Ed68
Well-Known Member
I think he's still not recovered from the stamp by michael brown.
Coyboy said:Coming from an Irish News paper. He's becoming a bit of a hate figure over there after his recent outburst. I would love to know who is advising him on PR and what to say to the media. All he's doing is putting extra pressure on himself... I do hope he's OK for West Ham on Monday..
Tuesday September 22 2009
IT'S got to be the hedgehog. The minute it came out of Trap's mouth, the game was up. Poor Stephen wouldn't react well to the cute animal comparison, currently the nation's most popular roadkill item. It's that time of the year for our spiky little friend.
What else could it be? Agendas? Arrogance? The media? Nope, it's the hedgehog.
For any creature caught in a headlight, the instinct to roll up in a ball might give some immediate relief from the oncoming horror but ultimately, the impact of several tons of fast-moving metal is decisive.
Right now Ireland clearly believes he's a master of the universe and no hedgehog. He trades insults with legends of the game from his spiritual home in Manchester and recalls jousts with Alex Ferguson in the dim and distant past -- dodged a bullet there Fergie.
But time will march on and so will Ireland's career. If he's lucky, he'll get fulfilment from a long and fruitful relationship with Manchester City, and if he's very lucky he will be remembered as a true Blue great. No? Never say never.
FLAWS
Even the very best come with flaws attached. In George Best's case, addiction cost him his life but he was always loved for a genius edged with pathos. Wildfire talent like his burned bright and fast until human frailty took over and the evolutionary prototype of the modern footballer's 'people' got their hooks into him.
To be great a footballer must transcend the adoration he naturally receives from his own supporters and demand respect from all other fans too, even if that respect is dripping with bitterness.
Maradona was hated by English fans for cheating but even they had to sit back slack-jawed while he danced through the sunshine and a forest of legs in Mexico City and wrote his name into the global consciousness forever.
His trials and tribulations are a huge part of the persona created for him, and he's mixed in some bad company over the years, but he's still held in high regard for things he did on a football pitch more than three decades ago.
People had to forgive him many transgressions but they were glad to because of his spirit, ability and a demented nobility. Even at his lowest ebb when he was carted off to a cell in handcuffs while the cameras strobed, most football fans felt only sympathy for his plight.
There isn't much sympathy for Ireland in the air at the moment. There was back when this started in Bratislava two years ago but it's all but gone now. It could have been sorted out but the conjunction of an old-school Irish management profile with a child of the noughties has produced an unbridgeable culture clash.
It seems a long time ago now since word seeped out that Liam Brady's initial approach to Ireland was to the point and without minced words. Trapattoni's mantra was about passion, pride and the shirt, and there's little doubt that he communicated similar sentiments to the Corkman when they met,
Some suggest that a cotton wool approach might have paid dividends back then and brought him back into the fold at the start of the journey when he was most open to a return, instead of the blunt expression of minimum requirements favoured by the Irish management team which seemed to curb his enthusiasm.
But Trapattoni and Brady are slaves to their own personalities as much as Ireland is to his and they wanted to build an Irish team on solid foundations -- not on a fragile personality.
One man's fragile personality is another man's excuse for unacceptable behaviour and after a round of communal head scratching over the weekend, Ireland's latest bulletin from Manchester only served to confirm the long held belief that Trapattoni should have accepted his decision to quit a long time ago. This has to be the most drawn out retirement from international football in history, and the ridiculous thing is that there are still people out there who take the ultra-pragmatic view that Ireland should be welcomed back no matter what -- all the way up to the moment before a notional plane takes off for the Republic of Ireland's notional South African World Cup adventure.
Never mind the potential for seismic activity around the Irish camp that could match Slovakia and perhaps even Saipan, this logic argues that Trapattoni has a duty to put out Ireland's best players come what may.
At the start of all of this, it should be remembered, were lies and stupidity. After that came hints about persecution, followed by hamfisted attempts at PR management and then a steady drip, drip, drip of quotes dangling carrots.
Through all of this most people would have swallowed hard and said okay, take him back -- even up to the days before the Republic of Ireland went to Bari.
Most of the players would have swallowed even harder and given their assent because to do otherwise would be to weaken the team, and if Trapattoni has achieved anything he has turned this group of players into a team.
This latest set of comments from Ireland removes any lingering doubt about his intentions and, by his own words, closes the door on any possible return with a loud clang.
The words point to a kid completely enveloped by the fantasy world that even average Premier League footballers can now access.
Many don't. Many are smart enough to keep their heads down, play their football and bank the cash. They remain passionate about the game and if you offered an international cap they'd take your hand off.
But many do live in a pink-and-gold-tinged world inhabited by paparazzi and excess in which kids barely out of their teens are gifted with riches beyond most people's imaginings and view reality through a filter created by their 'people'.
AMBUSH
You'll hear the phrase 'stitched up' a lot around footballers when they're talking about the media and it's used to describe an ambush by an agenda-driven hack looking for a reaction with a barbed question.
Like old lags in the exercise yard sharing choice vendettas and a roll-up, they brood over wrongs done to them and retreat into paranoia.
Waiting for them there to soothe raw egos is a posse of 'people' spawned by all entertainment industries to soak up the run-off from the gravy train.
Ireland is sitting somewhere in the middle of all of that, ego boosted to the point where he feels comfortable engaging in megaphone diplomacy with a man of Trapattoni's reputation and stature.
To borrow a soundbite, Stephen Ireland is no Trapattoni. He's done nothing in the game yet by comparison. He's a good player and he has shown dedication and commitment to his talent by training through the last two summers, but he is nothing more than a wealthy young footballer with largely untapped potential.
On the international stage he's a curiosity; another pixie-headed but gifted Irishman who doesn't want to play for his country.
Only Manchester City fans fuel his fantasy of achieving greatness and by no stretch of the imagination has he earned the right to behave with such disrespect towards Trapattoni and by extension, Irish football fans.
Ireland is entitled to live his life in any way he chooses and he has the right to say no. But he doesn't have to say no every second week and add on a few new spicy bits every time he says it.
It's deeply ironic that Ireland has now abandoned any chance he had of winning the kind of everlasting affection and admiration from a grateful nation that he craves from blue Manchester -- grace that has been bestowed on dozens of our players through decades and generations.