Trapattoni likely to err on the side of caution

IT MAY be nothing remotely as serious as the great north-south divide that, legend has it, plagued the England squad at the last World Cup but Giovanni Trapattoni revealed yesterday that he is embroiled in a battle of wills with senior players who want to play this Saturday when he believes they should rest.

Well, he said it was “wills” anyway but after a little while and a great deal of clarification, it emerged that the Italian is, in fact, embroiled in a battle of “wishes”. In short, they wish to play and he wishes they would sit on the sidelines. Perhaps it is all a terrible misunderstanding, though, and that is where, come kick-off time against the Bosnians, they wish to be too. We may never know.

Getting this far certainly took enough time, albeit entertaining time spent on the side of the training ground in Malahide where the 73-year-old manager looks to be in his element as he prepares to lead a team to a major international championship for the third time.

Trapattoni has worked abroad a fair bit at this stage and, to his credit, made an enthusiastic stab at learning the local language wherever he has gone.

But there are times when he simply can’t let go of a language he has acquired before, particularly German, his somewhat unconventional command of which was built up during stints in Munich, Stuttgart and Salzburg.

The problem most commonly manifests itself when the veteran coach speaks about player discipline and describes something or other as being “verboten” but more recently, and a little more alarmingly, there has been a fair bit of talk about Danzig – or Gdansk as the Poles prefer to call it these days.

Yesterday, his pitch-side press conference threatened to descend into the sort of set-piece comedy miscommunication sketch that always seems to be too far-fetched to be true.

“He will play,” the coach said early on in the proceedings with regard to Shay Given, “but why run the risk?”

Core members of the press pack know far better than to bring proceedings to a halt over a mere hint of contradiction or confusion. Better to move on, let Trapattoni go about his business and spend a good chunk of the rest of our day debating (sometimes heatedly) what exactly it was he meant. This time, though, he seemed determined to provoke us into more immediate action.

The confusion mounted as he suggested in turn that John O’Shea “will” play and Richard Dunne “will” play and we, in turn, would ask something along the lines of: “So, John O’Shea will play?” To which he would politely reply: “No, he won’t,” or “No, he will,” or “Maybe, I see”.

And so it went on until, in relation to one of his senior players he observed: “He will play but I will he stays on the bench,” at which point the Germanic root of the problem began to become apparent. “Ich will” translates as “I want” and Trapattoni’s senior players all want to play this weekend, it seems, while he wants them to sit all, or at least most of the game out.

None, he insists, is a serious risk for the European Championships but Given has a knee problem that means, at the very least, he would not be able to take kick-outs this weekend, O’Shea has yet to train fully on a problematic ankle and Dunne has sustained a micro tear to his lower abdominal wall.

The three will, as a result, be rested today but Robbie Keane came through yesterday afternoon’s session problem free, as did Jonathan Walters.

Shane Long also trained well despite an earlier scare, Keith Fahey is on course to be fit for Saturday and Kevin Foley, while he remains doubtful for then, is said to have made further progress.

James McClean is almost certain to feature on Saturday afternoon with Trapattoni suggesting he is simply weighing up at this stage whether to start the winger or bring him on for or during the second half – “a less dangerous,” course of action, he observes.

The manager’s inclination elsewhere is to offer game time to those who are uninjured but have not seen much action with their clubs recently. His intention being, it seems, “to bring them all to the same level of fitness”.

He mentioned Darron Gibson by name while other potential beneficiaries could include Simon Cox, Darren O’Dea and Keiren Westwood. For the latter to feature, of course, Given would have to make way.

“The goalkeeper must be able to kick the long balls and if he can’t because he gets injured,” observed Trapattoni, “then I am an idiot. He is an idiot and I am an idiot also (if he plays and gets injured). Why run this risk?”