First of all a meaningless friendly should not have been arranged 2 days after the close of the premiership season. Absolute shambolic decision on the FAI's part. McCarthy was never going to show up after Wigan's miraculous escape and expecially with the game against Scotland coming up which he would have been avoiding like the plague. Trap should have handled the situation with some tact and sensitivity and told him to take a break for a week and join the team after the Scotland game and things will be assessed then. Unfortunately that senile man is nothing but a self obesessed egomaniac who is doing his level best to burn as many bridges as he can with promising Irish players.
He needs to realise that he is not in club management anymore but in international management where managers are at the mercy of the clubs who pay his players their wages. The clubs call the shots these days and like it or like it not, the fact is that international football is not as an attractive prospect as it was say 20 years ago. Relationships between clubs and countries need to be fostered carefully and not burned in the manner Trap is doing. Just look at all the great players who retired prematurely from International football in recent years - Shearer, Nedved, Giggs, (Keane!), etc, etc.
Don't get me wrong, I admire Robbie Keane's passion and respect him from the way he came out and said all those things. I'm as passionate as the next guy about the Irish team. I've been obessed since my earliest memory of the 3-1 defeat to Spain at Lansdowne road back in the early 90s. Before each qualifying game I would stay up saying prayers every night 2 wks before hand hoping that God would help the Irish team to perform to their potential (I never asked for a win, perhaps that's where it has all been going wrong). Many an Irish loss evoked an uncontrollable tantrum in me that had my mother on her last thether. I look back on it now and feel genuinely sorry for all the hardship I put her true, she most definitely was more nervous than me during the Irish games, and she wouldn't even have known any of the players.
My point is club's call the shots now and international managers need to respect that to a certain extent and concentrate on developing strong relationships with club managers rather than confronting and questioning every injury that is purported.
To borrow the great man's line after he turned 70 last tuesday, The times are a-changin', but unfortunately you can't teach an old ignorant dog new tricks.
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