FAI can run but they can’t hide

THERE was much controversy about the selection policies of Steve Staunton during the course of his 21 month, 17 game reign as Irish manager.

But the FAI’s decision to dispense with his services underlines that the biggest selection blooper of them all was the appointment of Stan in the first place. Of course, that has only become crystal clear with hindsight. Admittedly, there were those in the game who thought the appointment was wrong from day one but many more were prepared to give the rookie and his experienced sidekick, Bobby Robson, a chance. After all, although an unusual appointment, it wasn’t unprecedented in the international game, Mark Hughes, Jurgen Klinsmann and Marco Van Basten being among some of the best known names to have made the jump pretty much straight from player to manager.

What no-one could deny in January two years ago was that Staunton’s appointment was a gamble and, despite some intermittently encouraging signs of progress along the way, one that the dismal draw with Cyprus at Croke Park finally confirmed had backfired horribly. Coming on top of the earlier debacles in Nicosia and San Marino, it was simply one calamity too many.

Hence, the brutal but necessary decision to cut Steve Staunton loose with one game left in Ireland’s doomed European Championship qualifying campaign. After last Wednesday, there was never any question that he could see out the campaign and stay on for that match next month in Wales. Bad enough to hear Ireland’s most capped player roundly booed at Croke Park, without the additional spectacle of him being dragged through the mire one last time as a lame duck gaffer in Cardiff. Better that the cut was as quick and clean and humane as it could be, given the already bleak prognosis.

And it also means that the move to bring in a new man can get under way sooner rather than later. The FAI’s decision to out-source responsibility for the task is as much an admission of their previous error, as was John Delaney’s mea culpa in the Crowne Plaza hotel in the wee hours of Tuesday night. But it doesn’t mean that they have gone away, you know.

The Association may be casting itself in public as little more than a rubber-stamping mechanism for whoever is proposed by the head-hunters, but you can be sure that there will be plenty of information and advice flowing in both directions along the way. After all, the first obligation of consultants is to their clients, which in this case remains the FAI Board of Management who will have to ratify the final appointment. John Delaney has said that they will do so ‘‘without reservation’’ but it’s inconceivable that, as the list of candidates accumulates before a final name is selected, the consultants won’t be well-armed with the knowledge of who will meet with the most favourable reaction from the people who will eventually pay his wages. The FAI can run, but they can’t hide. At the end of the day, they will have to be able to fully back the new man — and, perhaps more importantly, the new man will have to feel reassured that he has that backing.

The Association will also have to pay the going rate which should mean at least double what they handed over for the combined efforts of Steve Staunton and Bobby Robson. No Premiership manager, for example, would be interested in a job that didn’t pay something in the region of a million euro per annum.

But before we even get to that point — which is likely to be next spring at the earliest, if not indeed, after the Euro 2008 finals when the managerial landscape in Europe will have changed again — the first task is to appoint the men who will make the appointment.

One or more will be drawn from the ranks of former Irish players and managers who still have an involvement in the game, and the FAI could do much worse in this regard than to put in an early call to Kenny Cunningham, a former Irish captain only recently retired, who not only knows a lot of the players in the current squad well, but who is also a savvy operator with an intelligent grasp of the demands of the international game. Someone with a good working knowledge of the European scene — and a good contacts book to match — would also seem like a desirable person to have on board.

But all that is just the first step in the lengthy process which will finally deliver the successor to Steve Staunton. But there are no guarantees in international football, where the gaffer has far less time to work with his players than does his equivalent in club football.

So no sure thing then. But, this time round, the FAI must at least leave no stone unturned in the search for the man whose task it will be to help Ireland make a meaningful bid to qualify for the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa.