BACK TO SQUARE ONE
Embarrassing manager search has completely lost its way with FAI in disarray
ON September 7, 2023, the Republic of Ireland lost 2-0 to France in Paris, leaving them on three defeats from four games at the half-way point of the Euro 2024 qualification campaign. It didn’t require Nostradamus to realise that Stephen Kenny’s underwhelming reign as manager was stumbling to an inevitable conclusion.
It was time for the FAI hierarchy, if it hadn’t done so already, to crank up plans for the future.
On September 7, 2024, Kenny’s successor will take charge of the team for the very first time when Ireland welcome England to Dublin in the Nations League.
The very first time. After an entire year.
By the standards of most football associations, such a gap between international managers is a rarity. For the FAI, it’s an unwelcome first.
Having stated their desire to have Kenny’s successor in place before the Nations League draw on February 8, this process has lost its way. It’s become an embarrassment.
To ask John O’Shea to step up as interim manager in March could be regarded as the FAI’s misfortune; to turn to him for a second time in June is downright carelessness.
That O’Shea is available and agreeable to assist once more is a blessing for the FAI hierarchy. O’Shea first answered Ireland’s call in 1997 as a 15year-old and has been doing so ever since.
He should be odds-on for the FAI’s next Hall of Fame recipient in Abbotstown.
In March, O’Shea was a genial caretaker, who kept the mood in the camp light, and kindly remembered to turn off the lights on his way out of the Aviva after the Swiss friendly.
This time it’s different. He has more skin in the game. He’s not only digging the FAI out of a deeper hole, he’s in position as a potentially serious player for the vacancy.
The FAI can’t accuse him of lacking experience, as it has up to now. Four games, including a trip to Portugal to face his former Manchester United team-mate Cristiano Ronaldo, equal an opportunity for O’Shea to harden his credentials.
If Ireland emerge from this window with credit, O’Shea will be best placed of all the contenders for a job he covets. In effect, the June games are akin to his interview.
O’Shea wasn’t a runner in the initial race but now that it has essentially been declared void, he has entered the parade ring and could yet finish first past the post.
In 1986 no one knew Bob Paisley was in for the Irish job until the blazers got together in Merrion Square and he missed out by a vote.
As for other the candidates, Willy Sagnol, already a person of interest for the FAI, can concentrate on Georgia’s involvement in Euro 2024 and think about his options thereafter.
Lee Carsley is most unlikely to do a U-turn on staying with England’s Under 21s but a different voice, and a different approach, from the FAI might give him something to think about.
Robbie Keane could be a fascinating contender, especially if Maccabi Tel Aviv were to win the Israeli league. And if Chris Hughton has recovered from his AFCON anguish, he can expect a check call.
Improbably, it’s a whole new ball game now because the FAI has made a right mess.
In fairness to the FAI’s director of football, Marc Canham, he fronted up on Friday and apologised – for the delay, for the confusion and for setting deadlines that couldn’t be reached in the first place. The first was the Nations League draw; the second was the promise by Canham of an early April unveiling, a target which also came and went.
It was only the week before last when an FAI staffer contacted journalists on the football beat, prepping them for an announcement last Wednesday with a press conference to follow.
As this ‘heads-up’ was news to FAI president Paul Cooke, you have to ask who sanctioned it, and why, as no replacement was in place.
Was Banquo’s ghost about to sit at the head of the FAI table?
This is Canham’s first spin on the Irish men’s manager merry-goround – it’s not easy to agree with the term ‘head coach’ – and he is not emerging with credit.
His role, together with former CEO Jonathan Hill and FAI director Packie Bonner, has been to search for and identify the best candidate for the position.
When that person was in place, it was up to Hill to engage in the nitty-gritty of the contract. Only Hill is no longer a player.
While he remains on the payroll until April 30, his hotel suite in Castleknock and his desk in Abbotstown have been cleared.
And all for a watery explanation over a modest payment in lieu of holidays he wasn’t entitled to. Oh dear.
Hill is just the latest high-profile figure to leave the bridge on the FAI.
Kenny exited as manager on November 22, followed by Roy Barrett, the independent chair of the board. Last month, Louise Cassidy, head of marketing and communications, served out her notice.
On Friday, Cathal Dervan, the FAI’s director of media, who had been marginalised while Kenny was manager and Hill was CEO, popped up on FAI TV interviewing Canham.
Towards the end of his mea culpa, Canham made it clear that Bonner, Cooke and interim CEO David Courell would oversee the reboot of the recruitment process. The humdrum status of the Irish men’s team will come into focus when 24 teams compete in the European Championship finals this summer.
Having qualified in 2012 and 2016, for Ireland to fall short of a play-off for 2024 was almost as damning as the current cock-up over the new manager.
James McClean was in Dublin on Wednesday where he described the FAI manager’s search as a circus. He was right.
The centurion also cut to the chase about what needs to be done if Ireland are to figure in major finals again after so many fallow years.
‘All this talk about lovely football, and the way to play football... football is about winning. I remember the tournaments. I don’t remember the football we played to get there or blah, blah, blah,’ he said.
There has been enough blah, blah, blah by the FAI since Kenny slipped off the stage, over 150 days ago.
Those on the board, and those left on the senior leadership team, know they’ve erred badly.
They are under even greater scrutiny to deliver an appointment that meets with public approval and leads the men’s senior team to a better place.
If a week is a long time in politics, a year without a manager feels like an eternity in Irish football.
All this talk about lovely football... football is about winning