HIS TACTICS seem set in stone at this stage and his squad for next summer’s European Championships can, with just one or two exceptions, be rattled off even now with a fair degree of confidence.

Still, Giovanni Trapattoni reminded us yesterday that he does still possess the capacity to spring an occasional surprise, at least when it comes to Christmas and cooking.

The Ireland boss, in town to add to his haul of awards, was chatting amiably about the Yuletide menu back at home in Milan when he got caught up in one of his all too common scrambles for the right word. “We eat, it’s like a big chicken,” he said. “A fatter chicken,” he added. Clearly if there’d been a prize for guessing what he was on about everyone present would have been swiftly off the mark but those to take the plunge before clue two would have been cruelly disappointed.

“They take the balls!” he observed, to a lot of laughter and, perhaps, a little wincing, while miming a snipping motion with his fingers. So, it turns out, a castrated rooster, or capon, is the bird of choice for the Trapattoni dining table. It is, one can’t help feeling, an inglorious end to a fairly unfortunate existence.

Having been well fed, apparently, it will be out with the football DVDs for Trapattoni and another afternoon of figuring out just how it is that this Ireland team can get out of a European Championship group that includes three of the game’s top 10 international sides.

So far, he shows little sign of progressing beyond the theory that more of the same can see the team through. “We have good potential,” he says, “enough potential. Spain is Spain, the world champions. But, I repeat, on the pitch there is only one ball; you either have it or you don’t and when we don’t it is important not to concede. We can play with our quality. We don’t have many creative players but we have good players, football players, players with the right attitude.”

Quite how he prepares them for the tests to come in Poland is his most pressing concern just now and his plans remain a little uncertain at this stage with the tournament base camp in Gdynia, near Gdansk, safely booked but a final decision still to be taken on the training venues ahead of the finals.

Montecatini near Florence remains the front runner to host the Irish but Trapattoni said he will visit the site again after Christmas before making a final call on whether to go there or to an alternative site, with one in Switzerland having emerged as the most likely Plan B.

The schedule of pre-tournament games is still somewhat up in the air too although Hungary away looks increasingly likely around May 26th or 27th with a second game, in Dublin, a week later, expected to be pencilled in early in the new year.

The manager is, as ever, upbeat about it all and looking forward to getting to work hands on with players for what will be the longest spell he has had of continuous coaching since leaving Red Bull Salzburg in order to succeed Steve Staunton.

The players with clubs in the English League Championship, which ends at the end of April, will, he said, be given up to three weeks off while those working in the top flight, which wraps up two weeks later, will get something closer to 10 days.

The idea of staging a B international at some stage along the way appears to have bitten the dust, a decision that reinforces the feeling that there will be next to no new additions to the squad but the 72-year-old offered hope to some of those who have been around a while but might be concerned about their place on the plane.

James McCarthy, he said, continues to impress with his performance against Chelsea over the weekend earning the Wigan player what seems to have been a two-word text: “Bravo, continue,” from the manager, while Darron Gibson continues to be in his thoughts (who isn’t? you might ask) although he suggested that the midfielder should definitely be weighing up which of the many loan move offers said to be coming his way in January to accept.

Despite his recent inactivity, Gibson still seems set to retain his place in the squad if he can get any serious first team action between now and May and might even do so if he does not while Trapattoni hinted that the versatility of Kevin Foley and Andy Keogh might get them to Poland too.

Asked about the team’s prospects he insists that they can make it past the first round if only they can stand up to the “psychological responsibility”.

If it is to prosper, he seems to reckon then, the team must show what the poor, unfortunate chicken lost some time back.