At the European Championships in 2012, Ireland lost every match. The manner of those defeats spoke of a crisis in Irish football as much as the results themselves. The FAI, thanks to the contribution from Denis O’Brien, was paying Giovanni Trapattoni a salary of close to €2 million. Trapattoni played defensive football which was supposed to be free from risk. The result was everything. This was not the return people expected. Trapattoni’s argument was that Ireland didn’t have the players to play another style of football. Without this technical ability, they would be destroyed if they attempted to play expansive,…

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