FAI now caught in a Trap
Faroe Islands 1 Republic of Ireland 4:“WINNERS HAVE a hundred fathers,” sighed Giovanni Trapattoni after watching his side score four times against the Faroe Islands last night, “while losers are orphans. I know this.” What he does not know, he freely admitted, is how his current employers will now view a manager they seemed more than happy to abandon in the run up to this game.
The Italian will fly home to Milan early this morning rather than attend a scheduled press conference this evening in Dublin because, he said, his sister is in hospital and he wants to see her.
His relations with the media and the association have, he maintained been entirely unaffected by the intense speculation surrounding his future although when it comes to the FAI’s chief executive, he seemed to suggest, there is not a lot to change.
“You ask me if I speak with John Delaney and I tell you, as always, that there have been only one or two times that he has come to Portmarnock. So we haven’t talked but for us, it’s not news. Sometimes, he has come and wished us luck but not often and I’m not concerned whether he comes to talk with us.”
There are, he said, no meetings planned but the 73-year-old insisted that he was unconcerned by suggestions that Delaney, who again refused to comment on the situation last night, was ready to replace him. “It’s football, not only with the FAI. Federations, clubs . . . they change like the wind.”
Trapattoni, in fact, claimed that he had not even known that his employers might be briefing against him over the last few days. “For me that is new. I wasn’t aware of the suggestions,” he said.
The intention, it seemed, might have been to provoke his resignation; a move could save the association the expense of a very large pay off but the manager made it clear once again that he is going nowhere unless he is told that his services are no longer required.
“I have said many times that I am a man, a serious professional. I worked in other clubs with 100 per cent seriousness and that will not change. I will continue until the FAI tells me that I am not to do the job any longer. I will continue to renew the squad.
“All the people who know of me know what a professional I am. I expect to continue because we started (this campaign) three games ago and we lost one game against one of the best teams in the world.
