Trap admits end is nigh

Giovanni Trapattoni accepts that his days as manager of Ireland are numbered.

The Italian is still holding out hope for the sequence of improbable results which would be required to reopen Ireland’s route to a World Cup play-off place, after qualification dreams were left dangling by the slenderest thread in the wake of the devastating 2-1 loss to Sweden at the Aviva Stadium on Friday.

But even if the miraculous materialises, the Italian now concedes this campaign will be his last as Irish manager.

“I don’t expect, after this campaign, to go again with Ireland in the future,” Trapattoni said, speaking in Malahide before he and his squad flew out to Vienna for tomorrow night’s game against Austria.

“Sure no, because, after five years, I think we have achieved a good result. We change the team, we improve ranking, we move on players and discover many others. In France, the first time, you know, we deserved to go through. Then we achieved qualification (for Poland). Now, maybe, the third position could be also a good result for us. Obviously, I thought until Friday night we could also qualify. And even if we did achieve that result, then after Brazil, sure, I don’t think about continuing.”

But, insisting that he has a future in football after the Irish job, Trapattoni didn’t even appear to rule out an alternative route to the 2014 World Cup finals if, as now seems certain, his bid to take Ireland to football’s promised land ends in failure.

“Football is so,” he said. “There is disappointment but there is also willingness to continue. Maybe I will have the opportunity to go with other teams, if not the Irish, maybe another.”

In the meantime, the 74-year-old made clear he has no intention of relinquishing his post before the qualification campaign ends next month.

Having confirmed his contract with the FAI runs until June, he said he would not be tendering his resignation in the coming days, irrespective of tomorrow night’s result.

“Me, no,” he emphasised. . “I can continue and help also the next (manager). Because in this short time, maybe this player or another can show also the next manager where he can place his trust and how to develop him.”

When it was put to Trapattoni an earlier departure would allow a successor more time to bed in, the Italian shot back: “If a new manager is available — that’s a problem for the FAI. Each manager is engaged with a club.”

Asked if he would be willing to meet with and advise his successor, he said: “In my career when I change — because I decide to change — the other man would come in and I was always available to say ‘be careful of this or this’. Because they start with limited knowledge. But after that he must decide if what I say is true or not. You must learn through your own experience. I was a player and players will learn from every manager too. I am not God. One manager gives you this, another this, another this.”

Perhaps the telling phrase in that answer is “because I decide to change”, the implication being that his attitude would be rather different if he was forced out of the job rather than leaving on his own terms.

If the FAI do decide to terminate his contract in the near future then it’s estimated that the cost to the association of paying off the Italian management team would be in the region of €1.5 million.

Even as his time as manager enters its dying days, Trapattoni continues to insist that he has done a good job.

He also believes that he made the right decision in staying on after the debacle of the Euro 2012 finals.

“I had many opportunities to go with other countries, more famous,” he claimed.

“But I believed in this group, I believed in this evolution. I believe also in this new group. In fact, in Stockholm I think we deserved to win. But Friday we lost, even though we began again playing very well. I believe in our way.”

For all that, there was, at times, a palpable sense of sad acceptance of the inevitability of his fate as Trapattoni reflected on the implications of Friday’s defeat, the feisty veteran also made it clear that he is not yet ready to give up on the idea of Ireland staging an unlikely recovery tomorrow night in Vienna — with a little help from our old friends in Astana.

“It’s taken for granted that Sweden can beat Kazakhstan but with the football Kazakhstan play at home, I have hope,” he said.

There was also one notable flash of defiance when, with a sharp smile, Trapattoni offered one of his journalistic critics his phone number so that the latter could ring him after his successor as Irish manager had overseen his first couple of games. For the Italian, it seems inconceivable that a new man would radically alter the blueprint being handed on.

“The next manager can start with what he is left by Trapattoni,” he said. “I know this group of players. Sure, a new manager will not change three or four or five. One hundred per cent, there will be no chance (of that).”

But even as the ever louder popular chorus holds Trapattoni is facing his final curtain as Ireland manger in Vienna, the veteran is still retaining hope of a surprise encore.

“Think about which opera can be here when I win in Austria,” he offered with a knowing grin.