Shels' boss Johnny McDonnell has launched a stinging attack on Giovanni Trapattoni in the Irish Independent today, taking issue, in particular with the Italian's dismissal of the League of Ireland.
"I can stand over what I have done in the League of Ireland, getting St Pat's into Europe and beating an Elfsborg team who had Anders Svensson in their ranks,"
"Keith Fahey played Svensson – a man who had 80-odd caps at the time – off the pitch in that game. Then the same Anders Svensson turns up five years later and scores the winning goal against Trapattoni's Ireland in a World Cup qualifier.
"So, if he thinks there is no league here then he is completely wrong and disrespectful. What he needs to understand is that if the FAI did not have a competitive league then, they would not be permitted to have the international team which provided him with a decent living for the past five-and-a-half years."
He also had some choice things to say about the style of play during Trap's reign
"He didn't trust the players to express themselves, James McCarthy, the poor lad, must have ended up in hospital the other night with a brace in his neck after watching all the balls go back and forward over his head. McCarthy is well able to play, but Trap didn't want him to."
Nor was he bowled over by Trap's achievement in bringing Ireland to Euro 2012...
"Trap was very lucky to get Estonia in the play-offs – and I can relate to their standards because I was working with the Faroes then. We beat Estonia. They were ordinary. Had Ireland got any other team in those play-offs, then we wouldn't have got through."
