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Trapattoni and Manuela Spinelli. INPHO/Morgan Treacy
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Eamon Dunphy: Trapattoni is 'taking us for a ride'

“The FAI have a big decision to make and if they don’t make the right decision — which is to pay him off and get a better manager — the consequences will be dire”

EAMON DUNPHY SAYS it’s time for Giovanni Trapattoni to walk away from the Ireland job.

The RTÉ football panellist says the Italian doesn’t do enough to justify his FAI salary, which is supplemented by businessman Denis O’Brien.

Ireland were hammered 6-1 at home to Germany on Friday night and the Italian faces yet more problems in the camp ahead of tomorrow night’s Faroe Islands test.

“I think he’s taking us for a ride to be honest,” Dunphy said on Today FM earlier. “He’s getting a lot of money and there’s very little work involved.”

“When Mick McCarthy left the job he actually didn’t take a pay off, he walked and it was a very honourable thing to do,” he continued.

“Trap will tell you and he told the press that he was doing a great job, that we’ve moved up the world rankings and by implication, the players aren’t good enough. He doesn’t know enough about the players and he’s the one getting the €1.8million and he has to be at the matches in my view.”

Today’s Irish Independent suggests Trapattoni and his assistant Marco Tardelli could be sacked within the week — and Dunphy reckons one-time Ireland player, Owen Coyle, could be the man to fill the role.

“There are managers out there,” he told Ray D’Arcy. “Owen Coyle was a very good manager at Burnley, he went to Bolton and didn’t do so well. But I like him, he’s got a lot of character, he’s a passionate guy and he’d know the players. This is the problem, this man does not know these players because he hasn’t seen them playing consistently. And you have to know the difference between Shane Long who didn’t start on Friday night and Simon Cox who did.

“The other problem is that they won’t be able to sell the tickets to the Aviva. Germany are an attraction but when we play the Faroe Islands and Kazakhstan, Austria and Sweden, that stadium will be pretty empty. And that’s a real problem.

“So the FAI have a big decision to make and if they don’t make the right decision — which is to pay him off and get a better manager — the consequences will be dire. So it’s a lose-lose situation.”

Stephen Kelly persuaded to board Faroes flight after management bust-up – reports

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