SOCCER GIOVANNI TRAPATTONI MEETS THE PRESS:DEAN KIELY has become the first of the Republic international retirees to answer Giovanni Trapattoni's call and make himself available again, but the veteran Italian is hoping more will follow over the coming weeks as meetings with the likes of Stephen Ireland, Steve Finnan and Andy O'Brien are scheduled.

Speaking yesterday at the RDS, where the new national coach was officially unveiled a couple of days after arriving in Dublin to take up the post, Trapattoni said his first target will be to make Ireland a more difficult team to beat. But he expressed confidence that the group of players he has inherited is capable of making it to the World Cup finals in 2010.

The system used by the team at any given time will depend on the players available, he said, and he insisted that his attempts to improve the panel's strength by luring back those who have walked away for one reason or another will continue regardless of how his initial approaches are greeted.

"Liam Brady has already spoken to them, and if it's not next week then it will be the week after, but I'm planning to go and talk to them," he said.

"I'll tell them that I'm very proud to be with the squad and that they're important players for the World Cup, but (if they say no) I look always. The qualifying is two years. I will always look to get the players back, I will always try to keep my options open."

The former Juventus and Italy boss, whose initial contract runs for two years at an estimated salary of €1.5 million a year, reckons he has seen enough of the Irish team in action on DVD at this stage to be familiar with its strengths and weaknesses and fundamentally, he insists, there is considerable cause for optimism.

"Four years ago people said that Greece couldn't win the Euros but they did," he remarked.

"What I have seen of Ireland's games in the last qualifiers there have been a lot of times when little, little situations have led to goals. I won't look to make dramatic changes quickly but I will look for the extra 10 per cent, and if we get that then I think we will see a big improvement.

"I don't look for the impossible but we will look to make the team more organised. We have good players with a lot of qualities but they have to trust me."

Tactically, he insisted, the approach will be flexible but, just as he has done in the past, it seems that his intention is to build the team on the foundation of a solid defence.

"My success has been based on a philosophy that we always look to play well, very well, but at the moment the result is also very important and that's why when it is not possible for us to win, it's important that we don't lose," he observed.

"That's the philosophy, because the beautiful game lasts only 24 hours in the newspapers but the result lasts a year or two or three or four."

The improvement he's seeking may, he admits, take a little time to achieve, and with that in mind he expressed some satisfaction that Ireland will not come up against his native Italy in the earliest stages of the coming campaign.

"At the moment," he said, "it's important that Italy are coming after two games (in 2009), not immediately.

"Hopefully when we get to the Italy game, we'll already have had two successful games."

Despite the collective shortcomings displayed in the last campaign, Trapattoni is adamant that there is the talent available to make a real impact on the group, with the 69-year-old mentioning Robbie Keane, Damien Duff, John O'Shea and Richard Dunne as prominent players at big clubs who have impressed him.

Steve Finnan also gets a mention with the Italian making it clear that he sees the return of the Liverpool right back as a priority.

There were positive words for several others, though, including Kevin Doyle, Paul McShane and particularly Celtic winger Aiden McGeady, who would seem to have caught the new manager's eye.

Trapattoni is open about his belief that he can have a positive effect on the group, getting more out of them than his predecessors have, but he suggests that he will have to tread carefully during the early stages of their relationship.

"It takes a lot of patience," he says. "If you have children you know how much patience it takes. Players are delicate and I'm going to have to work on their psychology before I can pronounce myself."

Asked about the difficulties he encountered with players at Bayern Munich as highlighted in his now infamous press conference tirade against some of the club's then stars, he politely observed that the situation he inherited at the club is not one he anticipates arising now.

"It was impossible for me to change the famous players at the club - not if they were tired or not playing well or even dead. That's not how I am, though. It doesn't matter to me who is famous - all players are the same for me.

"I was just," he concluded with a grin as his audience laughed at the understatement, "trying to get that message across."

"Listen to Giovanni Trapattoni's press conference on  www.ireland.com"