WHAT WE HAVE HERE, IS A FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE

The Trappatoni regime will be measured by qualification for a major championship. As a typical Irish story, we could lament the 'Hand of Henry' as brutal luck for us and for Trap, but the bottom line was/is failure to qualify for another World Cup. We had chances to put the French away, we had other chances which could have lead us to avoid the playoff. We cannot keep blaming the French for our own shortcomings. So when we look back at the Trappatoni regime, either we qualify or we don't. The Italian regime will have either been a success or a failure.

A failure to communicate has come been witnessed in several instances before. It surprised many to hear that months had gone by before Trap even made contact with Stephen Ireland. Whatever is going on in that players head is anyones guess but it was the first sign that something in the structure of Trappatonis regime was not working. It makes one wonder if there is ever any contact outside the games and get togethers at all. One thing we know is that the team definitely plays in the mould of a Trappatoni set up. Whatever words he used to communicate his ethos effectively, he obviously used the correct ones. The breakdown appears to have come within his external relations with players.

The James McCarthy saga had been allowed to develop for far too long that it should have. While there had never been any doubt in the players mind over which country he would represent at international level, Trappatonis failure to contact him induced the Italians ego to blame it on the youngster, for failing to contact him. McCarthy was 16 when he chose to play for Ireland. He has put up with considerable abuse from Scottish League fans since that time but his loyalty to Ireland never changed. How does it feel for McCarthy now, to have waited and waited for contact with Trappatoni, only to be told he should have contacted the coach himself.

In the most recent embarrassment for Trappatoni and the FAI, while Trap was explaining to reporters that there had been no contact between James McCarthy and the team regarding his injury, in front of a crowd of journalists, the FAI officer present had to interrupt Trappatoni to say, well actually, yes we did have contact from McCarthy.