by Rick Nash
So Trapattoni is finally gone. And, truth be told, for all the column inches he's inspired over the past seven days, there isn't much left to be said that hasn't been mentioned a thousand times already. But before we move on and look at the best value for his potential replacements today, a few final notes on Trap's tenure as Ireland manager:
- It drove us insane...literally insane: Seriously, for the past five years, we've become almost as bad as the English press in taking it upon ourselves to backseat manage the national team. Whereas under Staunton we laughed to hide the tears, it was only under our most experienced and successful manager to-date that we decided we could do a better job. Maintaining this attitude of pressuring players into the national setup will do the successor no good. Regardless of what you may think of Trap's selection policy, he's the man appointed with the task and we need to support our team instead of adding to pre-existing turmoils with unhelpful Twitter hashtags in future.
- Results aren't the only mark of improvement: Following on from what I said on Twitter on Friday, it matters that the players got to work with a manager of the quality of Trapattoni, and will help them for years to come (even if the results didn't necessarily follow all the time). As we saw under Brian Kerr, being a local legend can only take you so far, and even though Trap may have lost some of his Midas touch in his elder years (as Ken Early devastatingly pointed out in comparing his motivational techniques to that of Barcelona), he's still forgotten more about football than most of us will ever know and was no doubt able to contribute priceless nuggets of advice during his time at the helm. Granted, he struggled to put it all together at other times on the field, but under the right tutelage that wisdom could be gleamed into something special in years to come.
- We simply didn't have the players. No, we didn't. No...we didn't. Can we just give up on the delusional argument that we are anywhere near the crazily high standard set by the golden ages of 1990, 94 and 2002? Right now, we're like Belgium in reverse, on the opposite end of a golden generation and ultimately humbled by the constraints of our tiny nation.
- Finally...WE HIRED AN ITALIAN!!! Not only an Italian, the Italian. What did we expect when we were nearly lining the streets in celebration in 2008?!? That boring, play-not-to-lose-and-hope-to-nick-a-goal game is exactly the style that Trapattoni has perfected over the years (only with world class players that actually went and nicked that goal more often than not). It's not Trapattoni's fault that half the country declaring him a legend in 2008 were actually ignorant of what he was legendary for, because they'd only previously encountered him in Champions League round-ups being lauded by Giles and Dunphy. That's what Trapattoni does, that's what Trapattoni did, and until Euro 2012, it worked.
I'm not defending Trapattoni to be contrary. It was the right time for him to go, agreed. But a bit of perspective please.
Anyway, without further adieu, let's take a look at some of the prime candidates for the newly-vacated job. Everyone is talking about who they think should be picked, so instead let's look at who you should put your money on, going from least to most likely. All odds, as always, via Paddy Power.
