James McClean and other Irish hopefuls are going to have to do an awful lot in the next few months if they are going to earn a place in Giovanni Trapattoni’s Euro 2012 squad.
In what is hardly a surprising development, the Irish coach more or less said today that he will be sticking with the same formula and placing his trust in the players that got Ireland to the Euros in the first place.
Those players certainly deserve massive credit and Trap can hardly be blamed for his loyalty, but surely he can’t completely rule out potentially adding even one or two players into the mix before the summer, or can he?
“We have other options but we will look at them for the next future, not now,” he said ahead of his appearance at the Soccer Writers’ Association of Ireland (SWAI) awards ceremony later this evening.
“The players who achieved the qualification deserve to come with us.”
“We pay attention and in the next month we will see one or two,” he added. “But we have many players in every position and can only think about them in case of injuries.”
Ireland will play a friendly against the Czech Republic at the end of February and are hoping to squeeze in one more before preparations for the tournament begin in earnest.
These games will not be used for experimentation, however, with Trap returning to a familiar theme about the importance of ranking points gained from friendly matches and the need to adapt to the mentality that will be required at the Euros.
Such news is bound to disappoint Irish fans who may have been hoping for a late burst from Sunderland star James McClean, who has exploded onto the Premier League scene in recent weeks, Conor Sammon, Anthony Stokes, Wes Hoolahan or even Ciaran Clark, who has returned to form with Aston Villa of late but whose opportunities with the Irish squad have been limited.
Trapattoni cited the example of Sean St Ledger’s fast-track to prominence a couple of years back to clarify that he is not entirely ruling out bringing in new blood, but added that there is unlikely to be a repeat case so close to the tournament.
McClean and the rest have time on their side and may well feature during the World Cup qualifying campaign later this year, but will it be too late?
