No weighting game on Reid

IN THE wake of Andy Reid’s recent admission that he has lost nine kilos through a personal fitness regime, Giovanni Trapattoni has insisted that the Sunderland player’s weight was never an issue in his non-selection for Ireland.

“No, it’s not about being fat or skinny,” said the manager speaking in Limerick yesterday. “It’s another situation. It’s the position he could play in the team. Football is like an orchestra – violin, bass, counter bass. That is football.”

Given that Trapattoni yesterday also talked about footballers as tenors, sopranos and baritones, the musical analogy promoted one journalist to quip: “So Andy Reid is no Luciano Pavarotti then?”