DURING a week in which chaos returned to Italian football, Giovanni Trapattoni took the opportunity to show his compatriots what they were missing while he reigns in Ireland. Barely had the media taken their place in the stands at Borgo A Buggiano FC in Tuscany — where his adopted country have been preparing for the Euros — when Trapattoni switched training to the full length of the pitch, playing what was clearly the first XI against the rest. Namely Shay Given, John O’Shea, Richard Dunne, Sean St Ledger, Stephen Ward, Aiden McGeady, Keith Andrews, Glenn Whelan, Damien Duff, Robbie Keane and Kevin Doyle.
Not exactly a team to whet the appetite for the first game against Croatia seven days from now in Poznan, but the one that by and large got them to this competition. As Italy totter towards the Euros — they were defeated 3-0 by Russia on Friday and play Ireland on June 18 in Poznan — Ireland are steady and stable. Ten years ago, when they were last at a big tournament, Ireland were in the middle of Saipan and the Roy Keane calamity.
“This week we made a very good atmosphere,” Trapattoni said. “The weather, the pitch. We have had the possibility to do very quiet training, with concentration, with enthusiasm. We had time to recover the one or two injuries, the doubts like O’Shea.”
The affection shown towards Trapattoni in Italy is enormous, even though he had a disappointing four years as their national manager until he left the job in 2004 and has not enjoyed great success there since the 1980s at Juventus and Inter Milan. Even among the Italians he is out there. “He is an old man but his spirit is very good. He is young in spirit and very funny,” said Gennaro Gattuso, who played for Trapattoni at the 2002 World Cup and the 2004 European championship.
The nation’s captain, Gianluigi Buffon, catching his breath as the latest football betting scandal swirled around him, said Trapattoni could still manage at the highest club level. “Trapattoni is a legend,” Buffon told The Sunday Times. “He has always done well and he has always won. The only time he didn’t win was with Italy, for the national team, but many managers have been there and never won.
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“One like him supported by the calibre of [Marco] Tardelli has a lot to offer and can give a lot to any team. It is a style that never goes out of fashion and continues to bring results.”
The 73-year-old Trapattoni, the oldest manager at the Euros, is still incredibly fit but knows his days at the top of club management are over. He does, however, believe he is a better manager now than in the days when he was handling the likes of Michel Platini, Zbigniew Boniek and Liam Brady at Juventus.
“That’s the life,” he says in English still broken despite four years in the Ireland job. “Now I know more, more situations. I have improved from 10 years ago and also from when I had fantastic players like Platini and Boniek. Now, I have improved so much without these biggest players. We show we can win with the other players. You can sell newspapers without the best reporters. We have improved, improved, improved and I’m lucky because I continue to discover the new situations. I’m still hungry for what can happen in the future. There are the new details that can help us win.”
Despite the manager’s optimistic words, the departure of the Wolves player Kevin Foley from the squad on Wednesday could have been handled better. It was a mistake to name what was said to be the final 23 at the start of last month.
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Foley played half a game against a local Tuscan side on Tuesday night just to show he was fit after being told he would be sent home, but injuries to others forced Trapattoni to bring in the centre-half Paul McShane as cover, with Foley being yanked out to make the space. The call to pull Foley from the 23 could have been made a couple of days earlier rather than an hour before Uefa’s midday deadline on Tuesday. That would have avoided him posing in the team photograph at Dublin airport on Sunday and training with the team in Italy before being given the bad news. He feels betrayed, unsurprisingly.
One other player is believed to have been unhappy with the way that was handled and wanted there to be some form of protest, but the rest were happy to move on and accepted that it was a decision that the manager was paid to make. He has made much bigger ones in the past, as anybody within earshot of him will find out readily enough. Ireland’s supporters hope there will be a few more big judgment calls over the next two weeks. That way we will know that Trapattoni is still a player.