FORMER IRELAND GOALKEEPER Packie Bonner believes that getting rid of Giovanni Trapattoni at this stage of the qualifying campaign would have made no sense.
Early last week, it seemed nailed on that the FAI were about to end their contract with the Italian after an unconvincing win over Kazakhstan and a 6-1 thumping by Germany.
On Wednesday, however, it emerged that the association met in Dublin to agree that they would be backing him for the time being.
Speaking at an ESPN event to promote their coverage of the Barclays Premier League and the Clydesdale Bank SPL, Bonner, capped 80 times for his country, said:
“I think most managers when results don’t go [well], people will question whether they should be in the job or not. That’s the same for all managers unfortunately. If you’re beaten 6-1, that’s difficult for anybody, no question.
“But Trap’s in a job and he was given a new contract four months ago so it’s not really logical to think that after four months, he would suddenly be sacked. That’s not logical, especially when they’ve given him a new contract just before the European Championships.
He’s sitting third in the table with six points. From that perspective, he deserves probably a chance to turn things around. From the results he’s had before in getting to the European Championships, he deserves that.”
A lot has been made about the media’s role in reporting developments, with FAI chief executive John Delaney speaking about what he called “low standards of journalism” in an interview on Saturday.
Bonner, who is a former technical director of the FAI, added that while journalists, analysts and ex-footballers give their take on issues, they aren’t the ones who make the decisions.
Because they’ve given him a new contract, it doesn’t matter then what any of us say. We all have an opinion, we have an opinion on how they play the game but that’s football. We as ex-pros and the media, we all have our opinion but the people that matter are the FAI and Trap.
“They’ve given him a new contract so they must have believed that he was doing something really, really good I’m sure to give him the contract.
He’s in the job and you don’t sack somebody four months after giving them that contract.”
