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Originally Posted by George Byrne
Well, at least that particular farce is over. With the departure of Giovanni Trapattoni and his team the reign of error that has been glaringly obvious over the past couple of years has finally come to an end.
Another manager would have torn up his contract and walked after the embarrassment inflicted on the Republic of Ireland at Euro 2012. But no, another 15 months of torture lay in store.
Trapattoni may feel that he did “a great job” – oh yes, Ireland down to 59th in the FIFA rankings, our worst placing since the listings began in the early 1990s.
"Reign of error"? Trap's reign might have been frustrating viewing at times, especially its latter half, but I don't think it could be said that it was riddled with error? To expect him to have torn up his contract after the Euros is simply an unrealistic knee-jerk expectation coloured, no doubt, by hindsight and the year that followed. His system was exposed as ineffectual against the big boys but his getting us to Poland in the first place must be commended. Nobody's saying our current situation or ranking of 59th is indicative of a "great job", but neither does it cancel out Trap's earlier successes and the positives he brought to the team.
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Mille grazie, Giovanni – but if, as most people are suggesting, Martin O'Neill gets the job, then I fear we're in for another torrid time.
The argument goes that O'Neill is available and, yes, that's true, but he's available for a reason. His last tenure at Sunderland didn't go well at all.
For starters he didn't move to the area (sound familiar?) and, according to an interview with Sunderland's fanzine editor last Thursday his tactics were “stagnant, boring and predictable” (hmm).
As was the case with previous gigs at Leicester City, Celtic and Aston Villa, O’Neill was reluctant to bring young players through the ranks (Hang on a minute). Plus ca change, as Thierry Henry might say.
O'Neill is as old school in his footballing ways as Trap. If he gets the gig we can expect to see a lot more pigeon endangerment and a raft of handy caps for Conor Sammon – yippie-do.
International management won't require O'Neill to move to Dublin, so that's a pointless criticism. And this guy's obviously done his research, basing his verdict of O'Neill on the opinion of the editor of a Sunderland fanzine last Thursday...