Should Trapattoni’s contract be renewed if Ireland don’t qualify for Euro 2012?
IT wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to describe Ireland as the Bolton Wanderers of international football. Both relatively small teams, we’ve had a few hysterical successes in our histories but are mostly content to just be competing with the big boys.
Back at the turn of last year though, Bolton fans were generally castigated for wanting that bit more. Accept your station, they were told. The Bolton supporters didn’t. And they were proven emphatically right.
At Lansdowne Road at the moment, there’s much more of a split. There are those disgruntled Irish fans who want to be riveted. And then there are those who are more than satisfied with the new-found respectability.
Because, certainly, it can never be denied that Giovanni Trapattoni has given us the latter. Ireland are hard to beat again. And the on-field farce of the Steve Staunton era has never seemed further away.
But that still does not mean respectability should be offered as a cast-iron reason to keep Trapattoni.
Because, in truth, his predecessor has altered perceptions in his favour. Trapattoni’s tenure only looks so good now because Staunton was so bad.
But there’s another reason we should look to the Bolton example if Trapattoni doesn’t qualify for Euro 2012. And it’s because of our very differences with Bolton. Owen Coyle’s club play in a competition that is conditioned to the Nth degree. In an effective arms race between scouting systems, training techniques, sports science and — above all — wages, the Premier League final table generally conforms to each club’s finances. Upward mobility requires alchemy.
In contrast, as the last 30 years have illustrated, this is emphatically not the case in international football. Generally, one nation around the size of Ireland has at least got to the last eight of every major tournament in that time. You only have to look at the examples of Northern Ireland 1982 and 1986, Denmark 1992, Greece 2004, Uruguay 2010 and — of course — Ireland 1986-2002.
When speaking about that period before, Roy Keane typically reduced the level to its barest bones. Even the very elite international sides, he argued, are “overrated and fragile”. They tend to be loose collections of stars rather than cohesive teams in the truest sense of the word. In the short time they have together, egos and club divides often clash. And most managers often look to only facilitate play rather than fix problems.
Indeed, Spain are the exception that prove the rule. One of the reasons they have looked so fluent over the past three years is because the vast majority of their starting 11 grew up together at Barcelona. Few countries can hope to repeat that.
In that context, any manager who can quickly impose a bit of spirit, discipline, organisation and practise set-pieces can level the field surprisingly quickly.
Trapattoni has undoubtedly given us some of these attributes. But it is definitely open to question whether they are enough to take the crucial next step. A second successive failure to qualify would be an indictment when sides as small as Slovenia, Slovakia and — potentially for Euro 2012 — Montenegro are doing the opposite.
There is also growing evidence that Trap’s infamous caution is affecting the team’s long-term development and he has frustratingly refused to trust a crop of genuinely exciting young players.
But the Italian might also create his own worst problem. Thanks to his admirable efforts, the Ireland job is a lot more attractive than it was in February 2008. A few progressive young managers like Owen Coyle have already expressed interest.
In that sense, it would be worth copying Bolton step for step.
HERE’S the thing. We’ve had the former players and ran them out of town. One, Mick McCarthy, within months of managing Ireland in a World Cup and another, Steve Staunton, who managed to take us about as far from a World Cup or European championships as we ever hope to be.
We’ve gone the home-grown route too and look how that turned out. Brian Kerr was cheered into the Shelbourne Hotel by the media – the media! – when he was made Ireland manager and yet he left the role a tortured soul.
We’ll deal with the usual suspects across the water later.
For now, here we are with a worldwide accepted legend on the touchline, a guy who has coached sides throughout Europe and he’s done okay, right?
I haven’t seen Miguel’s argument but, knowing him, it will be hard to fault and make some mention of how poor international football is, but let me come across like one of those lawyers who addresses the jury in those Hollywood courtroom dramas for a second.
“Ladies and gentlemen, everything my colleague says – forget about it. The man in charge has dragged this Irish team up from its lowest point since, oh, 1985 when I sat in Lansdowne Road and watched Eoin Hand’s lads get whacked 4-1 by Denmark.”
Yep, how easy it is to forget what a mess we were in before Trap came along with his infectious brand of enthusiasm, his indecipherable English and a back-to-basics IKEA flatpack 4-4-2 that almost took us to South Africa last summer.
I wasn’t in Nicosia the night of the 5-2 but I was in the Seravelle Stadium four months later when a similarly abject display almost allowed San Marino to do a Liechtenstein on us and grab a draw. The horror. Never again! There are any number of scenarios that could arise between now and the end of this latest qualifying campaign and the fact is that most of them end with the Rep-ub-a-lic of Ireland failing to secure their passage through to Poland and the Ukraine.
That’s usually how these stories end.
Let’s face it, we’re unlikely to finish first in the group, right? That has happened just the once, back in 1987 when Gary Mackay stunned Sofia, which probably leaves us scrambling for a play-off.
Forget what happened in Paris. The fact is we blew it long before Thierry Henry took matters in hand and we probably won’t get a French team that isn’t actually imploding next time either.
None of that is to forget the not insignificant fact that Ireland were actually drawn as third seeds in Group B, behind Russia and Slovakia, which means we would actually be over-achieving were we to poke our heads through to the promised land.
Yes, Trap’s attachment to Milanello and his reliance on DVDs grates. Yes, his Lost In Translation moments have created or exacerbated some awkward incidents with players and, yes, some of his selection policies could be picked apart.
None of those should be capital offences if Ireland fall short and, if we do, it might be an idea to remind ourselves about the other names in the hat back in 2008 before Denis O’Brien opened his chequebook.
Terry Venables’ last job ended with the sack five years ago when he was assistant manager to Steve McClaren with England. Graeme Souness was named número uno in the Observer’s poll of ‘Worst Football Managers’ shortly after the FAI appointed Trap. Gerard Houllier has just left Aston Villa unlamented.
What a bunch! What makes anyone think the CVs would be any better later this year if the FAI were to strap the man we have into an ejector chair? Unless Ireland start to stink worse than a toxic bank and their form collapses completely between now and the last group game we should trust in Trap.
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