Compiled by PHILIP REID

Trap should put faith in old adage

WHEN IT comes to the use of clichés or sayings, we know for sure that Giovanni Trapattoni is as cute as a silver fox.

Remember all that talk about the cat being in the sack (but not yet tied) in the Euro 2012 play-offs late last year?

Ultimately, his words served their purpose and kept the feet of various personages – players, FAI blazers, fans – firmly planted on the ground. The sagacious coach proved that experience is a powerful bedfellow.

And yet. . . You wonder if the adage of, “if you’re good enough, you’re old enough” has the same resonance in Trap’s mind.

The need to go with old heads over young legs is one that isn’t necessarily replicated when it comes to other sports or, indeed, when it comes to other soccer managers.

Indeed, any reservations about throwing any young players – be it James McClean or Shane Duffy or even Robbie Brady – into international fare, especially in friendly matches, can be pitched against the fact that Wayne Rooney made his debut for England back in 2003 when aged a mere 17 years and 111 days.

Theo Walcott was 36 days younger when he was handed an England jersey against Hungary in 2006. You can’t say such early starts have harmed either.

Messrs Rooney and Walcott are by no means the youngest footballers to earn their international stripes. Norman Whiteside was only 17 years and 41 days old when he played for Northern Ireland in the World Cup finals in Spain while we’re told a youngster by the name Souleymane Maman from Togo was only 13 years and 310 days old when he played as a substitute in a World Cup qualifier against Zambia in 2001.

The youngest ever footballer to play professionally was, we’ll admit, a tad too young and may have had something to do with parental favouritism or, perhaps, opportunism. Mauicio Baldivieso made his debut for Aurora in the Bolivian championship as a substitute just days before he reached his 13th birthday.

He hadn’t even reached his teenage years when his father, former Bolivian international and club coach, Julius Cesar Baldivieso, threw him into a man’s world where, reportedly, a cynical tackle had the boy in tears within minutes of his debut. Three years on, his dad is no longer the coach . . . and the teenager is on the look-out for another club.

Of course, we should remember that arguably the greatest player of them all – Pele – started his professional career as a 15-year-old with Santos and played for Brazil at 16.

In the not too distant past, we’ve also seen Tom Prydie become the youngest player to represent the Welsh rugby team – all of 18 years and 25 days when he faced Italy in the Six Nations two years ago, proving that former Irish coach Warren Gatland has no qualms about playing a young player if they’re good enough.

And, of course, Sebastian Vettel became the youngest ever Formula One world champion (aged 23 years and 135 days) when winning the Grand Prix championship in 2010.

Obviously, his successful defence in 2011 made him the youngest double champion too.

So, clearly, the adage “if you’re good enough, you’re old enough” has substance throughout the international sporting world.

And nowhere is this demonstrated more clearly than in women’s professional golf.

There was a time in the 1980s and 1990s when it seemed that tennis was the sport of choice for teenage females to take on the world but the recent victory by New Zealand amateur Lydia Ko on the Ladies European Tour – aged 14 – is a bit of an eye-opener in letting us know how good these kids are.

Ko’s win was no bolt from the blue, it must be said. Anyone who ventured to Killeen Castle for last year’s Ladies Irish Open would have had the chance to watch the young American Lexi Thompson in action.

She didn’t win the Irish Open but it was clear to one and all that hers was a special talent and, since then, she’s won twice: the 16-year-old six-footer won the Navistar Classic in Alabama by five shots, prompting the LPGA to waive its policy of members being at least 18 years of age. She followed up by winning the Dubai Ladies Masters by four strokes at season’s end to become the youngest professional winner of the Ladies European Tour.

Now, we’re not saying that Senior Trapattoni should opt for young legs rather than old heads all the time. We’re just saying that, sometimes, youth is worth a chance.

After all, there must be some truth in such an adage.

Jeremy moves to trademark 'Linsanity'

WHAT’S IN a name?

Jeremy Lin – the New York Knicks basketball sensation – is proving to be as determined off the court as on it. He responded to a number of individuals seeking to trademark the name “Linsanity” by filing his own trademark rights to the word, with his lawyers claiming they were protecting his intellectual property rights.

The filing by his lawyers is aimed to cover the trademarked term on items ranging from underwear to knapsacks and action figures.

Lin’s application came after a number of individuals sought to trademark the word and it will be up to a court to decide.

It hasn’t been all sunshine for the unlikely basketball star.

Ben and Jerry’s had to apologise during the week for producing a Taste of Lin-sanity flavour that apparently didn’t appeal to the taste buds of buyers.

Woods camp not in touch

THE us-against-the-world mentality seems to be very much alive in the Tiger Woods camp on the evidence of their reaction to excerpts of Hank Haney’s book – published by Golf Digest – that the player had wanted to be part of the Seals, the US Navy’s elite fighting unit.

His manager Mark Steinberg dismissed the account as “clearly false” and talked of the “armchair psychology” of the player’s former coach.

Is anyone else inclined to think, “So what?” It’s irrelevant if Woods, true or false, ever hankered about following his late father into a military life. It’s irrelevant if he ever did training in parachuting or self-defence or urban warfare simulation.

The fact is Woods never did join the military. He did whatever he did behind closed doors or in cars and went into rehab and now he is back playing golf.

But there is someone on the US Tour who did join the US Navy, who didn’t just fantasise about that kind of life.

Billy Hurley played Walker Cup for the USA in 2005 and, after graduating from the naval academy, embarked on a life as an officer where he occasionally hit balls into the ocean waters while assigned to the USS Chung-Hoon, a 10,000-ton guided-missile destroyer. When his stint in the navy ended in 2009, he resumed his golf career.

Hurley won a full PGA Tour card for this season by finishing 25th on last year’s Nationwide Tour and winning the last available ticket to the big circus. He isn’t having it so good, making two cuts in five events.

He is currently 363rd in the world and 190th on the US Tour’s FedEx Cup rankings.

But you can be sure Hurley doesn’t have the us-against-the-world mentality expounded by Woods and his manager Mark Steinberg.

It’s called perspective.

U-21s should have back-door system

THE topic of burn-out and the demands on players – especially those involved with club, college and county – is one that simply won’t go away, but it still seems a shame that the Under-21 championships don’t have a back-door system; even a diluted one.

Wexford made an impact in winning the Leinster U21 football championship in 2011 and put a Dublin team – who have wasted no time in graduating players from last year’s minor ranks – to the pin of their collar in the opening match of the defence of their provincial crown in midweek. But that’s it. There is no safety-net in the Under-21 grade and Wexford and Meath and all those other teams who fell at the first hurdle are gone. Wouldn’t a back door, at least for first-round losers, be worth it for a grade that tends to produce some of the purest football?

Here's hoping that a future Ireland team could yet feature Morgan

MOST DAYS, the school run – or should that be walk or, even, shuffle? – takes me pass what is unfolding at Malahide Cricket Club. And, as we spring forward into summer, the green shoots on the new pitch and surrounds at the venue suggest it will be a great place to watch the odd over or two.

From the outside looking in, every cent of the €700,000 expended on the project to create an international standard cricket ground has been well spent and, of course, the knock-on economic effect for the local community when the likes of Australia, England, Pakistan et al come calling will be worth quite a few euro.

The project commenced in 2009 and it is expected to see play during the summer . . . but, down the line, when international matches finally get to the north Dublin town, is it worth hoping that an Ireland team in the future could yet feature Eoin Morgan again?

Already, Ed Joyce has returned to the fold and Morgan’s treatment by England this week – dropped from the Test panel for the upcoming matches in Sri Lanka and questions raised about his unique batting style – might raise hope that the Dubliner could be another cricketing prodigal son.

We fear that may be just a pipe dream, given Morgan’s contribution to one-day and Twenty20 fare, but there is no harm dreaming.

Imagine, an Ireland team with Joyce and Morgan and George Dockrell and Paul Stirling? No harm dreaming at all, at all . .

For the time being, Morgan’s immediate cricket schedule is with the Kolkata Knight Riders in the lucrative Indian Premier League.