Trap will not stop till he drops
“He wants to go for ever and ever,” says the Ireland manager’s former assistant. “He will know if he is not well enough for it, or doesn’t feel strong enough, or if the time is right to hand over the reins to Marco (Tardelli) if he is going to get the job.
“But I think he will work in football until it is all over — until everything is all over.”
Brady says that he wasn’t a bit surprised by the speed with which the 71-year-old Italian appears to have bounced back from this recent illness and stomach surgery.
“I went in to see him the day after the operation,” says Brady. “He was there with his wife. I could tell he was on the road to recovery, there was plenty of enthusiasm, he was talking about the game, saying this should happen, that should happen. I was trying to say, ‘take your time’.
“There is a bit of (the late Liverpool manager) Bill Shankly about him, definitely. Age is no barrier. When we all push on a bit, we all think, ‘I wouldn’t mind getting out to play golf today, or waking up doing nothing’. But he’s not that kind of man, nor was Shankly. He wants to be working in football.
“What did he say to me? Something along the lines of ‘Don’t ever get photographed looking old. Always be looking your best because it makes an impression on people and what they think.’ He has that about him. Everybody I meet says he looks well for his age.
“And he knows that and he wants to keep it that way. What was his line the other day? ‘I’m not dead’.”
Brady admits that, when the Irish players first set eyes on Trapattoni, they were astonished by the veteran’s energy levels.
“They were all scratching their heads, looking at him thinking ‘is he mad?’ doing the exercises they were doing, exercises I couldn’t do. I suppose he’s done it to look after himself. But I think he’s also done it with football in mind, that he wants people to employ him.”
Ironically while Brady has no concerns about a 71-year-old sticking the pace, he does worry that, sooner or later, age will catch up on some of Ireland’s senior players. The ongoing search for cover and fresh talent is therefore vital, he believes, and to that end he still hasn’t given up on his one-time Arsenal protege, Anthony Stokes, making the international grade.
“It was always my ambition to maybe get an Irish lad at 15 or 16 and bring them all the way through,” says Arsenal’s Head of Youth Development and Academy Director. “I thought I had one with Stokes. But he might come back, that kid, you know. I know he’s playing at Hibs, and it’s a level a long way below Arsenal. But he’s got something about him, that lad. I still haven’t given up on him being a big player.”
And then there’s the one that got away, Robert Brady. The Arsenal reserves will come up against the young Dubliner when they take on Manchester United’s reserves in the Platinum One Challenge at Tallaght Stadium this evening (kick off 7.45pm), a somewhat painful reminder for Brady that he couldn’t keep hold of a highly-rated graduate from his own schoolboy club, St Kevin’s.
“I had him over (at Arsenal) when he was 14 but I think Man United had him in the bag,” he smiles ruefully. “He was somebody I would have liked to have taken. But I think Man United had him sewn up.”
Frustrating? “Yes. But we beat them to other kids we’d be fighting over. They win one, we win one. I think we’ve both got our clubs going for us. When we do recruit we can say ‘look what we can do for you in regard to making you a footballer and getting you a career in the game’. Both clubs have that going for them and I think it helps with recruitment.”
As to recruitment to the Arsenal first team, Brady claims he knows nothing about what’s going on at that level and hence can’t help us with our inquiries about speculation linking Shay Given to the Emirates.
However, he says he fully understands Given’s concern about his immediate future even if his departure would be a big loss to Manchester City.
“If you are an outfield player you can maybe slot into a couple of positions but there is only one position for a goalkeeper and Shay obviously has that to consider,” he says. “I wouldn’t be hasty but he is a very experienced guy. I don’t know what Man City would do if Hart got injured and Shay wasn’t there. They would leave themselves looking a bit foolish — unless they are going to spend another £20 million on a goalkeeper. But then nothing will surprise me with what happens about Manchester City.”
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