This CAN'T be the same guy, can it? Is Ireland that hard up? From soccer365.com: Stapleton: I Want Irish Job 13/01/03 Frank Stapleton is still harbouring hopes of becoming the Republic of Ireland's new manager. The former Manchester United striker revealed he has a preliminary interview for the job. The Irish are looking for a successor to Mick McCarthy, who resigned in the wake of the defeat by Switzerland last October. Stapleton told BBC GMR: "I had an interview with Bryan Hamilton, who is working with the Football Association of Ireland. His job is to whittle it down within the next week, I believe, and he will then take his findings back to the FAI. We are all waiting to hear, waiting by the phone." He added: "I'm very passionate about the Irish team but maybe the one thing against me is probably that I haven't managed in the Premiership."
Player-coach for a national team? A national team plays on the average of once a month, so unless he's playing regularly for a club, he won't be in any condition to play at a higher level. That kind of thing only happens in the US, during the Bora era, when the national team was a de facto club. And if he plays for a club, he could't properly do the things that a national team manager needs to do, that is, spend every weekend seeing the players in his pool with their clubs. Too many masters to serve. As for Big Frank, give the guy a break. A convicted felon would be out of jail by now. While it's true he made his share of mistakes here, I blame the circumstances of MLS more for the failure. He had almost no knowledge of the marginal American player, the kind of guy who makes or breaks an MLS team. He didn't have (m)any contacts in the college coaching area, nor a network of people who could scout the upcoming opponents. Of course, we have the responsibility to not put ourselves in situations beyond our capabilities which set us up for failure, and Frank must take the blame for this. The Revs also must take the responsibilty for hiring him (and who knows how much "selling" was done to get him to take the job?) If you recall, the Revs had their eye on Ossie Ardilles, who ended up going to Japan instead. As we would soon realize with the early Revs, the Plan B was that there was no Plan B. Stapo happened to be on a flight to the US to scout locations for a camp he was involved with on the Cape, and he met someone on the plane connected to the Revs. Most of us would have never heard of him if he had taken a different flight that day. Tom
I couldn't tell for sure because he was wearing a sweater and a wool hat, but I think that was a pig I just saw flying by the window! Tom
I was making light of the fact that he's probably hoping to have a coach on the national team that won't send him packing for bad behavior. As for Frank, I doubt if he would want to be judged on his coaching based on the opening year of a new soccer league. On the other hand, Wrongen probably wishes he could rest on his "coach of the year" laurels...