James McCarthy looks set to overtake Andy Reid in the midfield pecking order, writes EMMET MALONE

PERHAPS NOT the best informed of the new Republic of Ireland faces, Wigan midfielder James McCarthy identified the possibility of coming up against Ronaldinho at the Emirates on Tuesday night as one of the most thrilling aspects of his call-up for the friendly against the five times world champions in London. If the young midfielder had been following the Brazilian’s form at Milan of late, he could be forgiven for assuming that the 29-year-old former Barcelona star would at least make the squad.

He didn’t, though, and with no other games confirmed for the South Americans between now and the World Cup, there is a growing sense amongst the sometimes over-excitable Brazilian media that he will not be heading to South Africa in June.

Ronaldinho, as it happens, though he may well not have realised it, appears to have become the Brazilian Andy Reid: a creative player with the potential to add a bit of sparkle in the centre or out on the left but who, whether because of alleged ill-discipline or just misunderstood by his country’s manager, finds himself ostracised to the international wilderness.

The subject of Reid almost didn’t come up at this week’s press conference to announce Giovanni Trapattoni’s squad, but a routine misunderstanding resulted in the subject of the Sunderland midfielder getting a brief run-out.

The Italian was asked about the omission of Steven Reid from his squad and replied: “Aha, yes, I have been waiting already for this question. Andy Reid . . . ”

He got no further as the assembled press chorused back the required clarification and Trapattoni, with a characteristic grin, announced without a moment’s hesitation: “Aha, yes, I have been waiting already for this question. Steven Reid . . .”

Briefly, somebody had half-seriously piped up, “well, while you’re on the subject of Andy . . .” but, in fact, nobody made a genuine attempt to return to the subject of the 27-year-old whose failure to maintain his much heralded early season form, as Sunderland have slumped during the past three months, has deprived him of the opportunity to keep up the pressure on the veteran Italian for a recall.

Reid now finds himself well below Stephen Ireland on the media’s agenda despite the fact that in the wake of the Corkman’s various public recollections regarding his own encounters with Trapattoni, it’s fairly certain that the Ireland manager would be quite happy if the owner of Manchester’s, perhaps Britain’s, largest private aquarium, was sleeping with his fishes.

And so, having been left out of the squad for next week’s game in London, Reid now faces the prospect of showing the scale of his contrition for missing the training camp in Portugal a couple of years ago by accompanying all the young hopefuls to this year’s while the “experienced” players are allowed to rest prior to the late May friendlies; always assuming, that is, he’s even invited.

In the meantime, he is threatened with the prospect of being overtaken in Trapattoni’s pecking order by McCarthy, whose performances in recent weeks at Wigan have gone some small way towards justifying the enormous hype that has surrounded him, although he faces a late fitness test before today’s away game against Birmingham City.

“His position is Stephen Ireland’s,” observed the Italian on Monday. “He’s a good player, he is quick, he is young. He is like Stephen Ireland,” he added (while pointedly failing to mention Reid) before concluding his thoughts on the subject with a run down of the tactical options the availability of such a player would provide.

Rather magnificently, none of the ones he mentioned seemed to add up to 10 with 3-1-3-1 and 4-5-2 apparently prominent in his thinking, along with a desire to start out with two away games, for the forthcoming European Championship campaign.

Down Rio way, Trapattoni’s opposite number Dunga, is, somewhat predictably, rather less colourful when expressing his views. Still, some of the the broad themes were essentially the same. “This is normal,” the former World Cup winner remarked when asked about Ronaldinho’s continued absence when naming his squad for Tuesday’s game, “everyone wants to speak about who’s not in the team”.

Ronaldinho has not, in fact, featured for his country since last April and Dunga points to the success of his preferred strike force – Robinho, Luis Fabiano and Kaka – at the Confderations Cup last year when the Brazilians scored 10 goals in their opening three games, 14 in the five it took them to win the competition when he commented that, “you can’t argue against the numbers and the facts”.

However, Franz Beckenbauer upset the team’s coach by suggesting the trio would not be “potent” enough to mount a successful assault in South Africa. The form of Robinho and Kaka since would tend to suggest that the German was on to something and Dunga might do well to remember the case of Ronaldo four years ago who was selected, then persisted with despite poor form and who ended up contributing three goals in Brazil’s last two games at the finals in Germany.

Since the Brazilians’ successful qualification campaign for the tournament had sort of petered out with a 2-1 defeat in Bolivia and a nil all home draw with Venezuela, Dunga did indeed seem to offer some hope to the former World Player of the Year by observing that: “Every player has chances (of a place in the squad) but added: “At this moment he isn’t part of it, though.”

More puzzlingly, he has also claimed that he, “would like him to come back, but whether he will come back I don’t know. I think you must address that question to him directly. He obviously has that responsibility on his shoulders, it depends more on him than on me, but I would like him to come back”.

The suggestion seemed to be a lack of desire on the player’s part, one that Ronaldinho’s emphatically denies. After a poor first season in Italy and an indifferent start to his second, Ronaldinho insists he is now back to his best, something he credits to a strong relationship with his manager, Leonardo.

He increasingly plays out on the left now but might argue that he has, from there a few incontrovertible numbers and facts of his own with nine goals in 23 Serie A appearances and three in seven Champions League outings as well as performances like Wednesday’s when he set up both of his side’s goals – one for Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, the other for Alexandre Pato – in a 2-1 win over Fiorentina that narrows to four points Inter’s lead at the top of the table. “I am back to how I was. In fact I think I am even stronger now,” he said recently.

“Everything seems easier now. I want to play in a further two World Cups. How can Dunga not pick me if I carry on playing like this?”

A certain Andy in Sunderland might just have a few choice views on that subject.

Ipswich Town goalkeeper Brian Murphy was yesterday called into the Ireland squad for Tuesday’s game at the Emirates in London. he replaces Joe Murphy who was forced withdraw from the panel due to a wrist injury.