HAVING RECENTLY accounted for the Northern Ireland manager thanks to a 4-1 win here Tallinn and a 2-1 victory over in Belfast, Tarmo Ruutli denies he is hoping to add Republic of Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni to his list of international scalps in the wake of these Euro 2012 play-offs but that’s still a likely outcome if Estonian win over two legs.
“Something like this is never on the mind of an opposing coach,” he said recently. “When someone is not happy with the coach, there is a history of how this situation has developed. It’s not one match.”
That much might well have been true of Nigel Worthington with one banner at the game last month in Windsor Park, which the Estonians won, reading “Taxi for negative Nige” but it was clear even at the final whistle that many of those amongst the crowd who had been undecided about the manager’s fate, reckoned losing to Ruutli’s men was one embarrassment too many.
But the other three teams that finished below Estonia in their qualification group (Serbia, Slovenia and the Faro Islands) have all changed their managers since the campaign ended, with Brian Kerr the only one, it seems, not paying the price for perceived underperformance, especially against Ruuti’s men.
On his previous visit to Ireland, as it happens, the 57-year-old, who still manages a third division side and plays for a fourth division one is his spare time, had overseen Levadia Tallinn’s elimination of Bohemians from the Uefa Cup. That also cost Stephen Kenny his job with the Dubliners.
Trapattoni said again last night he believes he and assistant Marco Tardelli deserve new contracts regardless of what happens over the next five days but anything short of victory over the two legs seems increasingly likely to spell the end for the Italian.
“It may be my last chance (to manage at a major championship) with Ireland,” he said about the possibility of defeat, “but there will be new opportunities for me elsewhere, I am sure of that.”
