Marco Tardelli feels the wise old fox of Irish soccer may have the final say when an old adversary comes calling on Saturday, writes EMMET MALONE

SHANE LONG and Liam Miller may both have been lost to the Republic of Ireland squad yesterday with calf strains but the word from France was that Lyon midfielder Jeremy Toulalan is now considered to be touch and go for Saturday’s World Cup qualifier with a groin problem.

His absence, of course, would simply open the door to Alou Diarra, by no means a slouch, but the simple fact that his old rival, Raymond Domenech, is likely to be down a probable a starter may have added something to Marco Tardelli’s jocular good humour in Malahide yesterday.

The former Italy international famously fell out with the French coach in 1999 when the pair were managing the nation’s respective under-21 sides and the Azzurri beat Les Bleus 3-2 in a crucial Olympic qualification play-off game.

Afterwards, Domenech accused the referee of bias and Tardelli reacted angrily. A decade on, he insists, the ill feeling has been safely consigned to the history books.

“It’s normal between the trainers,” he said with a broad grin after yesterday morning’s training session at the squad’s north county Dublin base. “If one trainer speaks too much, the other trainer speaks out against him.

“But I don’t have a problem with Domenech because for me, Domenech is a good trainer. I met him two or three times and I won, and now we meet again.”

As for that game . . . “I remember it very well,” he says chirpily, “because it was a positive moment in my life. I think the French played very well. They had a big team, with Henry, Gallas, Dalmat. They played better than us but Pirlo, with a free-kick, won the match. I didn’t understand why he [Domenech] said what he said but Uefa gave him a fine. For me, it’s finished.”

Tardelli still reckons, though, that Ireland qualifying for the World Cup next week would be the second greatest moment of his career after his role in Italy’s title success of 1982 or, as he puts it, “the goal”.

He is immensely proud of his playing days with Italy and clearly perplexed by the failure of some modern players to feel similarly honoured as with France’s Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema, who said recently that he tends not to try as hard for his country as he does for his club.

“I don’t understand how a player in a national team could say that,” he says, with a genuine air of bewilderment.

“For me the national team is the most important thing in my life, after my son and my daughter naturally.”

It is that sense of pride, he feels, that stands to this Irish team. That, and the guidance of Giovanni Trapattoni whose influence, he feels, has the potential to be a decisive factor over the course of the two legs.

“Giovanni’s role is always very important because when he started to work, the players started to change. Every week, every month, they change [improve]. That’s because Giovanni is a wise man. He is an old fox. And when he speaks with the players and they feel his ideas, they know to pay attention. It’s been like this since the beginning.”

The former Bayern Munich boss has, however, attracted criticism during his time in Ireland for what is seen by his critics to be an overly negative approach. For Tardelli, it’s another source of puzzlement.

“When I played [under Trapattoni] with Juventus, we had two strikers, one right winger, a left winger, both high up the pitch and Cabrini as a left-back who was very offensive,” he says. “When we finished the season, we had the most goals scored and the least conceded so I don’t understand why Giovanni is said to be defensive.

“Maybe Giovanni approached opponents with respect,” he continues.

“Some coaches say they don’t respect the other teams but Giovanni always respected the other teams, maybe it’s possible that his respect is considered to be defensive.”

Tardelli clearly doesn’t see it that way and the influence the 70 year-old has had on his own approach to coaching is plain to see.

“I am very happy because, for me, it’s very important to work with Giovanni. I was a player with Giovanni but now it’s better because when I was a player, I argued with Giovanni many times – during a match, it’s possible to change things on the pitch and it’s possible to change players, and sometimes he decided to change but I wanted to do what I preferred.

“But now I understand why Giovanni told me many things when I was a player.

“I think it’s always possible to learn lessons.

“When I was a player and I made a mistake, the next match I hope that I don’t make the same mistake.

“I think this group, this team, do a lot of positive things. They also do things that aren’t so positive. Now, in these two matches, it’s important that we have character and concentration but it’s always possible to do more, to learn a little bit extra.”

At this, he launches into a story about Trapattoni, then 50 years old, showing Tardelli and his other players a card with a picture of a crown with five footballs on it.

“He said at the time: ‘I don’t know the meaning of this crown with five balls,’” recalls the midfielder. “I think he meant that, even at 50 you can always learn something.”

With that the press conference ends and a room full of slightly sceptical journalists nod, smile and start packing up their things, quietly pleased, it seems, that even those who know him well and speak his language can sometimes only hazard a guess at just what it is exactly that Trapattoni is really on about.