Tardelli hoping for good finish to a 'fantastic year'
Almost in the same breath as he accused the media of lacking balance when it comes to assessing Giovanni Trapattoni’s work with this Republic of Ireland side, Marco Tardelli yesterday characterised 2012 as a “fantastic year” for the management team.
The Italian cited Ireland’s participation at the European Championships – more an achievement from 2011, really – but passed over the results in Poland and described the defeat by Germany last month (the team’s worst ever at home in a competitive game) as “normal” for a side missing players and in transition. He also suggested “many” young players had been discovered over the last 12 months.
It was an impressively upbeat status report from a man whose dislike of the press famously dates back to his days as a player with Italy but whose ability to put such a positive spin on things was probably perfected around the time he moved into management.
The 58-year-old may well have a case for suggesting some of what has been written has been harsh on his boss but he is scarcely doing much to redress any imbalance by describing a year in which Ireland have been badly beaten in most of their competitive games as “fantastic”.
Ahead of tomorrow night’s game against Greece, the team has conceded 19 goals – as many as during Trapattoni’s first two years in charge – in the current calendar year and, notwithstanding the quality of some of the opposition, been humiliated more than once but Tardelli suggested the press had given insufficient credit for two hard-fought wins in Kazakhstan and the Faroe Islands.
Senior
He added, however, he does not actually read any of the media reports but relies on the summaries he receives from the FAI – a “senior source” that was apparently, he may or may not be aware, laying the groundwork for the management team’s departure only a few weeks ago.
In reality, Trapattoni and his assistant could do with a good finish tomorrow to what most people would have considered a pretty bad year. The Greeks, ranked 12 in the world, fared better at the European Championships and have started their new qualification well so will be no pushovers. But a good performance with further signs of development on the personnel and tactical fronts is important.
A win, ideally involving a clean sheet, would be a welcome bonus.
Tardelli’s talk of so much young talent in not entirely idle – although only Robbie Brady and James McClean have made what might be described as dramatic progress with Ireland this year, and in the case of the latter it has not been dramatic enough for some fans given the scale of his rise at club level. In any case, both, as well as Shane Coleman and James McCarthy, look to be on course for starts tomorrow as Trapattoni’s training ground team began to take shape in Malahide yesterday.
