Trapattoni joins Ireland with an eye on Italy

When Giovanni Trapattoni accepted the job of Ireland manager it would not have escaped his notice that his new team must face Italy in 2010 World Cup qualifying.

The 68-year-old, whose new appointment was confirmed on Wednesday, is keen on another crack at international football to prove that his spell as Italy coach between 2000-04 was a rare blemish on a stunning resume.

Italy went out of the 2002 World Cup in the second round to joint-hosts South Korea and Trapattoni was spared much of the flak because his countrymen blamed Ecuadorean referee Byron Moreno.

The Italians fared worse at Euro 2004 and the evergreen coach's defensive tactics were heavily criticised.

His time in charge then looked even less successful when the Azzurri triumphed at the 2006 World Cup under Marcello Lippi.

Trapattoni will have an eye on Ireland's trip to Italy on April 1, 2009 and the return match on October 10 the same year but knows his new side have their work cut out to repeat their famous 1-0 win over the Azzurri at the 1994 World Cup.

Ireland have failed to qualify for the last three major championships, including Euro 2008, and world class players such as Roy Keane are now a distant memory.

Strikingly similar

Not so distant a memory is Trapattoni's capacity for bizarre quotes, especially in foreign languages.

"We can't behave like crocodiles and cry over spilt milk and broken eggs," he once famously said.

His players though are left in no doubt who is in charge and who they must respect.

The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) has bagged a coach with more experience and success than almost any other.

The move is strikingly similar to England recruiting another Italian, Fabio Capello, to revive their flagging fortunes and Irish fans will have fun pointing out to their old enemy that statistically 'Il Trap' is better than Capello.

Capello won one European Cup as coach of Milan and a total of nine league titles with Milan, Real Madrid, Roma and Juventus. He was later stripped of his two at Juve because of a match-fixing scandal although the Italian was never implicated.

Trapattoni has claimed 10 bona fide league titles as coach of Juventus, Inter, Bayern Munich, Benfica and current club Salzburg last season.

One European Cup and two UEFA Cups with Juve plus one UEFA Cup with Inter mean he is by far the most successful coach in Italy and his resume is further boosted by domestic cups at home and in Germany and a European Cup Winners' Cup with Juve.

Despite all the trophies though, Trapattoni will need the luck of the Irish to do well this time.