IAN HARTE HAS hit out at Giovanni Trapattoni, calling the Ireland manager a “clown.”
Reading defender Ian Harte, who won 67 caps at senior level but hasn’t feature since 2007, played a part in both of the Royals’ goals in the win over Sunderland on Saturday and was excellent from set-pieces.
The 35-year-old has claimed in the past that Trap wasn’t aware that he is Irish and this morning tweeted that he hasn’t yet retired from international football, adding a hashtag to describe his feelings on the matter.
He’s not wrong
He’s 35 now, even four years ago he wasn’t and still isn’t what Ireland need, Trap has almost gave into the fact that it is time for a new generation of Irish soccer players and the selection of Harte would undoubtedly prove to be a backward step even if he is still dangerous in dead ball situations.
Sorry, i disagree. Left back has been our weakest position during Craps tenure and Harte would have been a more reliable stop gap in there than Ward. The manager has been slighly unlucky in that the only time he looked to a young untried player in the early years, in Greg Cunningham, that player was struck with a horrific injury. And of course more recently Marc Wilson succumbed to the same fate after impressive outings for club and country.
I completely believe Hartes comment that “Trap didnt even know i was Irish”, and it is proof that the auld fella was taking us for a ride for 4 years. He believed he simply knew the best 25 players in the country and stuck to that pool of players(even for inconsequential friendlies) until after the Euros when his joke of a Boss realized he actually wasnt doing any work when back in Italy, although he claimed to be “watching lots of videos”. What a surprise then when he finally goes to games he re-evaluates his opinion on players he had previously belittled and starts throwing out caps like they were going outta style. I’m happy to see he has finally started to take the future of the National team into account but does he yet know the potential of 50% of the talent at his disposal. Doubt it.
When he played for Ireland he was the worst defender we had.Think Macedonia.He cannot tackle, cannot head the ball and has no pace.He has a great left foot but is not a defender.But was always better than Paul McShane and Ward.
Spot on!
Hope Cunningham gets a run in team.been very unlucky with injurys.