Trap calls for clean-up after latest 'surprise'

SOCCER EURO 2012:GIOVANNI TRAPATTONI has described the match-fixing and bribery investigation in relation to Italian football as a "humiliation" but acknowledged there has been a problem and insisted it is essential to clean things up.

“Every moment in Italy we seem to have surprises,” he said after the Irish squad had trained at the ground of Borgo a Buggiano, near Montecatini in Italy, last night.

“Obviously we are not only sad but disappointed . . . very, very disappointed. Italian football is not the only thing to suffer from this. In every country and every city you have it but we have this habit, we don’t have a good reputation and so it’s important that we clean things up.

“We can’t accept this sort of humiliation for Italian football every two or three years.”

The need for such investigations is particularly hard to take, he suggested, for Italians working overseas.

“Obviously, I am 15 years working in other countries – Germany, Austria, Portugal – and when you are away you are proud of your country and what it can achieve in football so this sort of situation is a humiliation for us and me in particular.”

Trapattoni expressed sympathy for his opposite number, former player and old friend Cesare Prandelli, but insisted when asked about the potential impact on the Italian team’s preparations for Euro 2012 he did not think the situation would have a major impact because the nation has so many good players to choose from.

“This situation would be a disaster for us,” he added, however. “We have so few players that we would have to play you.”

Trapattoni, meanwhile, has raised the possibility that Paul McShane could displace either Kevin Foley or Stephen Kelly in the official squad he submits to Uefa this morning. He said he has still to make a final decision on which two from the three to include in the squad.

Either way, he emphasised, all of the players would stay with the squad beyond next Monday’s game against Hungary in Budapest and the player omitted officially from the Euro2012 squad would, even if he did not get called back in because of an injury, be given the opportunity to remain with the group throughout the European Championships.

Because of Uefa’s willingness to allow injury enforced switches right up until the day of a country’s first game at the tournament, today’s noon deadline is not quite the key event it used to be but clearly it remains important, especially for the players concerned.

Pressed on which of the two would make the cut, Trapattoni smiled and said: “Just print 24 names and you won’t be wrong.”

Paul Green will not only be amongst the 23 names winging their way to Uefa this morning but also in the line-up for this evening’s training game in Pistoia against a local team of third and fourth division players to be managed by Aldo Firicano and Ennio Pellegrini, both of whom played under Trapattoni during his Serie A days.

The 73-year-old made it clear he has asked his friends to ensure their players are “calm, as we don’t need any more injuries and we want the players to enjoy the 90 minutes”.

Shay Given, John O’Shea and McShane are ruled out of the game by injury but the manager was upbeat about their progress and suggested O’Shea could take part in a full training session tomorrow for the first time.

The Sunderland defender worked with team physio Ciarán Murray yesterday, while Given also did fitness work but avoided kicking the ball with his right leg before having an ice pack strapped to that knee.

Darren O’Dea was also off by himself as a result of a thigh strain and he too will sit this evening out, although Trapattoni said it was a more marginal thing with the Dubliner, who had wanted to train last night.

McShane, meanwhile, played no part and was not even out on the pitch with the rest of the players.

Amongst those also lined up to start tonight are Keiren Westwood, Stephen Kelly, Kevin Foley, Stephen Hunt, Jonathan Walters and Simon Cox.

Either Sean St Ledger or Kelly will partner Richard Dunne in central defence, with Stephen Ward coming in at left back if Kelly is shifted inside.

James McClean, Aiden McGeady and Shane Long were all mentioned as possibilities for the other wide position but regardless of who gets the nod, the others seem almost certain to feature at some point.

Keith Andrews, meanwhile, will partner Green who, he made clear yesterday, was surprised but delighted to have had his Saturday evening over at his parents’ barbecue in Pontefract interrupted by a phone call from the FAI.

Green missed the early part of the Championship season as he recovered from cruciate ligament injury and admits that despite having played in Ireland’s early games of the qualification campaign, he thought his chance to play at a major finals was gone when he failed to make the initial squad for the Czech Republic game in February.

“Yes, I thought it had,” he says. “But then I got the late call up with James McClean.

“I got half an hour there and I thought there might be just a little slight hope. Then when the squad was announced it was a bit gutting.”

Trapattoni, though, appears to have a special place in his heart for the 29-year-old and has suggested he might have an important part to play against Spain, but not everyone has been so positive about his inclusion.

“Everybody is allowed their opinion,” he says. “I just come out here and do what I can. I think I can cope at this level. I wouldn’t be out here if I didn’t and I don’t think the manager would have me here if he didn’t think it too.”