Liam Mackey
Since Giovanni Trapattoni took over as manager of the Republic of Ireland, it’s often been the case that the Italian and the natives have found themselves separated by a common language.
The onus was always on the manager to learn the lingo of his adopted home and, admirably, he has tried from the off to live up to the challenge. But the results, while nearly always charming and occasionally comical, have not always worked in the service of clarity.
Consequently, it’s become a commonplace to lament his communication skills whenever a contentious issue arises in the camp, from Andy Reid to Darron Gibson. As one media wag remarked, perhaps the most terrifying phrase in Irish football right now is: “Giovanni will clarify that for you later.”
Yet, for all the confusion surrounding missing persons this week – a situation, it has to be said not helped by a partial release of information from the FAI – one thing is clear: in relation to the most significant absentee from the current squad, James McCarthy, Trapattoni is the victim rather than the perpetrator of the communication breakdown.
The protracted saga of the player’s commitment to Ireland appeared to have been resolved, and to the apparent satisfaction of both parties, when McCarthy was capped against Macedonia in March, on the back of having had a face to face, clear the air meeting with the manager.
Trapattoni, as he had been repeatedly asked to do by the media and others, had finally if belatedly gone the extra mile in a bid to help copperfasten the services of one of the most gifted young players in the Premiership. And it paid off. Whatever mutual suspicions might have characterised their relationship up to then, they seemed to have been finally put to one side, as the pair found agreement in the common cause of getting Ireland to the Euro 2012 finals.
So what’s changed since then? Nothing on Trapattoni’s side, so far as we can see, since the manager duly named McCarthy in his squad for this week’s Carling Cup games and the Euro qualifier away to Macedonia on June 4.
The problem is that the call-up was met by a resounding silence from the other side, a failure to communicate which goes to the heart of this week’s controversy. Wigan’s belated revelation about McCarthy’s ankle injury and the official FAI response which questioned the gravity of the problem are really an 11th hour sideshow, albeit it a fascinating one, to the main issue: and that relates to the sincerity of the player’s commitment to the cause.
And, by his apparent refusal, for more than three weeks, to pick up the phone, send a text, bang off an e-mail or even hire a carrier pigeon, McCarthy can have no complaints that it’s an issue once more. However much he protested it should never have been there in the first place when, with apparent conviction, he spoke to the media about the depth of his commitment to Ireland on the eve of his long-awaited competitive debut against Macedonia back in March.
It is up to the player now to explain how we got from there to here, and it’s an explanation many would love to hear. Meantime, there are no winners in this situation. McCarthy finds himself back in the headlines for all the wrong reasons and Ireland must now plan for Skopje, and perhaps beyond, without the services of an exceptional footballer.
In ‘Cool Hand Luke’, Paul Newman’s famous last words just before the shot rings out, are: “What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate.” That pretty much sums up the story of the week in Irish football – but, on this occasion, Giovanni Trapattoni is not the man who deserves to be in the line of fire.
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/jJeDA1INFdU/post.aspx
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