Big Sam mounts furious 'defence' of Reid

BLACKBURN MANAGER Sam Allardyce launched a withering attack on Giovanni Trapattoni yesterday, dismissing the Italian’s assessment of Steven Reid’s injury problems as ill-informed and untrue.

Allardyce has clearly been seething following comments made by the Republic of Ireland boss regarding Reid and took time out from preparing to face Chelsea to give vent to his spleen.

Trapattoni had outlined concerns over Reid’s fitness in the wake of the recent Montenegro qualifier, expressing his belief that such knee injuries were notoriously difficult to overcome. But Allardyce declared himself “disgusted” with the comments while branding Trapattoni a “disgrace”.

The former Bolton and Newcastle manager demanded the FAI reprimand their manager.

“It’s disgraceful, completely out of order,” Allardyce fumed. “He’s not talking correctly in terms of Steven’s injury. What he is saying is completely untrue and something he should apologise for.

“He has undermined us as a football club, undermined Steven as a player and he has really been very, very naughty in what he has said. He should make a public apology and hopefully that will be the end of it.”

Trapattoni could be forgiven if he is somewhat bemused at the force of Allardyce’s broadside. While he did say Reid would struggle to be the same player again, there was a feeling his words had been taken out of context, lost in translation as it were.

Trapattoni is concerned over Reid’s fitness – the midfielder has played just two League Cup games since recovering from knee surgery but could yet feature in next month’s play-offs – but there appeared to be no intent to cast aspersions over his long-term future.

Assistant manager Liam Brady subsequently attempted to set the record straight, explaining that Trapattoni was “talking about knee injuries in a very general way”. Not that Brady’s intervention cut any ice with Allardyce.

“There’s no player more honest than Steven and to be dealt that sort of a blow at this stage, when he’s not feeling the best, trying to come back from a big injury and picking up another little niggle, is very, very disrespectful to say the least. It’s disgusting,” he added.

“Perhaps I haven’t got the same dignity as Steven. Perhaps I just speak it as I see it. Perhaps he’s more sensible than me. But I’m not happy with what Trapattoni said, I’m disgusted with it.”

Reid, who took a full part in training this week having overcome an Achilles problem, travelled to London with the rest of the Blackburn squad yesterday.