The FAI have confirmed that Brian Kerr, Bryan Robson, Phillipe Troussier, Kevin Moran, John Aldridge, Peter Reid and Frank Stapleton were the seven candidates interviewed for the vacant Ireland manager's job this week. Kenny Dalglish, previously linked with the post, was not interviewed. I'm still with Kerr, got him at 5/1 last week just before his odds were slashed.
What a bunch of jokers, Stapleton, Moran, Robson and Reid ahead of Dalglish and even Kinnear. I know Kinnear made those comments but he couldn't do an interview as if he didn't get the job his Luton career would be under threat. That's a joke that is.
What if Dalglish didn't want the job? Or his demands were ridiculous? Or if he said that he'd do it only until the start of next season, because he wants back in to Premiership football? So the FAI should still interview him despite any or all of the above? And Kinnear? Who couldn't be arsed to even sit down with his prospective employers and say how he envisaged the job? Or how much he wanted? How quickly would people have jumped on the FAI as World Class Muppets if they had given the job to Kinnear without an interview? Or if they had paid Dalglish 2 million a year? Or begged him to the point of embarassment to take the job? Or given him the job for 6 months? It seems Hamilton was more thorough than anyone thought, what with him contacting both Engel and Domenech and who knows who else in Europe. All this secrecy about the selection process was/is a good thing as it stopped a press campaign by various other muppets touting their boys - remember Dunphy screaming for Kinnear after Charlton resigned? The same Kinnear who couldn't be arsed to even pick up a phone. Face facts, manager of the Republic of Ireland is not the plum job that has managers in Europe moaning. For instance, Van Gaal is on sticky ground at Barca at the moment. He wasn't on any Irish short list, but you better believe that he'd be first to put his name forward for the England or Italian if he thought he had half a chance. Another thing to remember: When many were screaming for McCarthy's head, it would have been wise to look at the then possible replacements. Those replacements are the short list and with the exception of Troussier, no one else has World Cup, let alone senior international management experience. McCarthy, added to that list, looks the most qualified. Funny old game, innit?
"What if Dalglish didn't want the job? Or his demands were ridiculous? Or if he said that he'd do it only until the start of next season, because he wants back in to Premiership football? So the FAI should still interview him despite any or all of the above?" You can't just make something up to try and justify the situation! He said he wanted it, the rest is just made up what ifs. "And Kinnear? Who couldn't be arsed to even sit down with his prospective employers and say how he envisaged the job? Or how much he wanted?" He said he wanted it, how could he do an interview? Supposeing he does one and doesn't get the job, where does that leave him with the Luton board and fans? He couldn't do an interview, I don't blame him at all. "How quickly would people have jumped on the FAI as World Class Muppets if they had given the job to Kinnear without an interview?" Alot slower then even mentioning the name Frank Stapleton in connection with the job, interview or not. "Or if they had paid Dalglish 2 million a year? Or begged him to the point of embarassment to take the job? Or given him the job for 6 months?" Again, I'd rather any of those situations, witht he exception of the 6 months one which again you're just making up, to Robson, Reid, Moran or Stapleton getting near the job. "It seems Hamilton was more thorough than anyone thought, what with him contacting both Engel and Domenech and who knows who else in Europe. All this secrecy about the selection process was/is a good thing as it stopped a press campaign by various other muppets touting their boys - remember Dunphy screaming for Kinnear after Charlton resigned? The same Kinnear who couldn't be arsed to even pick up a phone." The same Kinnear who had the job but didn't want to take a 400 grand pay cut in otherwords? He was the logical choice but the pay cut was too much, again, I don't blame him. "Face facts, manager of the Republic of Ireland is not the plum job that has managers in Europe moaning. For instance, Van Gaal is on sticky ground at Barca at the moment. He wasn't on any Irish short list, but you better believe that he'd be first to put his name forward for the England or Italian if he thought he had half a chance." I'd rather Frank Stapleton. Two people who are more then qualified have said they want the job that's good enough for me, but because they wont do these stupid interviews they wont get it and Frank Stapleton is in contention. "Another thing to remember: When many were screaming for McCarthy's head, it would have been wise to look at the then possible replacements. Those replacements are the short list and with the exception of Troussier, no one else has World Cup, let alone senior international management experience. McCarthy, added to that list, looks the most qualified. Funny old game, innit?" And Kinnear and Dalglish are better then everyone on the list and McCarthy and they aren't on the shortlist.
I didn't make anything up - I merely gave a few hypotheticals as to what might have happened. Nowhere did I say that any of these hypotheticals were true. I still don't claim that any of the above are true; but knowing Dalglish, none of them are beyond the realms of possibility. Making things up is like talking to 2 Ipswich fans who don't like Matt Holland and decide that ALL Ipswich fans want him gone. Now, that's a good 'make-up'.
Firstly, as ever the Holland thing is completley unrelated and secondly they were both season ticket holders and told me that was the general opinion of those in the stands, so I thought it was pretty safe to assume it may be true, whereas you've just made up some purley hypothetical situations where there's been no indication what so ever of any of them being true.
Look up the definition of Hypothetical in your big dictionary. I couldn't be bothered trying to explain it again.
Well you tell me what exactly the point in bringing Hypothetical situations into the thread was? It's not like there was any indication that anything near what you were saying was the case, why bring it up?
http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=907593&issue_id=8667 So.... it seems Kerr is the man.
I couldn't read that report since I'm not registered but I definitely have my doubts about him and I think there were better people there, but then again he's better then some of the others. I don't know if he can make the step up to man manageing the likes of Keane and co from being St Pats/Youths manager, however there are similaritys between himself and Bruce Arena, I suppose is one way of looking at it.
According to a senior FAI official "there is a problem with Keane coming back." Doesn't say whether the problem is Kerr, Keane or the FAI, but at a guess, if we can go into the realms of the hypothetical - all together everyone hypothetical - Kerr is a well known disciplinarian. Perhaps (hypothetical here again!) here takes a dim view of Keane's role in what happened in Saipan.
"So.... it seems Kerr is the man." I duly hope so. And the "king Roy" question should not even come into it. With the players we have, any half decent manager should be able to make us into a top quality team without Roy in the team. Jonah
My problem is weather he'll be able to take the step up from managing kids/St Pats to managing some of the bigger egos in the Irish dressing room, of which Roy Keane is one but not the only one. It looks a 100% certainty that Kerr is now the man really, but I can't help but wonder if we're appointing another Eoin Hand. My one hope is that Kerr comes in as his own man, brings Keane back if he sees it as a good move and picks the players he thinks are the best and doesn't bow down to the pressure that comes from sections of the media. I also hope he doesn't go the oppisate to McCarthy on the League Of Ireland front, Crowe is worth another chance but I hope he doesn't start calling up people like Houlihan ahead of the likes of Reid or Partridge, as an example. I have my doubts about him, but I'll wait and see what he can do before passing judgement.
If hope Kerr is the man, he was my favorite after Kinnear ruled himself out. Also, and I hope I'm not proved wrong on this, but I don't feel his lack of experience at this level will be too big a problem. I remember Brian from his days at Pats and he always struck me as the type of manager who you wouldn't mess with. And surely in theory managing a group of highly paid experienced full time pros should be easier than a bunch of kids? And if some player does start acting the bollix shouldn't we be blaming the player, and not Brian's apparent inability to deal with them?
Good stuff, I thought Kerr was the best option from the start. On the whole Kinnear interview situation - Slash, I'm not quite following how after publicly saying he wanted the job (as you yourself have stated), going for an interview would have suddenly put his job in any more danger. Maybe I just don't understand the concept of going for an interview, but surely it's just a continuation of the "I'm interested" process........
Well true enough, but if you ask me it's different. If he went for the interview and couldn't get the job I think he'd have to resign as Luton manager anyway, saying you're interested is a bit different imo.
Well, I don't, but I think it's just a fundamental difference of opinion. It's not like he wanted to leave them for a rival club or anything, or even a bigger club - they could hardly blame him for wanting to manage his country after so long in the game...
Exactly, I mean no Irish fan that I know blamed Kinnear for not taking the job the last time when it would have involved a huge cut in salary. He think he may not be so popular after this.
To be honest, I don't know Brian Kerr very well. I just know he is now in charge of U-20 as a manager. Could you someone let me know how great he is? (Matt Holland and John O'Shea are backing for him) I think I should know him for the future travel to Georgia and Albania!
Any manager is not a sure bet. The FAI could hire Wenger, Fergie, Van Gaal, etc but that does not gaurantee success. I am happy with the Kerr appointment certainly has more to offer that most of the rest on the short list, though Dalgleish was my favourite. Only time will tell if this is a good choice.
Maiko, Kerr's been in charge of our youth setup (apart from the U-21s) since 1996, and has been the FAI's head of technical development since '98. In his time as underage manager, his teams have managed: - third in the U-20 World Cup in Malaysia in '97 (including a 17-year-old Damien Duff starring at three years above his level). - winners of the U-16 European Championships in 1998, beating Italy in the final. John O'Shea, Sean Thornton and Thomas Butler were involved in this team. - winners of the U-18 European Championships, also in 1998, beating Germany in the final. The one and only time that a country has won both of UEFA's underage tournaments in the same year. This U-18 side was the team of Robbie Keane, Gary Doherty, Richard Dunne, Barry Quinn et al, although it was missing the injured Duffer. - reached the knockout stages of the U-20 World Cup in Nigeria in 1999, but were beaten by the hosts on penalties. Duff, Healy and McPhail were some of the names on the teamsheet, captained again IIRC by Barry Quinn. - qualified again for European Championships, but I can't remember too many of the details - qualified for 2003 U-20 World Cup in UAE. - Won four-team warmup tournament for that Wold Cup involving the hosts, South Korea, and the heavily-fancied France. He's also won a couple of league medals as manager of St. Patrick's Athletic in the league over here, before he joined the Irish setup. The players from his various underage sides will form the backbone of our team for the next decade - players like Joe Murphy, Richard Dunne, John O'Shea, Barry Quinn, Gary Doherty, Alan Quinn, Richie Partridge, Thomas Butler, Richie Ryan, Colin Healy, Steven Reid, Steve McPhail, Damien Duff, Robbie Keane, Richard Sadlier, Graham Barrett, and Andy Reid. There are also high hopes for a lot of his current crop of players, such as Sean Thornton, Adrian Deane, Jon Douglas, John McGrath, Keith Foy, Willo Flood, Michael Keane, Mickey Doyle, Liam Miller, Paul Tierney, Wes Houlihan, Liam Kearney and Michael Foley-Sheridan. Not to mention other players who came through his ranks and are on the fringes of the senior squad now, such as Glen Crowe, Jim Goodwin and Damien Delaney. In short, he's had a fair impact so far! Any other questions?
Very informative post. I hope that Kerr does try to develop some of the Irish-based players, so that we end up with a fully Irish-born team as opposed to some of the woeful imports we've had to depend on from time to time. Yeah it's been great to have the likes of Townsend, Houghton and Cascarino, but now that the game's developing further and teams like St Pats, Bohs and Shels are getting better and better, we might see the domestic league take a few steps up the ladder. Kerr is in a great position to lead the way on this kind of development for the game here. And to spot talent here for polishing in the Premiership.
Thank you very much, Leto! Now I understand how he is! He did wonderful jobs at underage in the past. Now I'm looking forward to seeing a new Ireland team and how they will change...