Has Trap left Ireland in a better place?

If one of the most basic aims of management is to improve a team’s existing status, it’s going to be interesting to see where the starting point for the next Ireland manager is considered to be.

Because, on the face of it at least, the national team isn’t in that good a place at all at present. For one thing, they’re in an unfamiliar position of utter obscurity as regards the 2014 World Cup group. The 1-0 defeat by Austria did not just end the Giovanni Trapattoni era, it also ended Ireland’s involvement in the qualification mix at a starkly early point. This is the first time since 1983 that the squad have not at least had some faint hope going into October.

Such results have also seen Ireland drop to 59th in the latest Fifa world rankings — the lowest since the system was introduced in 1993.