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Kevin Kilbane: Why Liam Brady was a big loss to Trapattoni

A piece in today's The Times Irish edition by Paul Rowan raises the possibility of whet...



Kevin Kilbane: Why Liam Brady...
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Kevin Kilbane: Why Liam Brady was a big loss to Trapattoni

A piece in today's The Times Irish edition by Paul Rowan raises the possibility of whether Liam Brady could be brought back into the FAI fold to take on a role in the Ireland setup as a scout or talent identifier.

If it were to happen, it wouldn't be his first experience of the Ireland setup since he hung up his boots.

The Arsenal legend helped persuade Giovanni Trapattoni to become Ireland manager in 2008 and then joined the Italian's coaching staff.

The 61 year old left the role in April 2010 at a time when he still had commitments with Arsenal and it's notable that the qualification campaign for World Cup 2010 saw some of Ireland's more assured performances under Trap as well as the road to Euro 2012.

Assistant manager Liam Brady and manager Giovanni Trapattoni ©INPHO/James Crombie

Indeed, according to our own Kevin Kilbane, who was part of the Ireland team at the time joined Adrian and Eoin on OTB: AM and revealed just how influential Brady was as seen once he had departed his position.   

"Liam was a big loss to Giovanni Trapattoni when he left the FAI at that stage," he said.

"I know that he had commitments with Arsenal at that time and he doesn't necessarily have those now but Liam was a big loss to Trapattoni because Trapattoni, first of all, lost that communication link that Liam brought to the side.

"Liam was excellent for Trapattoni for getting his message across because of course the language barrier was always going to be the problem."

But should there be moves made to bring Brady back in a more scouting role?

"It's a difficult one when you're just trying to all of a sudden, we're plucking out names, big personalities and thinking, 'They're going to take that role'. Just because Liam had a role within Arsenal at youth level, does that mean to say he's going to go out and identify new talent? Liam has never had that role at any stage so why all of a sudden now do we think he's going to go and become a scout or an identifier. That was never Liam's role at Arsenal, it was never Liam's role when he was with the senior side so all of a sudden, I think you're plucking out a name to go and develop players or try and identify players. He's never done that before."     

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