Defiant Trap vows to fight on
Anything less than three points in Torshavn, however, and the pressure on the FAI to act immediately will be overwhelming — especially since the manager himself insists that he would not be prepared to jump first.
“Why should I resign?” he asked on Saturday. “We would still have seven games left.”
Friday night’s 1-6 annihilation by Germany, on the back of a dismal Euro 2012 finals and a narrow escape against Kazakhstan, the international minnows ranked 142nd in the world, has left the Irish players reeling and Trapattoni on the brink. Yet, even though he described the German drubbing as “a disaster” before flying to the Faroes yesterday, he continued to insist this is not crisis and — against mounting evidence — he retains the support of the public.
“When we go on the street they say ‘well done’,” he said. “It’s your duty (in the media) to make observations and criticisms. But I ask myself why the Irish people pay attention — because I am not beautiful! — or why there is a difference in what I hear on the streets.”
Certainly, the much-venerated Italian had attracted a broad level of popularity for the considerable achievement of guiding Ireland to the brink of the World Cup and into the Euro finals in his first two campaigns in charge, but much of that personal support leaked away during the dismal Euro finals campaign. The last couple of minutes of the comeback win aside, the torrid opening game of World Cup qualification in Astana hardly did much to reinvigorate the Green Army’s morale. And the boos at the final whistle in the Aviva on Friday night were the most audible and angry at a home game since the dying days of the Steve Staunton regime, the feelgood factor of just under a year ago — when the same stadium joyfully celebrated qualification for Poland — replaced by what can only be called a feelbad factor.
Any decision made by the FAI will be informed by public opinion but, of much more pressing significance as officials assess the pros but now mainly the cons of Trapattoni’s position, will be the fragile state of the association’s finances, with the cost of paying off his and his assistants’ contracts — a figure estimated in the region of €1.6 million — having to be weighed up against an anticipated loss of revenue at the upcoming home friendlies against Greece, next month, and Poland in February.
Even a win in Torshavn tomorrow night would hardly be enough to add lustre to the Greek fixture in particular, but a draw or worse would return the senior team to levels of public disenchantment not plumbed since Ireland scrambled a draw at home to Cyprus in what was Steve Staunton’s last game in charge. Against such a bleak backdrop, the FAI would be acutely aware of how the mere fact of a change of manager — regardless of his identity — generates bums on seats as well as, hopefully, eliciting a positive response from the players.
For now, Trapattoni believes he retains the backing of his employers. “I have not spoken with them but the federation knows our jobs, they can see what we are doing,” he said of the admittedly testing challenge of managing a transitional squad.
“We take the players from the U21s slowly, when they deserve to come into the first team — and we make a good job of this transformation with the young.”
Of course, a win tomorrow night will, on the face of it, reinforce Trapattoni’s claim to his right to stay on. The manager could then point to a World Cup group table which would show Ireland on six points after three games — precisely the tally that was expected of them by most observers.
But that there are now clearly much more fundamental problems with Trapattoni’s reign, mainly to do with the seeming evaporation of his ability to inspire and organise his players — as he was able to do, albeit with varying success, in the previous campaigns — is clearly not a view shared by the manager.
When I asked him on Saturday if he recognised that this was now a crisis, he demurred. “It’s not a crisis,” he declared. “I would understand if we had also lost in Kazakhstan but this was a week when we have missed five players. It’s a one-off. If you understand our objectives and what we are trying to achieve, I am sure we make a good job. Others say that, not me. I’m paid to do this job. Other people in Europe say ‘you do a good job’.”
And Trapattoni also expressed confidence that he could lead Ireland to the finals of World Cup 2014 in Brazil.
“I think we can achieve qualification,” he said. “Germany is a superior name to us but with Austria and Sweden we can be competitive. With a new energy coming, why not, we have this possibility. We can accept defeat against Germany. Realistically we were never going to compete with them for first place. Our aim is Sweden and Austria. I told the players to forget quickly (the Germany result), recharge the batteries and focus on the next match in the Faroes. We have to win. I told them that I expect an immediate positive reaction.”
In as many languages as he can muster, Giovanni Trapattoni will tell you he is not a quitter. So what would it actually take for him to walk away?
“When there is not a positive,” he replied. “When I ask the team to do some situation and the team don’t make the situation. Until there is a negative reaction I am happy to stay.”
And that perhaps was the strangest of all the contentious statements which the manager made in his and his team’s defence. Most fair-minded people can appreciate that Trapattoni, like many an Irish manager before him, is not exactly dealing with an assembly line of world-beaters when it comes to the talent pool available. Hence, the moving show of support for the team from the fans as some of the best footballers in the world ran riot against the Irish in Gdansk and, bringing things up to date, the fairly widespread acceptance that anything other than a German win at the Aviva on Friday would have ranked pretty high on Ireland’s list of historical over-achievement.
Under-achievement is a different matter. After 30 minutes at the Aviva on Friday, it was the absence of any reaction which was most disturbing, as Ireland couldn’t even muster some of their traditional backs-to-the-wall resistance to almost casual Germany superiority.
Even amongst formerly loyal footsoldiers, Trapattoni is losing support, Kevin Kilbane saying over the weekend the manager had reached the end of the line. The Italian is entitled to counter that, however, by noting Shay Given came out to give him his backing, at least until the end of the campaign. That will require his seemingly demoralised players to reverse what now appears a swift and terminal decline.
