The Newcastle boss has spoken before of his bewilderment at Leon Best’s continued exclusion from the Irish squad and now he has had another swipe at Trap.
Just before the two-legged play-off against Estonia, Pardew questioned why Trap continued to ignore Best, despite his good form at the time.
Trap eventually did call Best up for those games due to a mounting injury crisis but the big striker never saw any game time. Now, with Best back among the goals and Newcastle still flying high, Trap was asked if Best would get another crack.
His answer last week was fairly clear.
“I have not picked Leon Best because we have three or four other strikers with other qualities,” he said.
“Leon knows why. I don’t forget him, but he knows why. I need another attitude. The whole team must work, the whole team must work. That is important.
“Winning in football is about 11 players running for 90 minutes, or 94 minutes, with a winning mentality. I cannot have players who just wait for the ball.”
So Leon is lazy compared to Jon Walters seems to be the summary of how Trap feels about his striking options.
This criticism was put to Alan Pardew last night and the Newcastle boss was not happy.
“I still don’t know where he [Trapattoni] gets that from,” Pardew is quoted as saying in today’s Irish Examiner.
“Perhaps he should come up here and see him play. How many times has he been up here to see him. Never? Well come if he wants to see the guy. I can tell him, and show him the stats. And come and watch us play. We are at Fulham on Saturday, 3pm!”
It sounds more like a threat than an invite but we will be scanning to stands at Craven Cottage tomorrow to see if a well dressed old Italian man is lurking behind some dark glasses.
He better hope Pardew doesn’t spot him or there might be trouble.
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