If Sunday's Premier League denoument is any indication, the new Ireland manager sure can't rely on the 'luck of the Irish', writes Emmet Malone

CLEARLY THERE was an element of addressing the questions that had been raised about his age, but the people who hired Giovanni Trapattoni could barely get through a sentence about the Italian prior to presenting him to the media a couple of weeks back without mentioning his "enthusiasm". Sure enough, when he arrived we couldn't hear too much, but what we heard we liked, with the new man talking up the squad he was inheriting as though it was one of European football's finest collections of unpolished gems.

There is, of course, general agreement that this is a group that could have done better over the past couple of years had the man at the helm possessed a little more managerial know-how and even those who viewed the decision to bring in Trapattoni with scepticism will probably concede that his CV suggests he should be able to engineer some sort of improvement.

The former Juventus and Italy boss, however, always knew that accepting this job would not involve him possessing the strongest hand he had ever been dealt over the course of a long and generally illustrious managerial career, but if he was hoping that that old chestnut, "the luck of the Irish", might prove a compensatory asset then Sunday's events in the Premier League tended to suggest otherwise.

It remains to be seen whether Stephen Hunt, Kevin Doyle or Stephen Kelly will start next season in the Championship or jump ship in order stay in the top flight, but what is clear is that from Trapattoni's perspective, it would have been preferable had Fulham not completed their heroic escape act.

But then it's not been a great season for the Irish in Britain generally, with injuries to the likes of Damien Duff and Shay Given a concern through most of the year; loss of form, their place or a combination of the two afflicting Steve Finnan, Kevin Doyle, Paul McShane and Colin Doyle; while there has been speculation that moves for Lee Carsley and Ian Harte might mean they have played their last game in the Premier League.

There have been positives, most notably the fact that Steven Reid and Joey O'Brien appear to have put long-term injuries behind them and now look to be in good positions to recover lost momentum at club level after the summer.

Kelly was the top division's only outfield player to complete every minute of every game; Andy O'Brien regained first team regular status; and Andy Reid made a major impact at Sunderland but of the squad's stars (or famous players as the new gaffer likes to refer to them), Richard Dunne and Robbie Keane, are probably the only two who can head off for holidays without concern.

Trapattoni will name his squad of 28 players for the trip to Faro today and the general feeling now is Finnan, Andy O'Brien and Stephen Ireland will skip the training camp, with the first two likely to return in August. However, Ireland does not appear in any great hurry to rejoin the squad.

The stated importance of Finnan to the new manager underlines the fact that Kelly, for all his consistency this season, is really not in the same class as a defender, while getting O'Brien back has looked all the more desirable since it became apparent that reports of Paul McShane being the new Kevin Moran were slightly premature.

Ireland's return, meanwhile, is critical precisely because he is unique and can provide something to the team that nobody else can.

His ongoing dithering, though, suggests Trapattoni may simply have no option but to plan for life without him.

In terms of established players at the biggest clubs, there has been a good deal of speculation that Liverpool will sign a right back this summer, leaving Finnan either more peripheral or on the move, while John O'Shea's position must also be of some concern.

Now 27, the Waterfordman picked up another league medal and may yet feature in the Champions League final but having made fewer starts for the club than during any campaign since 2001/02, it is increasingly hard to view his future at Old Trafford as a major plus from Trapattoni's point of view.

O'Shea signed a new deal keeping him at the club until 2012 so there is no reason to suspect he will actually depart but, as Alex Ferguson has significantly strengthened his squad over the past year or two, there have been fewer gaps for the Irishman to plug and he has been largely overlooked when injuries created prolonged opportunities this year in a number of positions he had previously occupied for spells.

The queue to provide cover for Patrice Evra at left back probably looks the shortest and O'Shea is, at best, second in that.

Of course, there's nothing remotely wrong with the player deciding to accept being a squad player in such a hugely successful outfit. As Ferguson might say, if you were offered it at 16 you'd grab it with both hands.

But from the Ireland manager's point of view, there must be a concern that his first-team opportunities - once so plentiful, as in 2003/04 when he played more games for United than any other player, or 2005/06 when only Rio Ferdinand and Edwin van der Sar featured more - may continue to dry up.

Reading's relegation, meanwhile, would have been compensated for had Wolves been promoted but they weren't and as a result a shadow has been cast over the futures of Darren Potter, Stephen Elliott and perhaps even Darron Gibson.

To judge by Trapattoni at the RDS, none of it will matter as long as he has Aiden McGeady, who has had a very good campaign with Celtic, to play out wide.

The Italian says he's watched all the recent Ireland games on DVD and it's good to know that amongst other things, his enthusiasm for the winger has survived a viewing of the first half in Prague.