Kerr’s date with destiny
Brian Kerr’s fate won’t be officially decided until Wednesday, but already the succession stakes are up and running. Bryan Robson, Bobby Robson (who refused to comment yesterday) and David O’Leary (who has already distanced himself from the job) have also been mentioned as runners and riders, but if Martin O’Neill felt he was in a position to make himself available, he would be the hot favourite.
But, as yet, it’s all speculation. Yesterday, sources in the FAI denied reports that Alex Ferguson and Roy Keane had been targeted for the job, and though their names will clearly feature - individually or together - in the final reckoning, it’s understood that no shortlist has yet been drawn up, and won’t be until Wednesday night’s Board of Management meeting at which it is widely assumed that Brian Kerr will not have his contract renewed.
As for the Ferguson/Keane dream ticket, many observers would note that it has recently begun to take on a slightly nightmarish quality, what with a highly visible training ground row in the summer, followed by Keane’s decision to unveil his thoughts about leaving Old Trafford on MUTV, the channel which had recently been boycotted by his manager for criticisms of his tactics and selection.
Meanwhile David O’Leary ruled himself out of the running.
“If somebody thinks I can do a job international-wise then I would be very interested, but I want to get rid of the day-to-day stuff, and there’s a lot more of that in me yet.,” he said. “But Ireland is my country and I hope whatever they do is right for everybody because the fans are absolutely fantastic.
“I went to Ireland to watch the Swiss game. I thought it was sad at the end as between 30,000 and 40,000 brilliant fans will be missing out on Germany. All that green and white atmosphere will be missing and I was sad coming away from the stadium.
“But my name will not be thrown into the hat. I want to do club football for a long time and later, if I had a chance to do international football with my country, I would be interested.”
For Kerr, if he can stand to even glance at the papers after so much hostile coverage in recent weeks, it must make painful reading to see the names of his potential successors being bandied about, even as his own position has yet to be definitively resolved.
However, the chances of any rearguard action in his favour are slim. The 10 man Board of Management which will vote contains representatives of regional and schoolboy football, as well as senior officials like CEO John Delaney and President David Blood.
The financial implications of failure to qualify for Germany 2006 will feature in the debate but will not be central to the outcome, which will hinge on issues such as whether or not Kerr was able to get the most out of what is widely perceived to be a limited pool of talent, and the extent to which a continued slide in the world rankings would have further depressing consequences for the game in this country.
This must be tough stuff to swallow for Kerr, who has worked at the coalface of the game for years and who has always matched a prodigious workrate with a considered vision of how football can be improved at all levels in Ireland.
And though it has long been perceived that Kerr’s position as senior manager depended on qualification for Germany, it is understood that there would have been those within the FAI who would have argued for the manager being given the latitude of two full campaigns in which to prove himself.
“It was left open, it was never black and white,” is how a source puts it, suggesting that a play-off place might have been enough to salvage his job. But the hugely disappointing manner in which Ireland’s campaign ground to a halt effectively drained all the colour from the picture.
Having being forced to play catch-up in his first campaign after taking over from Mick McCarthy, Kerr could hardly be held responsible for the failure to qualify for Euro 2004, although the feeble performance in the last group game - a 2-0 defeat in Basel - provided the first worrying signs of a serious leadership deficit on the field, a factor which had begun to kick-in with the retirement of Steve Stuanton, Niall Quinn and Alan Kelly after the 2004 World Cup and which, even with the return of Roy Keane, would continue to dog the Irish campaign right through to its conclusion.
When the glass is looked at half-full, Kerr is entitled to point out that his side lost only one game in the World Cup campaign. The 0-1 defeat at home to France was an otherwise even match, only settled by an inspirational intervention by Thierry Henry. With the blemish of only one other defeat on his competitive record - that aforementioned Swiss game two years earlier - it can be argued that Kerr’s record, a solid one by international standards, merits the reward of another shot at the title.
But what has probably done for him is the slide since the high of the 0-0 draw in Paris a year ago, which only seemed to accelerate as the finishing line came into view. Though the points squandered at home and away to Israel continued to haunt, the three-game run-in of a 0-1 defeat at home to France, the 1-0 win scraped in Cyprus, and finally the 0-0 draw against Switzerland, created the unmistakable impression of a team in decline.
To be fair, Kerr was desperately unlucky to be missing Damien Duff and Roy Keane - who are along with Shay Given, Ireland’s three players of indubitable world class - for the final game, but at the end of it all the raw data spells out a raw message: Ireland came fourth in the group and, as a consequence, a fourth seed for the next European Championships.
Few would argue with the contention that the current Ireland squad is now short of both leadership material and quality, a situation not helped by the perception that some of the most hyped young talents of recent years - Willo Flood, Aiden McGeady and Liam Miller among them - have gone sideways rather than forwards in their careers. The slump in form of established names like John O’Shea, Kevin Kilbane, Robbie Keane and Stephen Carr, was another factor which made Kerr’s job that bit harder over the past 12 months.
And which will pose a similar challenge for whoever takes his place. Powers of man-management - that precious ability to extract more from less - will be a key point when the FAI come to deliberate on Brian Kerr’s reign and consider his successor.
After his achievements at places as diverse as Wycombe, Leicester and Celtic, Martin O’Neill clearly has what it takes in that regard. O’Neill is known to miss the game badly, and a position as international manager, though time-consuming, might suit him better than the full-on day-to-day commitment of a club job. There would also be some room for manoeuvre since Ireland won’t face a competitive game for at least seven months, allowing for the possibility of a caretaker manager, such as U21 boss Don Givens, to take over in the meantime. And a job with Ireland would also go down well at Celtic, where O’Neill retains a strong emotional attachment. However, his wife Geraldine’s illness continues to dominate his thoughts, since he stepped down at Celtic to spend more time with his family last May, and whether he thinks he could return to football in the near future remains to be seen.
Amidst all the current hype and headlines, it’s a sobering reminder that, contrary to the old Bill Shankly line, football really isn’t a matter of life and death.
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