Amazing as it may be to some of Irish football's critical establishment, in Italy the performance of the exiled Giovanni Trapattoni's team against his home country was considered to be far from a disgrace. Indeed, it was rated a 'moral triumph' for the 'old one.'

According to La Gazzetta Sportiva, "when you look at the rankings and the background of the teams, you have to say that, under Trapattoni, Ireland put in a remarkably strong performance to confirm an unbeaten record in qualifying. Yes, a moral victory."

Given some of the surreal expectations surrounding a team that has only qualified for the World Cup finals on three occasions, and so recently was mired in futility under the current manager of Darlington, it may need to be said that the tribute does not come from the home of the easily pleased.

Italian coach Marcello Lippi is certainly not awash with the credit he earned when guiding a team rated scarcely higher than his new one to the nation's fourth World Cup triumph in Germany three years ago, despite qualifying for the South African finals a game early -- as he did before seeing his first team become world champions in Berlin's Olympic Stadium.

But then arguably the world's most sophisticated football nation, with a ranking behind only Brazil in World Cup action down the years, does understand a little bit about the practical side of the game.

Those who don't, including the fans in Parma who voiced displeasure at the 3-2 victory over a Cyprus in mid-week, are regularly chastised by a Lippi, who knows that few in the world game can match his achievements in both club and international football.

He rasped: "Fans who boo a team that is new and finding its way should remember how easy it is to weep with joy and sing, 'Italia, Italia,' on the good days and forget the hard ones which always have to come before a team truly finds itself. I was angry at the crowd reaction tonight because the squad has made it to South Africa and we were trying a few new things. Even so, we won and the spirit shown was correct."

By contrast, Lippi's old compatriot and foe Trapattoni appears to have been relatively frolicsome after the aesthetically underwhelming stalemate with Montenegro. Unburdened by any responsibility for fixing ticket prices at Croke Park, the old boy no doubt believes he has assembled enough self-belief in his squad to make a competitively decent showing whoever are drawn as play-off opponents on Monday.

When set against Irish achievement since the days of Jack Charlton and Mick McCarthy, the most compelling verdict back home in Italy is that Trapattoni has not lost touch with one of his most valuable professional priorities: an unyielding belief that sometimes the level of a player's talent -- yes, of course we are in Andy Reid territory yet again -- is not always the most crucial consideration when it comes to picking his team.

If the principle wasn't enshrined so firmly in Italian football thinking, there would have been a very good chance that a certain Antonio Cassano would have been present at Croke Park last weekend -- and considerably enhanced the waning traditional skill levels of the Azzurri. But Lippi's eye for Cassano is as jaundiced as the one Trapattoni applies to Reid.

In fact, you might say that the Sampdoria star, formerly of Bari, Roma and Real Madrid, provides a rich man's version of the Reid controversy.

He cost Roma €28m when he moved from his first club, Bari, as a precocious 19-year-old. He had talent to burn -- but not much sense of what it is to be part of a team.

Indeed, before moving to Real Madrid and offending resident coach Fabio Capello, as he had done in Rome, he had created his own critical term in the Italian game. Cassanata refers to a player who does not fit into the team ethos -- and that verdict on the player was swiftly repeated in Madrid.

Cassano, who in his youth was referred to as 'the jewel of Bari,' was dropped and fined for putting on weight and when he was sold back to Italy, a club official explained that the player's attitude was 'unsustainable.' That, of course, was Trapattoni's assessment of Reid's demeanour after a qualifying win over Georgia.

And by now, he has surely made it plain that he is not easily susceptible to Reid's attitude change which persuaded him to strip off around 20lbs before the arrival of his new manager, Steve Bruce, at Sunderland.

In the Italian football psyche, the greatest scorn is reserved for those who do not fully exploit their talent, who display something less than the sense of prestige and reward which, even today, separates the footballer from most walks of working life.

In Italy, the professional player inhabits both a dream and a vocation and those who fail are not easily forgiven.

Certainly, Trapattoni might have been speaking for his compatriot national team managers, Lippi and England's Capello, when he suggested that all of his 'champion' players could vouch for the fact that he had a tendency to "break their balls."

In Italy, the phrase is most often applied to a hectoring wife -- but never without the implication that the perpetrator is trying to keep the victim on the straight and narrow.

Certainly, any disappointment in the recent performance levels of Italy has not disturbed the belief of the public and the media that essentially the team is in safe hands.

In fact, the good omen that came with Italy's draw in Dublin was quickly pointed out. Lippi's achievement of qualification one game early not only repeated his performance in 2005, but also his predecessor Enzo Bearzot's in 1981 before the winning campaign in Spain the following year.

The memory of that great triumph -- when Paulo Rossi ambushed the favourites Brazil in Barcelona's Sarria stadium on the way to the final settled by Trapattoni's right-hand man, Marco Tardelli -- is still so vivid that few remember the disdain Bearzot's men had carried to Spain. Indeed, after a disappointing pool game, the pipe-smoking Bearzot was spat at in the street by one judgmental football commentator.

Old Trap has yet to suffer such an experience, at least first hand, and nor will he, you have to suspect, whatever Ireland's play-off fate. In the meantime, he is unlikely to be the victim of broken balls. Inflicting those is, after all, his professional business -- along with avoiding the perils of Cassanata.

- James Lawton

Irish Independent