hint yet that he would like to extend his tenure as Republic of Ireland manager.

Trapattoni’s two-year deal with the FAI expires in May of 2010 – a month before the World Cup finals in South Africa – but speaking yesterday in Dublin, the 70-year-old Italian indicated that he has longer-term plans for the Irish job.

Asked if he would like to stay for the 2012 European Championship, Trapattoni replied: “Marco (Tardelli) and I have said before that we are proud to be managing Ireland. We would be very happy to be able to continue this work, we don’t want to leave it halfway and not finished. I think we’ve done a good job – we haven’t excelled, we can do a little better and there’s more to do. We have some young players and there is room for improvement so we want to work on that.”