Trapattoni lost in translation

Robbie Keane’s late introduction the following morning on Sky Sports’ Goals on Sunday programme — he explained he’d had a couple of drinks at the bar the night before when the presenters said they’d had difficulties contact him — indicates that the Ireland captain took up Trapattoni's offer, but that is another story. Of more widespread concern is that Trapattoni’s lack of English is hampering him doing the job to the best of his ability.

Last September, Trapattoni said that he needed a vocabulary of about 300 words or so to run the team and he reiterated that view last week — with the help of a translator — when Capello’s lower estimate was put to him. “When I studied English, my teacher said I am not a philosopher. You need only the words for your job. For what concerns football, 200 or 300 words allows you to give the meaning. If you are speaking about political or social matters then obviously no. There is a specific way of learning that refers to my job.”

One wonders if he articulated such narrow terms of reference when Don Givens, Ray Houghton and Don Howe turned up at his apartment in Salzburg and interviewed him for the job over a glass of red wine. It seems they didn’t even establish where Trapattoni would be based, so perhaps they considered it impertinent to ask whether he planned to learn English properly or not. But even those three ex-pros would surely agree that international manager’s job goes well beyond who stands where on a football field. As a further instance, the saga over whether James McCarthy would or would not play for Ireland could surely have been cleared up more quickly if Trapattoni had picked up the phone and spoken to him — or vice versa — but such a conversation would have been fraught with problems given the language barrier. Even when they did meet in the presence of a translator there is believed to have been some confusion over the seriousness of an ankle injury which had kept McCarthy out for three months earlier in the season.

Also last week there was a misunderstanding between Mick McCarthy and Trapattoni over the cause of Kevin Doyle’s ankle ligament injury. Again, a swift phone call could have cleared up any confusion.

The ongoing communications problems mean that Alan Kelly has been shoved into an unfamiliar role and he is not entirely comfortable with it. There is the sight of Kelly, iPad in hand, briefing substitutes in the technical area before they come on the pitch. That role should be performed by the head coach, but the closest Ireland have to that is Marco Tardelli, whose English, while better than Trapattoni’s, is probably not up to the job either. “We had Liam Brady,” Trapattoni said on Wednesday. “And now when the players do not understand, Alan clarifies this, get the message across.”

By not having Brady as an assistant manager the cash-strapped FAI are saving in the region of €500,000 a year. But there is one important difference between Brady and Kelly in this context; Brady speaks Italian, Kelly doesn’t. A professional individual, Kelly declined to elaborate on his role last week beyond saying “I am just happy to get on with my job and do the best for the manager and the players.”

Which begs the question as to whether Trapattoni, for all his considerable guile and charm, is doing the best by his players. Somebody like Capello, who is notoriously aloof and even high-handed, wouldn’t be much more expressive were he coaching in Spain or even Italy. Trapattoni is a different creature, effusive and passionate, if not always articulate. Even Italian journalists had difficulty understanding him sometimes and said he spoke Trapattonese. Still, the FAI, Denis O’Brien, and the Irish footballing public are entitled to expect more.

Though at some point in the past he appears to have taken some English lessons, he hasn’t done so since he took up the Ireland job and says instead that he listens to English tapes when he is driving. He should pull up to the British Council in Milan and ask them to send one of their brightest English teachers out to his place. Three years into the job is late but not too late given Trapattoni clearly intends to stick around. One golden rule: no guitars.

Price not right for football tickets

Last Sunday, a colleague who preferred Parnell Park to Donnybrook came back chuffed that he had to pay only €13 for himself and two children to see Dublin’s hurlers take on Galway and he wonders why the FAI can't do something similar when it comes to the Aviva Stadium. In particular, why no family tickets offered by the FAI, except through ‘selected media partners’? The dissatisfaction is growing. Darren O’Dea after the Uruguay game called for fans to be let in for free and it's clear that the topic has been discussed by the players.

Such altruism is all very well, but the FAI finds itself stuck between a rock and a hard place. The GAA and IRFU has nothing like its level of debt. The FAI has a massive debt to pay — in the region of €50m or €60m — to the National Irish Bank (NIB) because of their failed 10-year ticket scheme, which was horribly overpriced, and needs to bring revenue in whatever way it can. Reduce ticket prices too much and where will the revenue come from? Keep ticket prices reasonably high and the fans stay away. As the chief architect of their ticketing policy in relation to the Aviva, the FAI chief executive, John Delaney, can’t be sitting comfortably in Abbotstown.

It's likely that the FAI's business plan to the NIB contained full houses for all competitive games and larger attendances for friendlies than the 20,200 who showed up for Uruguay on official estimates (was it really that much?).

In that case, the FAI are probably already down around €2m to €3m on their estimates for the last two games and while the idea of lowering ticket prices further may sound good, it may not be what the NIB wants. And, increasingly, the bank — which has first call on ticket revenues in certain circumstances — will be making its voice heard in Abbotstown.

Colleges learning new ball game

Blackrock College’s victory in last Sunday's Leinster Junior Cup final in Donnybrook has provided some succour for those who feel that the most fertile nursery in Irish rugby is in danger of turning into an Elysian Fields. One Leinster Senior Cup victory in the last five years represents a drought across the 62 acres of mainly rugby pitches at Blackrock’s Williamstown base and has been accompanied by dark mutterings about how other schools are moving ahead in terms of preparation.

Should St Gerard’s, for example, be employing coaches such as ex British and Irish Lion, Eric Miller, or St Michael’s — winners in 2007 for the first time — have Bernard Jackman on their books, when traditionally coaches are drawn from the teaching staff?

And what of Clongowes Wood, Leinster Senior Cup winners for the second year in a row? Included in their preparations for these last two victorious years has been a week’s warm weather training in Portugal. “We used to go to England and you would be very weather-dependant for your fixtures,” says the Clongowes headmaster, Fr Leonard Moloney.

“I remember going over there with another school and we ended up playing no games because the grounds were all frozen solid. Portugal is not so much warm weather as for bonding purposes and the facilities are good. It is actually cheaper than going to England. We’ve boarding and once the school breaks up for holidays our team is scattered all over the country and a bit beyond in some cases. We can’t get together to keep the training and the fitness going.”

It’s worth remembering how seriously Blackrock takes the sport. “Rugby was a predominant feature of our lives,” past pupil and former Ireland international Bob Casey, inset, said last month. “We trained at lunchtime, after school, coming in on mid-term breaks and returning early from the summer holidays.”

There still isn’t that same intensity at Clongowes for example and Fr Moloney is adamant that Jesuit principles are not being sacrificed.

“The standard of rugby we have seen here over the last couple of years is not going to continue like that because there has been a confluence of good players at the moment,” says Fr Moloney. “The Jesuit ethos is our main priority. In fact, it’s our only priority.”

That’s reassuring. Especially for Rock boys.