National treasure Packie’s not up to picking the next manager
AS a player Packie Bonner was pretty good at letting things slip through his fingers.
There was the shot from Toto Schillaci in the World Cup quarter-final at Italia 90.
“The Pope would have caught that,” joked Jack Charlton afterwards.
If that attempt was bad, the abysmal attempt to stop Wim Jonk’s shot at the 1994 World Cup was even worse.
Then there was the mix-up which led to Poland’s equaliser in the 1991 Euro qualifiers.
That cost us a place in Euro 92 when Big Jack’s team was at its peak.
Make no mistake, with a different keeper — a better one — that golden era for Irish football could have been more memorable.
Two semi-finals, perhaps even three, could have been reached.
Yet that’s the past. The world has moved on. But has the FAI?
I have my doubts whenever I see Packie involved, not just at board level but also in the recruitment process to appoint a new manager.
How has this been allowed to happen?
Why is he one of three members on the recruitment committee to find a new boss?
What has he done to deserve it?
Because once again we are seeing things slip out of his hands.
It was November when Stephen Kenny lost his job. It is now April.
Promised
We were promised a new manager by February, then early April.
Now we are not laying the blame for this ridiculous delay entirely at Bonner’s door.
Jonathan ‘Over The’ Hill was part of the recruitment process, too. He’s gone now.
We will never forget you Jeremy.
Then there is Marc Canham. Never heard of him before he got the job as FAI director of football.
Not likely to ever hear of him once he leaves it.
And mark my words — sorry, Marc my words — he’s a name you will all quickly forget.
These kingmakers matter because as Stephen Bradley said on Friday night, any prospective manager does not look at the team on the field before he accepts a job.
No, he looks at the people he will be working for.
And if that is Canham, then the first question the candidate will ask, will be ‘right what are your credentials?’
People answering to Canham, as director of football, need to be impressed by him.
Trust me, a powerpoint presentation won’t cut it with a decent manager.
And he’ll look at Canham’s CV and wonder, ‘right what have you done in the game?’
The answer is not nearly enough.
So, bottom line, if the FAI want the senior men’s team to align with the underage teams, and play a uniform style of football, then any decent manager will run a mile.
No two teams should ever be the same because you pick a system to suit the players you have.
Anyone with even a little bit of sense knows this.
So, I’d seriously worry about Canham still being in there.
Not as much as I worry about Bonner being involved.
I’m a football man.
I’ve been in the game a long time, dating back to the late 1970s.
I have seen, worked under, worked with, and come into contact with lots of football administrators.
Packie — who I have met a number of times — wouldn’t even make my top one thousand.
I know, in some circles, that Packie is a national treasure. But so is Daniel O’Donnell.
Packie is the Daniel O’Donnell of Irish football.
That folksy charm isn’t for me.
Give me a person like Roy
Keane. Get me a Lee Carsley. Get me a Chris Hughton. Get me a John O’Shea.
It isn’t hard to find a good manager.
So why is the FAI making it look so difficult?
At this stage, Irish football needs a revolution.
We need someone big, strong, wise, ballsy to take charge of that place and just get rid of the people at the top.
Make no mistake, there are a lot of really decent operators working inside the FAI.
But Packie, Paul Cooke and Canham (below) are the ones with the biggest responsibility at the moment: to find a new manager.
We have to get rid of Canham from this process.
He has been at it since November, said it would be done by early April, and then failed to keep to that deadline.
Off you go son. Go and work for someone else.
Cooke also can’t be part of it. In my opinion he doesn’t have the football credentials to pick a new boss.
And that leaves Packie. Sorry, my old pal, but too many candidates have slipped through the fingers.
I know you have a lot of experience of that kind of thing.
But you should head out the door, too.
The person to bring in to recruit a new boss and to run the FAI is Pat Dolan.
Smart
He is smart, well connected, brave and decisive.
He has won the League of Ireland as a manager, has worked as a chief executive, has advised clubs across Europe, has advised players such as Kevin Doyle through his career, and has advised managers such as Lille’s Paulo Fonseca.
Big Pat would recruit the right man in a week.
Get him in, get the rest of them out.
FORMER Ireland striker Simon Cox believes that Seamus Coleman deserves a new Everton contract.
The 35-year-old right-back’s Toffees contract expires in June, but Cox, capped 30 times by the Boys in Green, believes Coleman still has a lot to offer the Toffees.
“Seamus embodies what playing for Everton is about,” said Cox. “Seamus never wanted to lose, always wanted to be successful and wasn’t shy from voicing an opinion.”
Cox has also backed John O’Shea to take over full time as Ireland manager after two games as interim boss.
Ideas
“John is young enough, he’s got fresh ideas and he has been taught by Alex Ferguson for a long period of time,” said former Ireland striker Cox.
“It surprises me that Lee (Carsley) ruled himself out of that, because he would have done really well due to the success he had with England Under-21s.”
On the Premier League title race, Cox added: “I would love Liverpool to win the Premier League, I don’t think they will win it and I can’t see past Manchester City, as they have too much firepower.”
Cox was in Giovanni Trapattoni’s Ireland squad at Euro 2012 and played in all three of the Boys in Green Group C defeats, starting against then-world champions Spain and coming on as a sub against Croatia and Italy in Poland.