Ardiles: Argentina up for Ireland clash
Ardiles admitted: “Sergio Batista takes temporary charge of the team and in my opinion he could be offered the post on a permanent basis if there are good results against Ireland and then another match next month at home against World Cup holders Spain.”
Along with Irish goalkeeping legends Packie Bonner and Pat Jennings, Ardiles was in Dublin yesterday to help launch ESPN’s coverage of English and Scottish Premier Division games this season.
“Batista has a great record at underage level for his country and must be favourite to take over on a long-term basis. This is a strong Argentine squad and he will want to field his best team against the Irish.
“Diego had my support before the World Cup finals in South Africa. But I did not believe he had the necessary qualities to be a day-to-day manager and there was always a lot of controversy. It was the right decision the federation reached to replace him. In my opinion that is a decision shared by 75% of the Argentine public.”
Meanwhile former Celtic keeper Bonner was fascinated by the impending move of Ireland winger Aiden McGeady from Parkhead to Russian side Spartak Moscow.
“It is a big challenge for the lad – but he has had those before, especially when first declaring for Ireland instead of Scotland. The advantage is that Neil Lennon will have plenty of money to buy new players. The fact that we are in the same European Championship group as Russia, Armenia and Slovakia means Aiden will not have travel problems getting to those games.
“The problems for the player will be the language, settling into a different environment and a complete new set of team-mates at club level. I know Giovanni Trapattoni was concerned – and might have preferred Aiden to move to an English club or somewhere much closer in Europe. But I wish the lad the best of luck. Liam Brady had a similar challenge when he moved to Italy from Arsenal as a young man and he had great success.
“Aiden is a single-minded young man of 24 and is well capable of rising to the challenges ahead.”
Like Bonner, former Spurs, Arsenal and Northern Ireland great Pat Jennings agreed that Shay Given was right to insist that he be given the first-choice keeper’s role at Manchester City next season.
He said: “Shay is one of the best keepers in the Premier Division. He can continue playing at the highest level for years – after all I won my 119th cap playing for Northern Ireland against Brazil in the 1986 World Cup finals. I’ll be amazed if he doesn’t start as first choice for City on Saturday despite the recall from a loan spell of Joe Hart from Birmingham. Shay really is an outstanding keeper.”
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