Trappatoni gets two more years and confirms Irish squad for vital qualifiers.

September 26, 2009

The Football Association of Ireland announced yesterday that they have extended the contract of coach Giovanni Trappatoni by a further two years.In a deal worth in the regions of €1.8 million per year to the Italian veteran, it will mean the same coaching setup for the Qualifiers leading up to European Championships in 2012.

Continuation and building on the foundations already made is always a good thing. However, a lot of international sporting associations have learned in the past that it’s not always a good thing to offer their coach a new contract before a major tournament.

Ireland has in fact been unfortunate with this on two occasions in the past. Once with Mick McCarthy before the 2002 World Cup and again with Irish rugby coach Eddie O’Sullivan before their World Cup in 2007.

Both coaches signed lucrative deals just before the kick off of their respective campaigns, in a blaze of publicity, and both soon ended up unemployed upon returning home.

And so the announcement of Trappatoni’s extension was a little more of a muted affair by the assembled media.

Whether it was a kiss of death or an acknowledgement of the progress that has been made under his stewardship we will have to wait and see.

Perhaps more importantly was the pressing matter of announcing the squad for the final two games in the Group 8 Qualifiers.

A 27 man squad was selected which will be whittled down to 23 before the games against Italy on October 10th and Montenegro four days later, both of which take place in Croke Park, Dublin.

The only inclusion from previous squads Stephen Reid after a long injury lay off, and if fit, will provide a big boost to the midfield.

There was a surprise though when it was confirmed that Reid may not even play at all even if fit. This is possibly due his club Blackburn Rovers’ requests to keep him fit for the remainder of the Premiership campaign.

Trappatoni has been consistent in his selections and this one was no different. Apart from the inclusion Reid, there was yet again no place for his namesake Andy Reid even though he has put him some impressive performances for club team Sunderland recently.

The inclusion of midfielder Liam Miller, at Andy Reid’s expense, who was without a team, until a move to Scottish team Hibernian less than a month ago, raised a few eyebrows.
Elsewhere, winger Aiden McGeady is still carrying an ankle injury which seems him out of team at Celtic, but should be fit for the games in two weeks time.

Barring injuries or withdrawals from the squad, these appear to be the players charged with getting Ireland to South Africa for big kick off next June.

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