In a move that wouldn’t exactly devastate a large section of Irish supporters, Giovanni Trapattoni has reportedly put his name in for the job as Napoli manager.
The popularity of the current Ireland boss isn’t at its highest at the moment after the debacle at the Euros last summer and our incredibly underwhelming qualifying campaign for the World Cup in Brazil, Ireland’s presence at which looks an outside bet after consecutive draws with Sweden and Austria in our last qualifying games.
Trap remained in situ for those games despite apparently being on the verge of losing his job last year but with his position looking more and more uncertain as time goes on, he is seemingly preparing for life after the Boys in Green.
In an interview with Il Mattino newspaper, Trap addressed the issue of the Napoli manager’s job, currently held by Walter Mazzarri, who guided Napoli to a second placed-finish in Serie A and a place in the Champions League next season but is out of contract at the end of the season.
“I always want to win,” Trapattoni said. “Even returning to a Serie A side like Napoli – why not?
“Am I putting myself forward for the job? Everyone knows my motto: never say never in football. I also tell club Presidents: don’t look at my birth certificate, because that doesn’t reflect my real age.”
Trapattoni’s real age is 74 and although he is still as fit as a fiddle, he is perhaps realising that the job after the Ireland manager’s one will be his last and is eager that the relevant people in his homeland know that he is still up to doing a job, even though there are plenty on this side of the world who would disagree.
With Mazzarri’s intentions not yet clear and a host of other promising Italian managers expressing their interest in managing Napoli it is a tenuous link as yet but we’ll watch this space with interest.
