Tardelli crazy for the Euros

To paraphrase John Motson, the crazy gang will not be intimidated by the culture club at Euro 2012.

That’s according to Marco Tardelli, who has no worries that Ireland’s less experienced players will be ruled by fear going into their first major tournament, in which they will come up against world and European champions Spain.

“No, I don’t think so, they play football, it’s not a war,” said the Assistant Manager at Gannon Park yesterday.

“I don’t think our players will have a problem.

“Our players have played in the Premier League which is very strong and they play against very important teams for Ireland .

“I played for the first time in the World Cup in 1978 in Argentina . And I played easily because I was crazy but I think also our players are crazy,” he laughed.

“The night before I was nervous but when you are on the pitch, everything is okay.”

Keith Fahey (groin) and Kevin Foley (hamstring) were again restricted to only light training yesterday, while Trapattoni and Tardelli paid special attention to James McClean as they continued to work on integrating the new boy into the Irish system.

“Because James is new, he needs to understand what we want to do,” said Tardelli.

“No, it’s not a big job, he’s a very good player.

“He is strong for us and he is an asset for the team.”