GIOVANNI Trapattoni is a wise old man. With 69 years of experience under his belt he has enough know-how to deal with most situations, so doubtless he will have seen this one coming.
The honeymoon, you see, is over for Trapattoni. It ended just after two o’clock on Tuesday afternoon Irish time when he told us that his captain Robbie Keane is to miss the training camp in Portugal that kicks off on Friday.
Keane won’t the only one missing when the Irish squad departs for the Algarve on Friday aboard a scheduled Aer Lingus flight alongside the bucket and spade holiday makers heading for Portugal’s sunshine coast.
Richard Dunne has an ankle injury that requires surgery. Aiden McGeady, Darren O’Dea, Sean Scannell, John O’Shea and Stephen McPhail are all needed by the clubs who pay their wages for more pressing matters than a training camp.
Shay Given, Kevin Kilbane, Lee Carsley, Steven Reid, Joey O’Brien and Darron Gibson are all injured or tired or both.
Some will be back for the games against Serbia and Colombia that will kick-start the Trapattoni era in Dublin and London over the next fortnight; others won’t.
Some we may never see in an Ireland shirt again; some we will see for the first time at this level when Ireland face local sides Portimonense and Lagos on Sunday afternoon and Monday night respectively.
All will get the chance to show Trapattoni what they can do over the next couple of weeks, even Keane, who will miss the Portugal trip but not, according to his coach, the games against Serbia and Colombia, which is a good thing too seeing as how Trap has earmarked him as his natural born leader on the pitch.
Now my regular reader will know that I am a big Robbie fan. I like him as a player because he has a rare talent for the unusual, something lacking among most Irish footballers, and I like him as a bloke as well.
He is much misunderstood, much maligned and often without good reason. Those who doubt him had a field day already a month ago when Liam Brady confirmed that Robbie will retain the captain’s armband. Now they will go to town on Tallaght’s finest. Robbie’s sin here — and he has been cast as the guilty party already by some headline writers — is to take the first week of the Trapattoni era off to prepare for his wedding, maybe even to go to Las Vegas for his stag party if the stories are true.
In some eyes that is akin to high treason, even if Trapattoni has acceded to his request to take the week off ahead of his wedding in the first week of June to a very pretty Dublin model.
Those who like to mock Robbie — and there are many — are indignant that he is spending time with other people when his new teammates, or those still standing, are spending time with their new manager for the very first time.
Trap himself doesn’t have a problem with it, but he may well have a problem with how this story is going to be covered between now and Friday’s departure.
Already the Keane camp has thrown a veil of silence over the affair, with his agent refusing to discuss his star’s plans for the week Ireland are in Portugal.
More than one journalist remarked after Tuesday’s revelation that David O’Leary refused to travel with Ireland for a tournament in Iceland when Big Jack took over in 1986, opting instead for a family holiday in Sardinia, and spent two and a half years in the international wilderness as a consequence.
Another colleague pointed out, quite rightly, that Stephen Hunt is traveling to Portugal and is available for both friendlies despite the fact that he is also getting married in June – the day AFTER the Colombia game.
It’s the first controversy of the Trap era, and it promises to be a teaser for Irish football observers after Trap gave in to the demands of one of his most important players at the first time of asking.
The result of all this is crystal clear as I write this column, late on Tuesday night.
The honeymoon is now well and truly over for Trapattoni, and we haven’t even got to the consummation yet. To say the next two weeks, never mind the next two years, are going to be interesting is an understatement.
Portugal is calling – and I can’t wait to see what happens when Team Trapattoni lands in sunshine and Team Ireland’s new era dawns. After Tuesday it promises to be fascinating at the very least.
Let the games begin.
Sideline Views
GAA: Fans from Meath, Carlow, Kildare and Wicklow will find a new look to Croke Park for Sunday’s Leinster SFC double bill thanks to the bucket seats currently installed on Hill 16 in readiness for the Giovanni Trapattoni debut against Serbia on Saturday, May 24. The FAI have installed the seats for the big game, meaning Sunday’s fixtures will be the first GAA games played at an all-seater Croker in the stadium’s history. Celine Dion and Westlife are next up at Croker after the soccer match, but the seats will be gone by the time the Dubs get back to their beloved Hill on June 8.
ATHLETICS: There are times when daytime television is compelling viewing, mostly from a Thursday to a Sunday when the live golf is on. There are also times when the box in the corner throws up some fascinating little nuggets. One such nugget arrived on Monday morning when the other half was watching a gardening program – presented by the Olympic sprinter Linford Christie. Apparently he’s become an expert horticulturist since he hung up the spikes. Bet you didn’t know that!
SOCCER: Birmingham City and Reading were relegated on Sunday, much to the chagrin of their Irish players Stephen Kelly, Stephen Hunt, Kevin Doyle and Shane Long, but at least Kelly had one consolation after playing in the decisive game. That fixture, against Blackburn, was his 38th straight league game in a row for the club, meaning Kelly played in every single Premier League game for Birmingham this season.
SOCCER: The great Portuguese player Figo is hotly denying claims in Italy that he ran over a black cat which lived at the Inter Milan training ground. Reports claimed that Figo “killed” the cat because it was bringing bad luck to the club, but the player himself is in denial and has even threatened legal action – against those making the claims that is, not the dead cat!
GAA: Westmeath footballer Gary Dolan is due to get married on June 7 with his famous brother Dessie as his best man but there’s a slight problem – Westmeath are now down to play Offaly in the championship in Tullamore that night. The game doesn’t throw in until 7 p.m., so they could make it back to the reception in time for the first dance I suppose!
GAA: I never thought I’d write this, but I was glad to hear some news about the modern composer James Last this week after RTE brought back his original Sunday Game theme tune to our screens for the start of the program’s new run last Sunday. The tune was controversially dropped a couple of years ago but it’s great to have it back.
GOLF: Lock up your mothers and your daughters – John Daly could be heading our way. The big man is looking to play more events in Europe in the immediate future after losing his full card in America. With four ex-wives already on the payroll he’s bound to be looking for another mixed foursomes partner if he does make the move.
SOCCER: Celtic may or may not retain their league title this season, but you can’t fault their fans after a staggering 15,000 turned up to watch them train at Parkhead the other day. Manager Gordon Strachan admitted, “Most clubs in Britain would love a crowd like this on a match day, and we get it for a training session. It’s fantastic.”
SOCCER: Manchester United and Chelsea will clash in the Champions League final in Moscow next Wednesday and the fans from both teams are encountering all sorts of transport headaches, not least the price. Why UEFA fixed the game for Russia is beyond me, but at least it promises to be a cracker.
Hero Of the Week
RONALDO scored his 31st league goal of the season as Manchester United beat Wigan on Sunday to confirm the 10th league crown of the Alex Ferguson era. The Portuguese winger has been the player of the season in England, and now has the league medal he deserves to prove it.
Idiot Of the Week
I’M sure there are many good and decent people who follow Glasgow Rangers, but there are also some beauties among their fan base – and I don’t mean that in a nice way. On Saturday they repeatedly sang a song about the Famine every time they caught sight of Dundee United’s Irish striker Noel Hunt, brother of current international Stephen. Surely that’s akin to sectarian abuse, something the Scottish game and Rangers are allegedly trying to stamp out?
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