A CAN OF WORMS! Roy may be back in picture
APOLOGY IS LITTLE COMFORT TO IRISH FANS
FOUR minutes and 20 seconds long, and 784 words from Marc Canham, yet no reference to “existing contractual obligations”, that immortal line that will follow the FAI director of football through the remainder of his time at Abbotstown.
That’s what we got on Friday, day 149 of the search for the next senior Ireland manager, as the Association posted a video of Canham’s attempts at explaining the delay in finding Stephen Kenny’s replacement.
That he chose to speak on an inhouse production about this embarrassing saga, rather than face the press, had us expecting a weak and watereddown attempt at explaining away the shambles that has made Irish football a laughing stock across the world.
And that, in this reporter’s view, is exactly what we got.
Meanwhile, the revelation that an interim appointment - most likely John O’Shea again - will be required for the June friendlies will do little to quell the anger that is building around the country.
Apology
There was a mention of “contractual arrangements” and there was an apology for the fact that “timelines and deadlines we’ve previously set created a sense of expectation and potentially confusion for everyone.”
But because Canham decided against facing the media, we couldn’t press him on why the promise made in late February that “an announcement for the permanent Head Coach of the Men’s National Team will be made in early April” was not fulfilled.
We are at a stage now where it probably makes sense to hand the keys over to O’Shea again and wait and see which Euro 2024 managers get the bullet. But it should never have come to this.
Were they really pinning their hopes on the outcome of the play-off decider between Georgia and Greece, as sources lead us to believe?
Another question that we could not put to Canham.
To put this disastrous hunt into context, of all the European nations and their current managers, only one search took longer - and they had an excuse.
Interim
It took Ukraine 158 days to transition from Oleksandr Petrakov to former Tottenham and West Ham striker Sergiy Rebrov, with Ruslan Rotan serving as an interim boss for one game between the two permanent managers.
To be fair to Ukraine, they were getting the crap bombed out of them by Russia at the time and still are.
So it’s ourselves and
Azerbaijan, who began their search eight days after ours, who are lagging behind.
In terms of efficiency, Croatia (Zlatko Dalic), Finland (Markku Kanerva), Hungary (Marco Rossi) and Luxembourg (Luc Holtz) had the next man in place pretty much as soon as the previous manager exited.
With the writing on the wall for Stephen Kenny long before the friendly against New Zealand last November, we probably should have been similarly sharp with our groundwork.
And so we are left facing a Nations League campaign against England, Finland and
Greece next autumn with a new manager who has to hit the ground running.
Table
There will be no opportunity for Willy Sagnol, Gus Poyet, Lee Carsley, Roy Keane or whoever gets the job to get his feet under the table before the September 7 visit of England to the Aviva Stadium. What a baptism of fire that will be.
Maybe before that appointment. the press might get the chance to quiz Canham and dig a little deeper into what has gone wrong in this drawn out search, saga seven, for the next Ireland manager. guided Georgia to Euro 2024 and Poyet appeared to favour staying with Greece.
While the fresh delay means an appointment won’t be made until late summer, it gives the Association time to revisit previous options.
Cooke is a big fan of former Manchester United and Ireland man Keane and his involvement in the search could lead to fresh contact with the legendary midfielder.
Canham, in his inhouse interview, revealed John O’Shea would likely resume the role of interim head coach for the June friendlies at home to Hungary and away to Portugal.
Return
This would also likely see the return of Glenn Whelan and Paddy McCarthy, and maybe Brian Kerr too, who acted as technical advisor in the March window when O’Shea took charge of friendlies with Belgium and Switzerland.
“Realistically we’re looking toward the UEFA Nations League now with the first game against England in September and that’s what we’re aiming to do,” said Canham, when asked when a permanent appointment would be made.