Tardelli’s Duff guff adds to confusion

After Sunday’s crossfire hurricane of a press conference with Giovanni Trapattoni in the Gannon Park clubhouse, Marco Tardelli approached the media pitchside in Malahide yesterday with a big smile on his face. “No confusion,” he promised, “no confusion.”

Yet barely had the assistant manager finished his update than the airwaves were alive with talk about a possible comeback for Damien Duff, a red herring yarn which was really only the product of some wishful thinking aloud on the part of Tardelli.

Yes, the Italian said that he’d asked Richard Dunne to have a word with Duff and, yes, he said he sees the Fulham man every other day because they are neighbours in London but, before anyone else gets too excited about the prospect of Duff executing a U-turn which would be almost as sensational as one of his body swerves, it might be worth noting Tardelli used the word “hope” more than eight times in the course of his remarks about the veteran winger.