Tardelli: It’s been a fantastic year for Ireland
“No, it’s been fantastic,” he declared, “for me it’s been a fantastic year.”
If ever there was a perfect example of how, when viewed from wildly different angles, the glass can appear either half-empty or half-full, it was Tardelli’s upbeat assessment of 12 months during which Ireland crashed and burned at the Euros and suffered a 1-6 thrashing at the hands of Germany.
“We got to play for the European Cup, that was very important for us; it had been 25 years since an Irish team had achieved that result,” he said.
“For me it was a very good year, we discovered many players, many young players who are here with us. And I think that when you have big change then it’s important to have patience because we know if the younger players go on the pitch, it’s possible to play very well one time and two times very bad. But that’s football.”
Speaking to the media for the first time since Giovanni Trapattoni’s position appeared under direct threat after that Germany mauling, Tardelli offered a spirited defence of the manager.
“I think that [anyone] who thinks Giovanni is not a good manager is not normal,” he said. “Giovanni, I think, is the best in the world, with the journalists, with the board, with the players. I think after the Faroes, he showed everyone that he is a very good man. For everything. And you know why.
“I think you [in the media] prefer to write that Giovanni is not good or the players do not deserve to stay on pitch. But I’d like to read in the newspapers a detailed analysis of what Giovanni has achieved here. I never read in the newspapers what Giovanni did here. If you read that Giovanni did this, this and this — you can then decide if he has worked very well or not.”
Tardelli was especially anxious to put the Germany game into context.
“I want to speak about the Germany result,” he said. “Against Germany, we did not have Given, Duff, Keane and Dunne and there were other players injured. This is normal and so it was possible that we lost against Germany. But against Cyprus, we lost 5-2. Against Cyprus! That was different as we had the players on the pitch [for that match]. It’s different for me.
“After [Germany], we played against the Faroes and we won. Was that a good result or not? Sweden won against the Faroes with goals in the last minutes. Football is so. We won against Kazakhstan in the last few minutes, that is normal. Everything canhappen.”
And even while saying Trapattoni had no problem about attending club matches in England — something which he has begun doing on a weekly basis since the FAI raised it as a matter of concern before backing him to remain in his post — Tardelli robustly questioned the need for the change in approach.
“I think every week and during the week I go to see matches,” said Tardelli, who is based in London.
“Before, Giovanni stayed at home to see the DVDs and things went very well. Did it work? It worked. Why do we need to change? Change? No problem but why?”
Indeed, Tardelli appeared at a loss to see any advantage for the manager in the new arrangement. “I don’t know, I don’t know,” he said. “I think when he was at home and watching many matches on DVD it was better for us. We achieved the results, no?”
Meanwhile, Jon Walters was ruled out with a knee injury, increasing the likelihood of a starting place up front for Shane Long.
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