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Tardelli’s record is poor, so why is he second in command?
 Marco
Tardelli officially started his role as Giovanni Trapattoni’s assistant
with a visit to watch Reading — with a little help from Shane Long
— beat Manchester City at the Madejski Stadium on Saturday and if
I am among a small minority who are unsure as to the wisdom of appointing
a 68-year-old defence-minded Italian to take charge of our national side,
then I expect to be joined by a few more doubters when it comes to the
merits of his 53-year-old assistant.
Putting Tardelli’s coaching record to one side for the moment it’s
the words that come out of his mouth that worry me most and one incident
appears to sum up the former World Cup winner’s disposition.
Back in January 2001, with Tardelli in the middle of an ill-fated spell
as Inter Milan manager, the club came out with a statement denying reports
that any of their players had been involved in a prostitution scandal
that had been plastered all over the daily press.
But Tardelli, facing the press that day on matters football, didn’t
exactly toe the party line. He admitted that the players involved in the
scandal belonged to Inter and if that caught his club president cold,
his next statement shocked the entire nation.
“They were so stupid, they got caught,” said Tardelli directly
to Italian State TV, not in some off-the-record conversation with an unscrupulous
journalist at a bar. “Compliments to those who don’t get caught.
I never got caught.”
The next day he continued down the same line. “In this world there
are those who choose to be with women and those who choose prostitutes,”
he told Gazzetta dello Sport, the bible of Italian sports newspapers.
“There are those who do it in silence and those who do it stupidly
and out in the open.”
He is even said to have come out with a line borrowed from Jesus Christ
— “let those of you who are without sin cast the first stone”
— before he spoke to journalists on the matter.
Now whatever Tardelli gets up to in his spare time is entirely his own
business, as is what he believes to be morally right or wrong and neither
should have any impact on his position as Irish assistant. But to open
his mouth in the way he did to the press shows a crassness, stupidity
even, that has me extremely worried.
Apparently, the “couldn’t-care-less attitude” for
which Tardelli is known is typical of Tuscany natives but I can’t
help but get the feeling that the man who won a World Cup, five Serie
A titles and all three major European trophies during a highly-distinguished
playing career is only tagging along with Trapattoni for the craic.
He hasn’t worked in a footballing capacity since 2005 and bar a
bit of punditry work on Italian TV recently he’s been practically
unemployed. In most walks of life this guy would effectively be on the
scrapheap so why exactly has Tardelli earned the right to be second in
command to our national team?
The short answer is that he hasn’t — not by sitting on his
backside these past few years nor in his years as a manager before that.
Aside from two reasonably successful spells with the Italian under-21
side, first as assistant then as manager when the side won the European
Championships, his coaching career has been distinctly non-descript.
Como and Cesena? Never heard of them bar the first one being a lake.
Bari and Arezzo? David Platt used to play for the first team but the second
is a mystery. Tardelli’s international pedigree — the grown-up
variety — isn’t much better. He lasted six months as Egypt
coach in 2004. In fact he’s been fired from his last four jobs,
one of which was his desperate spell at Inter.
Tardelli was appointed in October 2000 days after Marcello Lippi had
been given the boot but he was sacked the following summer after a terrible
season — one which included a 6-0 defeat to city rivals AC. Worse
than that though, from an Irish point of view, is Tardelli’s relationship
with Ireland’s best player Robbie Keane.
Tardelli was the Inter manager who told young Robbie to pack his bags
and head back to England without even having a proper look at him. It
was a ridiculous way to treat a player who had been doing quite well at
Inter until that point.
We should keep our fingers crossed that no irreparable damage has been
done because of that incident and at the same time thank our lucky stars
that Liam Brady has finally been confirmed as part of the set-up. Brady
may not have made much of his opportunities as a top-level manager but
somebody like Arsene Wenger wouldn’t have him hanging about the
place unless he had something to offer Arsenal’s youngsters. He
seems to be the perfect foil to Trapattoni — intelligent, articulate
and utterly knowledgeable on the Irish game which makes Tardelli’s
presence in the Irish set-up all the more puzzling. In an organisation
of chancers it would appear that the FAI have added one more to the payroll.
n ciarancronin3@eircom.net |
