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Giovanni Trapattoni and Leon Best at Malahide. INPHO/James Crombie
Euro 2012

Pardew: Trap should come to Newcastle if he thinks Leon Best is lazy

“I still don’t know where he gets that from. Perhaps he should come up here and see him play. How many times has he been up here to see him. Never?”

NEWCASTLE UNITED MANAGER Alan Pardew has invited Giovanni Trapattoni to fold away the match DVDs in his Italian home and visit the north-east of England this weekend.

The Magpies boss is not happy with the Ireland manager’s assessment of his striker Leon Best as ‘lazy’.

Best scored a superb individual goal last weekend in the 1-0 win over Mark Hughes’ QPR at the so-called Sports Direct Arena.

It’s the forward’s first strike in 10 games but he has complemented star man Demba Ba up front in a surprisingly good season for the club. Now that Ba is on Africa Cup of Nations Duty with Senegal, Best has started well in his absence.

The Nottingham-born striker has not been included in the Ireland squad since being omitted for the games against Armenia, Andorra and Estonia, with Trap questioning his work-rate last October in Dublin.

But Pardew insisted that Trap that is mistaken, when asked about the ‘lazy’ label yesterday.

“I still don’t know where he gets that from. Perhaps he should come up here and see him play. How many times has he been up here to see him. Never?” Pardew told the Daily Mail.

“Well come on if he wants to see the guy I can tell him, and I can show him the stats. Come and watch us play. We are at Fulham on Saturday, 3pm!”

Ireland face the Czech Republic in a friendly at Lansdwone Rd next month.

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