JUST ABOUT every member of the press corps on a trip like this has had to staunchly defend themselves back at home against accusations that their life is one long holiday.
Still, there were no volunteers yesterday to take on an increasingly agitated Giovanni Trapattoni when he told newspaper reporters that to work with words was “easy”, compared with bearing the responsibility he does in relation to the Republic of Ireland team and country.
The Italian was responding to persistent questioning about his decision to replace Kevin Foley with Paul McShane in his official tournament squad on Tuesday and the departing player’s subsequent description of the move as a “betrayal”.
For a while the manager seemed to take the discussion in his stride. He again expressed sympathy for the 27-year-old, insisting he understands things get said in the heat of the moment and maintained that Foley will be welcomed back into the squad in the future, whether that is next week or next season.
The timing in part depends on Foley himself, he observed, for he has told the player he can return to the squad as things stand and might be recalled in the event that either John O’Shea doesn’t manage to prove his fitness or someone else gets hurt.
He also revealed, however, that he had texted Marc Wilson to establish whether the Stoke City player would be available to answer a call-up if required, something that didn’t suggest he expects an early rapprochement with Foley.
Trapattoni’s subsequent suggestion that he had told Foley “I understood you are sad but I am even sadder than you to have to make the decision” only tended to add to the sense that the Wolves defender has preferred to return home to his family to lick his wounds in private.
The comment was, to be fair, part of a much wider-ranging chat during which Trapattoni appears to have done more than merely tell the player how tough all of this was for him. Yesterday he described Foley as “a wonderful guy” and said that he had told him on Tuesday that if he decided to stay on despite not being in the official squad it would make him “very, very happy”.
He did, however, stray into outlining to the unfortunate Foley the scale of the burden that rests upon his own shoulders at present when, according to his own account of the discussion, he said “I am the man with the heavy responsibility – with you, and with the nation”.
He returned to the theme yesterday on the side of the team’s training pitch in Borga a Buggiano as he got increasingly worked up over questions relating to Foley and the wider squad. Quite a few amounted to no more than repeated attempts to ascertain whether he had placed Wilson on standby (he had but the FAI had yet to hear back from the player), but Trapattoni’s patience was clearly exhausted and eventually he just let fly.
“Yes, I said this morning also to the team: ‘the words is easy’. Also for you (the media), you write too easy. You must decide.
“In Italy, we say are like (at this point he acted out blowing dust from his hand and watching it float away). Responsibility! Responsibility! I have to pick one player or the other. That is responsibility, for the team and for the country. If there is another injury what will you say then. What words?”
Pressed on the Wilson question he replied: “What do you think? We sleep or no sleep? I sleep until start of Euros? After 30 years of career? We are not on holidays.”
“So that’s a yes then,” ventured a reporter, before seeking to confirm that the player had not replied.
“Maybe he’s still in bed,” replied the manager. “No problem.”
We were, he was told, trying to do our jobs by clarifying things but he was having none of it. “Yes, it’s your job but it’s easy,” he replied with more than a hint of contempt.
“I don’t want to speak about this. That is finished. Do you want to speak about happened now (at training)? What happened now is I saw the team work very well.”
There followed a briefing on fitness issues with the manager confirming that Shay Given is now considered to be fit while John O’Shea, who like Given, took a full part in training yesterday, still needs to show that he can get through Monday’s game in Budapest before his place in secure.
Stephen Hunt skipped the training game that rounded off the session but the manager said that he is fine and simply preferred to rest a little after putting a lot into Tuesday’s game in Pistoia.
And so the interview was concluded but Trapattoni was then obliged to walk about 10 feet where the broadcast media was waiting to kick their session off with a question about why he had become so annoyed with the written press.
“I have already explained to you why I have chosen between the two players,” he said with more than a hint of exasperation. “We can speak about this week, the training, the game, we played well, the players are happy. I don’t want to speak again about this situation. It’s finished. FINISHED.”
Pushing on regardless, a reporter asked if he had been disappointed with Foley’s use of the term “betrayal”?
“I ask you . . . Paul McShane, he’s an Irish player? Or a foreign player? You understand me? I called another Irish player so I don’t see the problem. I also clarified why I chose him, because of the positions. It’s clear, I didn’t call up a winger or a striker.”
He dismissed suggestions, too, that he would have been better off naming a provisional squad in early May and then discarding several players once the injury situation had become clear as this would have avoided a player who thought he was definitely in the squad having to be told that he wasn’t after-all.
“No, it’s the same,” he said. “To decide one or three or four is the same (must go). They would all be disappointed.
“I have explained before: many years ago when I was with the Italians seven went home and all seven were disappointed.”
Ultimately, he concluded: “We have responsibility for the team, for the country. And we are professionals. We are not idiots. We decide which players we need.”
At this point the assembled journalists headed for their bus while trying to figure out quite how to put all of what had happened into words.
