SOCCER:LONG FRUSTRATED by the reluctance of some of his players to show a little more hunger for first-team football at their British clubs, Giovanni Trapattoni sought to apply a pointy stick at Robbie Keane as he named his latest Republic of Ireland squad yesterday, observing that if his skipper isn't playing regularly by the time Macedonia come to town at the end of March, then it will be time to assess the alternatives.
With 45 goals in the 105 games he has played for his country since Mick McCarthy named him in his side to play a friendly in the Czech Republic 13 years ago next month, Keane’s place in Ireland’s starting 11 has been more or less a foregone conclusion ever since. However, Trapattoni insists that while he will use the Carling-sponsored Nations Cup game against Wales on February 8th to give him game time, his lack of match sharpness will count against him when the European campaign resumes. However, Shay Given’s place, he said, remains safe.
“If Robbie continues not to play, we can decide,” said the Italian. “After two, three, four months is a problem but at this moment we wait and hope he can be playing again. If he does not find a club, we can evaluate other options before the qualifying game. We need players with rhythm, mentality but also condition. The goalkeeper is another position; it is different but we can look at other strikers – Long, Walters, Doyle although we don’t want to forget Robbie.”
The manager’s comments underline how starkly Keane’s situation is viewed at this stage with the 30-year-old having played just 39 minutes of competitive football since the end of October when he started (but didn’t finish) the 2-0 defeat by Manchester United at Old Trafford.
The striker himself has shown no great urgency in public about getting away and was publicly dismissive of claims by Birmingham City that they had been scared off by the potential cost of signing him although the reality is that this has been a recurring theme when managers have been asked about him and West Ham’s signing of Senegal international Demba Ba from Hoffenheim until the end of the season may prove to have shut off another exit route for the Irishman.
Whether Trapattoni decides in the end that he has alternatives of the desired quality to drop a player who, for all his problems at Spurs, was still Ireland’s top scorer last year with four goals in eight games, remains to be seen. However, he tempered his threat with the observation that to put too much weight on the shoulders of his younger strikers, “would be dangerous”.
Elsewhere in the team, though, he signalled a firm desire to use the game against Wales to bring some of the new players through, with the veteran coach clearly suggesting that Séamus Coleman and Ciarán Clark would get a run out at right and left-back respectively, even if both might start the evening on the bench.
Coleman, he acknowledged, has made tremendous progress in a remarkably short space of time but he reiterated his belief that the Donegalman can be of more use to his country as a defender regardless of the success he has enjoyed in the Everton midfield.
“The best situation for us is if he learns at his club to be a defender who gets forward a lot,” said Trapattoni who expressed a reluctance to start the 22-year-old in the event that Gareth Bale is on the Welsh side of midfield although, as Gary Speed confirmed later yesterday, the Tottenham midfielder remains a doubt with a back injury.
With the Nations Cup game having come a week or two too soon for James McCarthy, who is only returning from injury, the closest thing to a controversy regarding the squad itself is the fact that Stephen Ward was omitted.
Trapattoni said he had watched Ward play for Wolves on Saturday and while he did not in any way criticise the Dubliner’s performance, he suggested that he was not quite what he was looking for and insisted that Clark is more deserving of a chance.
Asked, meanwhile, about the stories regarding his health over the Christmas and New Year when it was suggested in the Italian media that he had had a minor stroke while undergoing an operation to clean out his carotid arteries, he again insisted that the entire affair had been entirely routine and he felt “101 per cent”.
Bohemians dispute McGuinness hopeful
PFAI general secretary Stephen McGuinness said last night that he is hopeful a settlement in the dispute between Bohemians and the bulk of the remaining players from last year’s squad will be settled today. The club’s board was meeting last night to consider proposals that had been the result of talks brokered by the FAI. However, McGuinness said that even if the club accepted these there would still be one or two issues to resolve before the matter could be concluded. “There’s been a lot of work done over the last few days and, to be fair, there’s been movement on the part of both the club, which we always said there would have to be, and by our members. Hopefully, it can finally be sorted out now,” he said.
Given (Manchester City), Westwood (Coventry City); O’Shea (Manchester Utd), Clark (Aston Villa), Coleman (Everton), Dunne (Aston Villa), St Ledger (Preston NE), Foley (Wolves), Kilbane (Huddersfield Town), Kelly (Fulham), O’Dea (Ipswich Town), McShane (Hull City), Wilson (Stoke City), Gibson (Manchester Utd), Whelan (Stoke City), Green (Derby County), Lawrence (Portsmouth), Hunt (Wolves), McGeady (Spartak Moscow), Treacy (Preston NE), Duff (Fulham), Fahey (Birmingham City), Keane (Tottenham Hotspur), Walters (Stoke City), Doyle (Wolves), Long (Reading), Keogh (Wolves), Best (Newcastle Utd), Stokes (Celtic).
