Stan will have to earn his laurels

With the draw for the European Championship qualifiers and a match with Sweden looming, Steve Staunton will have to learn fast, writes Liam Mackey.

IF there is such a thing as a pre-natal baptism of fire, then Steve Staunton has just been through it.

The new manager of the Irish football team won’t be officially unveiled until Monday in Dublin but from the moment his imminent appointment was leaked last weekend, a storm has been raging about the FAI’s solution to the three-month old problem of finding a successor to Brian Kerr.

At issue wasn’t merely that the association had opted for a 36-year-old with no managerial experience but that they had also appointed as Staunton’s full-time adviser, Bobby Robson, who at 72 is one of the grand old men of world football.

Staunton’s nickname of ‘Stan’ meant Laurel and Hardy spoofs were inevitable in the media, while radio phone-ins and websites were full of apoplectic football fans denouncing the FAI’s putative ‘dream team’ as nothing but double trouble.

Almost lost in the clamour and confusion were calmer voices calling for the Louthman to be given a chance, and arguing that Staunton’s hugely impressive track record as a club and international footballer could make him an inspirational leader of the national team.

Certainly, he is not the first footballer to make the leap straight from the playing field into international management - notable examples include Jurgen Klinsmann of Germany and Marco Van Basten of Holland, two fast-track managers who will be guiding their respective national teams in the World Cup finals this summer. Ireland won’t be there, of course, and that’s why the FAI forced Brian Kerr to make way for a new man. Staunton’s challenge will be to turn around Irish fortunes in the forthcoming European Championship campaign and build towards qualification for the World Cup in 2010. Should he succeed in the latter, his four-year deal, reportedly worth €500,000 a year, would be automatically extended.

With Irish football in the doldrums, it’s a tough task but, as a player, Staunton never shirked a challenge on or off the pitch.

Born in Drogheda and raised in Dundalk, he won honours playing Gaelic football at club level, but it was his soccer prowess with Dundalk FC which caught the eye of English and European giants Liverpool, who signed Staunton as a 17-year-old in 1986. A powerhouse defender and free-kick specialist who sometimes popped up in attacking positions to score spectacular goals, Staunton went on to win League and FA Cup medals with the Anfield side, later moving on to Aston Villa, Crystal Palace and Coventry, before last year joining League Two minnows Walsall as a player-coach. And it’s from that modest midlands base that Staunton is set to take the giant step into international management.

As a player, he is no stranger to world football. With 102 appearances, he is the most capped footballer in Irish history, his career in the green shirt stretching from 1988 to 2002. He also holds the distinction of appearing in all three World Cups for which Ireland have qualified, a feat which only enhanced his favourite son status in the sporting affections of the nation.

Vivid images are stored on video and in the collective memory bank. In 1990 in Italy, Staunton’s passionate patriotism was evident in the fierce joy with which he hugged Kevin Sheedy after the latter had drawn Ireland level with England in what was the country’s very first game in a World Cup. Playing in an advanced role on the left side of Jack Charlton’s midfield, Stan also stood out in US ’94, and not least because he was rarely seen before kick-off without a baseball cap to shield his pale features from the scorching heat of the Orlando sun.

But Japan/Korea 2002 was to provide the ultimate test of his character on and off the pitch. In the fallout from the Saipan bust-up between Roy Keane and Mick McCarthy, Staunton was publicly supportive of the manager, a decision which created bad blood between Keane and himself.

Taking over the captain’s armband from the Corkman, the then 32-year-old Staunton promptly contributed some of his best personal performances for Ireland, leading the team through a draw with Cameroon, a nail-biting encounter with Germany and a comfortable victory over Saudi Arabia, and then on into the knock-out stages of the tournament where the Irish were finally eliminated in a penalty shoot-out with Spain.

From a situation of utter disarray in the Irish camp on the eve of the finals, Staunton had been a key figure in ensuring that a shell-shocked squad and a divided nation were both lifted by the experience of thrilling moments and memorable games in the tournament itself.

It was no surprise when the veteran player announced his international retirement immediately after the game against Spain, but it’s the very powers of leadership which he showed during that World Cup crisis - and, indeed, throughout his whole playing career - which the FAI hope will now make him the Mr Motivator who can revitalise the Irish dressing room following the crushing disappointment of the failure to qualify for Germany next summer.

Staunton may be comfortable and uninhibited around footballers but as the first face of Irish football he will also have to cope with more media attention than he has ever experienced before. In private, he is known for a dry sense of humour coupled with a refusal to suffer fools gladly but in public he is hardly the most loquacious of individuals, his dealings with the press at times best described as blunt verging on gruff.

However, he has a sharp intelligence and will surely be prepared to make every effort to avoid the kind of collapse in the relationship between manager and media which further discoloured the gloomy final days of Brian Kerr’s time in charge.

There has been a suggestion that the media-friendly Bobby Robson - who had to endure excessive hostility during the early, troubled days of his time as England manager - could be invited to handle more of the communication brief, although how that would necessarily square with Staunton’s billing as the undisputed top man remains to be seen.

Before a ball has even been kicked, Steve Staunton’s elevation has firmly divided opinion. But when all the debate and dispute has finally died down, he will find that, in common with every other football manager - whether a rookie like himself or a veteran like Robson - the only sure way of winning hearts and minds is by winning matches.

With the draw for the European Championship qualifiers taking place later this month and the first friendly of the new era, against Sweden, just six weeks away, one thing’s for sure - Steve Staunton’s learning curve will be steep.