Everyone knows the tale of Andy Reid strumming his guitar after Giovanni Trapattoni’s call for the players to get an early night in Germany in 2008.
That hotel dispute marked the final straw for the Ireland manager, and it resulted in international exile for Reid until 2013.
As Reid explained on SportsJOE Live, he ‘wasn’t doing anything (he) wasn’t supposed to be doing’ on that faithful night he belted out the Irish folk song called ‘The Fisherman’. Him falling out favour with Trapattoni went a lot deeper than six strings and a plectrum.
“He never fancied me as a player, which I’ve got no problem with. which I’ve got no problem with at all because not every manager fancies every player. I was not the type of player that he wanted in his team, although I felt I could still do a good job in his team.”
“He didn’t want me in there and that really wasn’t the issue for me because I’ve played under managers who haven’t wanted me and they always come to me and said, ‘Listen, you’re not for me.’ And then it’s time to move on, you go somewhere else. And I’ve played for managers who I didn’t like. That’s the way football and sport in general works.”
This was nothing new for Reid. He had managers who didn’t like him before, and he had a few didn’t like back, but what really irked him was how the whole thing played out.
“The way it was handled and the way it went about, thought it was sneaky and it was contrived and that’s the thing that kind of grates on me a little bit, nothing to do with the whole guitar thing or nothing to do with him not fancying me as a player.”
