Martin O’Neill meets FAI headhunters
Martin O’Neill has met with the FAI’s headhunters but has still to commit himself to taking on the job of Ireland manager.
The Irish Examiner has learned that O’Neill held talks with Ray Houghton and Ruud Dokter in Donegal earlier this week, in what was the second meeting between the Derryman and the FAI regarding the vacant managerial position.
O’Neill was originally the raging hot favourite to get the job but, as he held off from making a decision about his future, was overtaken in the running by Mick McCarthy. However, following significant action in the betting market yesterday, O’Neill’s odds have shortened again, although it’s understood that he did not give a clear declaration of his desire to take on the Ireland job during his latest encounter with the FAI duo.
However, O’Neill — who has been pondering the rival attractions of club and international football — is believed to have recently rebuffed overtures from a club in England, leaving him still in the race to succeed Giovanni Trapattoni as the next manager of the national team.
While they continue to await a definitive response from O’Neill, the headhunters are expected to hold talks with McCarthy on Monday.
McCarthy, who remains the favourite for the post, is already planning his backroom staff for a possible Ireland return and will bring his current assistant Terry Connor into the fold as his right-hand man, alongside one other coach who would most likely be a former Ireland player.
Also on the ticket he’ll propose in discussions with Houghton and Dokter will be the return of Ian Evans and Dave Bowman. Evans, assistant during McCarthy’s previous tenure as Ireland boss, is being lined up as chief scout — a post currently held by former U21 manager Don Givens — while Bowman will regain the north-east region of England he covered under McCarthy as well as his successors Brian Kerr and Stephen Staunton.
Eager to inject some freshness into his regime, McCarthy is understood to favour enlisting a budding coach still in his thirties. Favourite for the position is Mark Kennedy, currently part of his staff at Portman Road as U21 boss, though Lee Carsley, Kevin Kilbane — who yesterday indicated his openness to being involved — and Kenny Cunningham are being considered as alternatives.
Alan Kelly would be expected to retain his position as goalkeeping coach although Packie Bonner, speaking in Dublin yesterday, said that he would not rule out a return to that role if asked. He did, however, add a caveat.
“If I was going to do that again, it would be more of a coach with specialisation for goalkeeping,” said the Irish legend who was controversially let go by the FAI as their technical director in 2010. “The difference with that is, you’re working on the pitch, you’re not over in the corner. The day is gone, I think, when you’re over in the corner kicking balls.
“I did that as international goalkeeping coach but the game has changed — you’ll still do a bit of that but I think you’ve got to do a lot more. If I was going to come into work again, I’d want to bring that philosophy with me. Whether anyone else is going to want that — the manager who gets the job — it’s his prerogative. Am I open to it? Of course. You’re Irish and so on, you want to see your country do well and see young people develop and live the dream that we lived. If you can contribute that in whatever way then, fine, I’d love to do anything to help the country.”
Yesterday McCarthy added little to his previous comments on the speculation linking him with a return. At his regular pre-match press conference at Ipswich’s Playford Road training ground, in response to being asked if there was any change in the Ireland situation, McCarthy quipped: “No, it’s still in the same place, just across from Liverpool and Manchester. If you’re going to go and visit it there are flights from Stansted and Southend, Aer Lingus or Ryanair.”
Sources suggest that next week’s interview with McCarthy is the last on the agenda of Houghton and Dokter, but while O’Neill, Roy Keane and the Ipswich boss are generally regarded as comprising the current three-man shortlist for the Irish job, a significant late entry into the race cannot be ruled out. However, Dutch master Guus Hiddink — who this week turned down a chance to reunite with Australia — is definitely out of the picture.
Meanwhile, some good news for the next Ireland manager is that Everton boss Roberto Martinez has offered an upbeat assessment of the outcome of Tuesday’s operation on Darron Gibson’s knee following the anterior cruciate ligament injury he sustained against Kazakhstan.
“The surgery was really successful,” said the Toffees boss. “So we are starting to count the days down now on Darron to come back. The news there is all positive.”
