Tommy Martin: Life in a managerial black hole delivers reality check

Small international teams tend to be coached either by jobbing domestic insiders or legendary ex-players acting out a labour of love.

WHO's UP NEXT?  A general view of the Aviva Stadium before the UEFA EURO 2024 Championship qualifying group B match between the Republic of Ireland and the Netherlands. Pic: Stephen McCarthy, Sportsfile

Given the length of time that we have been without an actual Republic of Ireland manager, it has become necessary to view the potential successors as eras in themselves, like how sub-sections of prehistoric time can be broken down into handy chunks of one hundred million years so you know what bits had dinosaurs.

We had the long and peaceful Carsassic Age, when the future seemed set to be carved out by an inscrutable, dome-headed glacier, rumbling carefully through the landscape dispensing bibs and cones, carving player pathways through Irish football’s primordial soup.