JOHN GILES BELIEVES that Giovanni Trapattoni should be happy to have his squad selection headache in the run-up to Euro 2012.
The Italian has indicated that he will reveal the 23 names who will travel to Poland for June’s tournament before the friendly game with Bosnia Herzegovina on May 26 with a couple more being put on standby.
He has reiterated his reluctancy to veer from the players who were successful in earning qualification for Ireland’s first major competition in ten years but, despite his promise to remain loyal, there have been calls for fringe players like Seamus Coleman, James McCarthy, Shane Duffy and James McClean to be handed a place on the plane.
And speaking at the launch of his charity’s second annual ‘Walk of Dreams‘ yesterday, former Ireland manager and RTE Sport pundit Giles said he feels Sunderland winger McClean will make the final cut.
He (Trapattoni) did say on record that the players who got us there are the ones he will take to the championships but there are 23 players going,” Giles said. “I’d be very surprised if there isn’t room for him (McClean).
“It is difficult. There’s Duff, McGeady, Hunt and Coleman as well. All I can say is it’s a great problem to have from a manager’s point of view.
“It’s a good position to be in and it bodes well for the future because the World Cup qualifiers start in September anyway.”
Giles will watch Ireland’s Group C games with Croatia, Spain and Italy from the comfort of the RTE studios and added that it’s a nice change to be covering a European championships which the country is participating in.
“It’s great for everybody. You saw the country itself when we qualified – there was a lift for everybody. It also adds a different dimension totally to the panel.”
- The John Giles Foundation will hold the second edition of its ‘Walk of Dreams’ around the country on May 7 with the exception of three walks to accommodate local requirements. For more information visit www.johngilesfoundation.com or http://www.facebook.com/JohnGilesFoundation.
GAA don’t care about anything but the airgead
The CPA proposals are not realistic. The month of April for Club fixtures? 1. It’s right in the business end of the National leagues. 2. Clubs aren’t and shouldn’t be ready for championship at that time of year. The finals are not until October.
The club finals work well on St Patricks day. It gives them the publicity and spotlight that they deserve. The alternative as proposed is to play them in late November/December. That’s not acceptable imo.
@Tim Dawson: club leagues should be started in early/mid February and ran off every week (or pretty much every week) which would have most leagues ran off by the end of April. Semi finals and finals to be ran off and completed by May/June. Club championships can then be started in April, not sure why you think this is too early as every club will be training since January? Not sure why if you start a champing April you couldn’t have it completed early August at the latest, which would allow provincials and all ireland series played out before the end of October.
Have a rigid fixture list in place and lose this nonsense of having 3/4 week gaps between games.
@Robert Callaghan: hem! Because there is also the intercounty league and championship and clubs will not play without their county players. The national league is played in April. That’s why you can’t have club championship then. Or are we now talking about punishing the county player for being better and flogging them to death?
@Tim Dawson: grand, start it in May then, or move National Leagues to March and get rid of the O’Byrne/McKenna cup preseason comps to freely time. The General point being that we have less gaps between games and a rigid calendar. The whole thing from intercounty down needs to be restructured because it’s broken.
Are you happy then to leave the fixture system the way it is and ignore the overwhelming opinion of club players? For what, because the club championship final has to be played on St. Patrick’s Days because it always has?