FAI meet tomorrow on Kerr's fate

Brian Kerr is expected to learn his fate tomorrow when the Football Association of Ireland meet to discuss the Republic of Ireland’s failure to reach next summer’s World Cup finals.

The 10-man Board of Management within the FAI have brought forward their meeting by 24 hours, with the assumption being Kerr will not be handed a new contract as manager.

Speculation is mounting regarding a replacement for Kerr, with Sir Alex Ferguson, Sir Bobby Robson, Martin O’Neill, David O’Leary and Kenny Dalglish all being linked.

Since last Wednesday’s goalless draw with Switzerland at Lansdowne Road, a result that confirmed Ireland’s exit from the qualifiers, Kerr has subsequently attempted to defend his record.

In his 32 months in charge, Ireland lost just four of 33 matches, winning 18 and with 18 clean sheets, with some notable friendly scalps along the way such as Holland, Czech Republic and Portugal – a fine achievement on the surface.

Yet competitively, Kerr won just seven of 16 matches, with those victories including home and away to Georgia, the Faroe Islands and Cyprus, and at home to Albania.

When Ireland needed three points the most, against France, Switzerland, Russia and Israel in European Championship and World Cup qualifying games, Kerr’s record is found wanting as it reads: played eight, won none, drew six and lost two.

In particular, after the summer break and with Ireland on course for at least a top-two finish in their group that would have guaranteed them a play-off place, they struggled for form and results.

A 1-0 defeat at home to the French, admittedly their only one of the last campaign, was followed by a wretched 1-0 win in Cyprus and then a goalless draw with the Swiss.

Kerr knows he is in the firing line tomorrow as he said: “I’m the same as any person here, or anywhere else, who works on a contracted job and it is under review checking your performance, having a look at how you did and making your mind up on whether to keep you.

“A lot of people end up out of work after this situation. If they don’t want me then I am available for work, and I will be out scrapping for a job because I haven’t been out of work since I left school.”

Kerr has received a lot of support from the people to whom it should matter the most – the players, with Kenny Cunningham and Stephen Carr particularly vociferous in defence of a man who has ultimately served his country well for many years.

Cunningham and Carr have subsequently retired in the wake of Ireland’s exit, but there are those such as Clinton Morrison, Stephen Reid and Gary Doherty, who have also voiced their backing for the 52-year-old.

Newcastle goalkeeper Shay Given certainly believes the criticism Kerr faced in the run-up to the last two matches against Cyprus and Switzerland was unfounded and unfair.

“I felt people back home should have got behind him and the team, and only after then had their opinion,” Given told PA Sport.

“It just seemed very negative before the last three games, and that’s not the Ireland of old.

“I’ve been there 10 years and it was frustrating to see the media act like that. Before they have always got behind the team, but we didn’t feel that was the case.

“I don’t know what the future holds for Brian, and what the FIA are thinking. We will have to wait and see.

“But people shouldn’t be too critical because to think, we were just one goal away from getting to the play-offs.”

As one of the best goalkeepers in the world, Given concedes to being gutted at missing out on the finals, adding: “It will take some time to get over.

“Every time I’ve picked up the paper since, it’s all been about England going to the World Cup, and all credit to them for that.

“But it’s hard to take sometimes when you read about them all looking forward to it, and I’ll not be there.

“It’s hugely disappointing because I feel I should be there, and I’m sure the rest of the lads feel the same.

“But I said from day one we didn’t have the biggest squad in the world, and if we did get injuries then it would be a problem.

“Ireland is a small country with not a huge amount of players to choose from, maybe 20 to 25, whereas England maybe have 50 to 60.

“We had key injuries to key players in the last few games, with Damien [Duff] and Roy [Keane] out. They are big players and they were big games.

“It was frustrating we couldn’t have our full-strength team.”