SOCCER: EURO 2012 QUALIFIERSGIOVANNI TRAPATTONI will have to embark on a more extensive overhaul of his back four tomorrow night than initially intended after he and the rest of his Republic of Ireland squad were forced to depart for Moscow yesterday without Sunderland defender John O'Shea.
The Waterford man missed yesterday’s training session in Malahide along with Shay Given whose back problem continues to be an issue. Robbie Keane and Richard Dunne took some part in the run-out but left early, apparently due to tiredness.
O’Shea, Marco Tardelli acknowledged immediately after the session finished, had emerged as a doubt for the game against Russia due to a calf and hip strain but at that stage the Italian said he was still hopeful the defender would be fit enough to feature.
Asked whether O’Shea would start at right back again or move inside to the centre, Tardelli said: “We have the next training on Monday and after that we will decide because we have a problem with John O’Shea. We don’t know if he’ll be ready or not.”
In fact, the issue was clarified within a couple of hours with the FAI confirming just before the team’s flight departed that the player would not be travelling.
Losing the hugely-experienced defender is a major blow although O’Shea had only just returned from a hamstring injury.
Given, meanwhile, had a scan yesterday in order to gauge the seriousness of a back problem that has been troubling him since he fell heavily during Aston Villa’s game last weekend, but the player did travel to Moscow.
Still, Given’s situation seemed to have become more serious with Tardelli admitting the goalkeeper was having further difficulties with his back yesterday morning. “He rested for two days here, he played the match, he played very well and he finished the match. But this morning there is a little problem.” Tardelli said at that stage he was hopeful everyone, bar Shane Long, would be fit for the game at the Luzhniki Stadium.
Trapattoni had strongly hinted Darren O’Dea will come in for the suspended Seán St Ledger and that is now a virtual certainty given O’Shea’s injury. The manager will then have to decide whether to go with Stephen Kelly or Kevin Foley at right back.
Elsewhere, he said he would weigh up whether to start with Simon Cox up front in place of Kevin Doyle. He maintained both Doyle and Aiden McGeady would benefit from getting Friday’s game under their belts and expressed confidence both could be expected to turn in improved performances in Moscow should they start.
Trapattoni, meanwhile, was anxious again to portray Friday’s draw in as positive a light as possible and insisted that, having taken considerable satisfaction from the side’s sixth straight clean sheet, he would have been far more concerned had his players failed to create any scoring chances.
When it was put to him some Slovak players had described the Irish approach as predictable and suggested the game had been easier than they had expected he became somewhat agitated.
“The players (said it) not the coach? We have the same number of points as Slovakia,” he said. “Why they have the same points as us? Why they didn’t score a goal? They play us at home also and we missed also a penalty. The players said this and I said to you why in Slovakia this same team we missed a penalty and they didn’t win. Why? I asked if it was the manager or players. Players are kids.”
Tardelli, meanwhile, has dismissed as “speculation” reports in a number of Sunday newspapers that the Irish management team would have to accept dramatically reduced salaries in order to stay in their current position beyond the end of this European Championship qualification campaign.
It was reported that at a meeting of the FAI’s board last Monday, when the position of the Italians was discussed, there was a general feeling that the senior team achieving a top-two finish in their group would be enough to merit new contract offers for Trapattoni and his team.
The suggestion is, although this was specifically denied yesterday by a senior FAI figure, that board members also discussed in some detail the terms that might be offered to the veteran manager and that these would involve him having to accept a pay cut of around 50 per cent, or something in the region of €850,000 per annum, with overall cuts in the wider budget for the management team of more than a €1 million being targeted.
“I spoke with John Delaney (FAI chief executive) two or three days ago, he never told me about this,” said Tardelli yesterday. “For me, it’s speculation. Also, two years ago, we took a cut in our contracts.”
Asked if he and Trapattoni would accept another cut in order to stay on, he smiled and suggested that they would (but) “not too much”.
When it was put to him that a figure of 50 per cent had been reported, he replied: “Maybe I don’t understand well in English but John Delaney didn’t talk to me about that. Many times we speak with John and the board to decide to continue or not. For us . . . we want to stay on.”
In relation to the suggestion that the team must at least make the play-offs in order to trigger even the offer of much-reduced terms, Tardelli was emphatic that nothing like that had been put to them by the association. “We don’t have these targets,” he said. “We spoke with John Delaney two or three days. If the board want me and Giovanni to stay here, it’s okay. There’s nothing to be discussed at the moment.”
