Trap Retires

A few hacks have reported that Trap, at the ripe old age of 77, has finally hanging up his tracksuit over the weekend. Despite the Euro's being a disaster I think his overall tenure with us will be looked on in a pretty decent light.

We were in the doldrums when he took over and he brought us to within a whisker of qualifying for the WC at the 1st time of asking. The football was sh*te but we we're competitive again and hard to break down at least. The highlight of his reign was definitely the Euro 2012 play offs. After this the wheels came of the wagon and everthing thing went tits up he had to go.

He always came across as a decent and respectable man and his club management record will be his legacy. But he'll always be welcome back at landowne road...Good luck in retirement

Edited by zizu Kilbane - 18 Jan 2017 at 12:44pm

zizu Kilbane wrote: A few hacks have reported that Trap, at the ripe old age of 77, has finally hanging up his tracksuit over the weekend. Despite the Euro's being a disaster I think his overall tenure with us will be looked on in a pretty decent light. We were in the doldrums when he took over and he brought us to within a whisker of qualifying for the WC at the 1st time of asking. The football was sh*te but we we're competitive again and hard to break down at least. The highlight of his reign was definitely the Euro 2012 play offs. After this the wheels came of the wagon and everthing thing went tits up he had to go. He always came across as a decent and respectable man and his club management record will be his legacy. But he'll always be welcome back at landowne road...Good luck in retirement

Best of luck to Trap shall miss his Roy Keane stories

f**k Trap.  Made me hate Irish football for a period of time.  Fair play we nearly qualified for WC 2010, but his refusal to attend games, boring one-dimensional tactics, refusal to move away from the old guard make him one of my most hated Ireland managers ever.   Taking Kelly to Euro 2012 over Coleman was an absolute farce.

Edited by LHurlz - 18 Jan 2017 at 1:27pm

lassassinblanc wrote: Best of luck to Trap shall miss his Roy Keane stories

Always reminded me of a visiting priest.

This is my favourite interview with him, if anyone is interested. Helps to understand his mindset: “Gaelic games are amazing because they are a perfect reflection of the Irish athletic soul, they’re games for the tough and the Irish are tough, they never give up. Even if I have the problem that I often have to play guys who spend a lot of time on the bench at their club, I have learned to trust these guys, to have trust in their immense pride. Add to pride, the fact many of them are excellent players and then add on good organisation and the Irish mentality and you can go a long way, indeed we have gone a long way in the last four years.”

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/irish-soul-brother-taps-in-to-gaelic-psyche-1.515072

Roberto Baggio wrote: lassassinblanc wrote: Best of luck to Trap shall miss his Roy Keane stories

Three qualifying campaigns:

World Cup 2010: a vast improvement on the previous one, and a newfound discipline and professionalism in the camp (even if it wasn't popular with some squad members). Great results, like the draws against Italy, and a sterling performance against the French. It was such an improvement from what preceded it that the quality of the football is largely forgiven.

Grade A-.

Euro 2012: a slight disimprovement, in qualifying at least. While the second half against Russia was spirited, the first half was poor. The draw at home to Slovakia was awful. The win against Armenia at home was painful to watch, and we needed a win to be seeded in the playoffs. There were some good results, specifically Armenia away and Slovakia away, along with both Macedonia games, but there didn't seem to be any real tactical progress. Moscow, in particular, was a freak result. The Estonia win was brilliant and while revisionists might point to the red cards and the penalty, it was, in the circumstances, a brilliant performance and result. But, for the lack of progress, I'd say the entire campaign gets a B. The Croatia game meant the tournament was over before it started and while there was no shame in losing to a Spain team at the very peak of their powers, the meek surrender against Croatia killed all hope. I'd say the Euro finals only deserve a D. It was barely passable and without improvement, Trap was on borrowed time after that tournament. Still, you can't give a tournament that we qualified for a failing grade, even if it was only just passable.

Grade: C-.

World Cup 2014: In one word, appalling. The solidity of the past two campaigns (Russia at home aside) was gone. Conceding so late against Austria, in the manner we did, was close to unforgivable and losing after leading at home to Sweden wouldn't have happened in either of the previous two campaigns. Starting with close to failure to beat Kazakhstan was indicative of how the campaign would go: and it only got worse. There was practically nothing to redeem that qualification campaign, a solid 0-0 in Stockholm aside. Other than that, just about every performance and result was either the minimum to be expected or worse.

Grade: E.

His entire tenure probably deserves a passing grade. He did bring us back to a tournament for the first time in a decade and the feeling heading off to the Euros was brilliant. There were a lot of high points but unfortunately the further into his reign he went, the further apart they came.

Still, for restoring professionalism and solidity, for qualifying for 2012, for bringing us up from what he inherited, he deserves some credit. He was definitely an improvement on Staunton. Obviously most managers are judged on their last result but I think it would be pretty unfair on Trap to judge him on the 2014 campaign alone. On balance, I think he did a solid if not always spectacular job.

Grade: C+

May he have a long and happy retirement.

ConorMac77 wrote: I would have thought that was the Euro 2008 shambles with the 5-2 loss to Cyprus and just about beating San Marino being particular lowlights.   But yeah, the 2014 WC campaign comes a close 2nd with the 6-1 drubbing by Germany really setting off the alarm bells.   Overall, he did the job he was brought in to do ie bring some order and organisation to the squad after Stan's shambolic reign and make us competitive again and give us at least a chance of qualifying for tournaments again. The main problems I had with him were his stubborn 'my way or the highway' mentality, not attending club matches to watch current and prospective players and his reluctance to use flair players like Wes Hoolahan, especially in situations that were crying out for players like him to either open opposition defences or just settle things down by keeping the ball.   At the end of the day though, he hasn't done too badly in his career, has he? Enjoy your retirement Trap.