Quinn: Trapattoni must go if we fail to beat Sweden
While the 0-0 stalemate away to the Swedes put Ireland right back into contention for the runners-up spot in World Cup qualifying Group C, Quinn was livid at how Ireland legend blew victory over Austria.
“I feel the results have probably helped him stay there because, you know, the Sweden result gives him a lifeline, I think.
“We didn’t capitalise on it and the reality is that the whole group will depend on these three games in a six week period next Autumn. Obviously, there is the Germany game in there, which is tough, but we’ve Sweden at home and then Austria away. We’ll probably know one game in where our future lies and it may be that we have to change after that.
“I’m not here with a big hatchet, executing. But what I’m saying is the Trapattoni era looks as if it is coming to an end.”
The Austria game, when Ireland gave away a last-gasp equaliser to draw 2-2, infuriated Quinn.
“I just find that the whole communication side of things has been difficult, understanding the negative tactics when it’s an Irish team, the way we are and the way people expect us to play. You go 2-1 up at home to Austria and you are saying this has to be three, four.
“If I was a centre-forward playing in that team I would be furious with the manager for not going on and winning that game.
“I’m not saying who should be getting the job, I’m not that callous that I would think of the next manager. But something has to be ingrained into that team, when you have a 2-1 lead at home in such an important game you go and win it three or four one.”
Someone fast becoming a hero elsewhere is one Paolo Di Canio at Sunderland, a club Quinn knows all too well, having been a former player, manager, and, until recently, its high-profile chief executive.
Given the Italian’s volatile past and apparent political sympathies, it was a high stakes appointment. But one which looks like coming off.
“Phenomenal,” is how Quinn described the decision and Di Canio’s immediate impact. “The board took a gamble. The steady ship of Martin O’Neill was replaced by this kind of whirlwind that’s come in, in Paolo Di Canio. It seems to have done the trick at a vital time.
“The board were criticised a lot, certainly outside of football and, at times, within football for the appointment and there was 72 hours’ uncertainty of what was this man, what were his beliefs etc.
“Somebody I appointed to the board, David Miliband, left during that confusion and it was a difficult few days. But Di Canio did come out and renounced all previous things that had been said about him and fascism. Once that was done, it’s just been so positive for the club.”
Quinn agrees Di Canio’s arrival held echoes of his hiring of Roy Keane at the Stadium of Light.
“The Roy Keane appointment was purely to lift a city which was feeling bad about itself, not just a football team,” said Quinn.
“The club had broken its own record of the worst points total ever in the Premiership, was in financial disarray and Roy came in, did a job and lifted it and had a fantastic run with promotion in the first season and we stayed up the first year.
“The second year in the Premiership became difficult. Nowadays that’s a long term in a manager’s lifetime at a club and if Sunderland can get that for two-and-a-half years from Di Canio at least, that would be fantastic.”
* Quinn was in Dublin yesterday to launch the tenth year of the Dublin Bus Community Spirit initiative.
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