The World According to Trap

IT'S funny the things that crop up in conversation now that Giovanni Trapattoni is firmly ensconced as manager of the Ireland football team.

On Tuesday afternoon, as the rain poured incessantly from the heavens, Trap held court once again in the ballroom of the Grand Hotel in Malahide on the eve of the World Cup clash with Cyprus.

It was an afternoon's entertainment befitting of a grand room to be fair as Trap meandered from one topic to another, all the time reminding us that his only interest in life is winning football matches with the Irish team.

A day earlier he had looked somewhat rather more bemused when the subject of Andy Reid was raised just down the road at Gannon Park, permanent home to Malahide United and temporary training ground home for the Irish team when they're in town.

One Sunday paper last weekend had suggested that Trapattoni and the Sunderland midfielder Reid had been involved in a difference of opinion on the night of the Ireland-Georgia game in Germany last month.

On Monday the Irish media wanted to know more as the Reid tale served as the backdrop to Wednesday night's revenge mission against the Cypriots at Croker.

The story, substantiated in at least one Tuesday morning paper, goes that Trap and Reid swapped words and almost came to blows as the night turned to morning in Weisbaden with Reid, a more than useful musician, leading the traditional Irish sing song in the team hotel.

Interestingly, Trap didn't deny the story at any stage on Monday, nor did he mention it all on Tuesday afternoon as the skies opened over Malahide and the rest of the country.

Instead he admitted that he sometimes loses patience with players, that he can become infuriated and that he understands if star names want to play for their country and get upset when they don't.

Throughout his brief reign to date Trap has also made it clear that he sees Reid, yet to play a minute under the Italian before Wednesday's game against Cyprus, as a front player to play off Kevin Doyle, almost an understudy for Robbie Keane.

On Tuesday he didn't say as much but his actions confirmed it when Trap called Darron Gibson, yet to play a full game for Manchester United this season, into the team to play the Cypriots.

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Nster.com