Trap straight back in the game
The manager’s attendance at a Premier League game would be welcomed by critics who have frequently levelled the accusation that he doesn’t see nearly enough of Irish players in action for their clubs.
Concern about Trapattoni’s habit of relying on Assistant Manager Marco Tardelli and a network of scouts as his eyes and ears in England while he opts to view games on DVD at his home in Milan, is also believed to have been one of the concerns which was raised at an FAI board meeting on Wednesday night which concluded with an agreement that the 73-year-old should remain in charge of the national team.
Midfielders Wes Hoolahan and Anthony Pilkington are the two players at struggling Norwich who would be of most interest to the Ireland manager should they be selected by Canaries boss Chris Hughton for the visit of Arsenal.
Norwich have had a troubling start to the 2012 campaign under their new manager, with Hoolahan making a rare start and Pilkington coming on as a sub in their most recent outing, a 4-1 defeat by Chelsea.
Alternative fixtures of Irish interest which could attract Trapattoni’s attention tomorrow include Fulham v Aston Villa, West Brom v Man City, Liverpool v Reading and, on Sunday in London, QPR v Everton.
Meanwhile, as the fallout from a dramatic week in Irish football continued, RTÉ has been forced to apologise to FAI chief executive John Delaney for the content and tone of a sports segment broadcast yesterday.
Association chiefs made immediate contact with Montrose after Delaney’s name was linked with newspaper reports indicating Giovanni Trapattoni would be sacked this week as Irish manager.
One newspaper on Monday suggested that Trapattoni could lose his job, irrespective of what the result in the following night’s World Cup qualifying game against the Faroe Islands. The timing of the publication of the report, which cited only “a senior FAI source”, meant that before and after the World Cup qualifying match in the Faroes the following evening, Giovanni Trapattoni was bombarded with questions about his position by Irish journalists who were in the capital Torshavn to cover the game.
Meanwhile, the FAI press officers present declined to make any comment on the issue while, before and after the game itself, John Delaney dismissed approaches from journalists who were seeking clarification.
As it transpired, Ireland won the game 4-1 and, at a specially convened meeting of the FAI’s Board of Management back in Dublin on Wednesday, Trapattoni was given the backing to continue in his position.
Yesterday evening, RTÉ Radio 1 broadcast the following apology: “On our Morning After sports bulletin just after 8.30 this morning, we featured a piece between Darren Frehill and our Soccer Correspondent Tony O’ Donoghue in which we stated that it was generally believed that mixed messages had been given to the media about the future of the senior manager’s position, that the chief executive of the FAI, John Delaney, was the senior FAI source responsible for those rumours. RTÉ and Tony O’Donoghue would like to unreservedly apologise to the CEO John Delaney for these statements which were made on our programme which were untrue. We would also like to apologise for the general tone of that particular exchange.”
Meanwhile, an FAI source has categorically denied that it was the association which cancelled a Trapattoni press conference which was scheduled to take place in Dublin on Wednesday. A report yesterday claimed that the Trapattoni camp “suspected the worst” when a halt was called to his usual practice of hosting a briefing on the day after a game but, yesterday, an FAI spokesman insisted that the decision to fly back early from Dublin to Milan was taken by the manager.
Before he left the Faroe Islands, Trapattoni had cited the fact that his sister was in hospital as the reason for his returning early to Italy. It’s not clear, however, whether he also knew at that stage that an emergency FAI board meeting to discuss his position was planned for the same day in Abbotstown — but he was certainly notified of its outcome by telephone immediately after the meeting concluded its deliberations in his favour just before 8.30pm on Wednesday.
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