No, Big Cas isn't thinking of a comeback, no, it's much worse. ---Stapo reveals Hamilton talks Former Irish international Frank Stapleton has revealed that he met with the FAI’s international expert Bryan Hamilton before Christmas regarding the vacant Ireland manager’s job. Stapleton has been out of management since his spell at the helm of Bradford City ended eight years ago, but he clearly holds ambitions to manage at international level, although his tone would suggest that he realises he will have to gain more experience and success at club level before he can hope to make the step up. Hamilton has been meeting prospective managerial candidates for the past month, and expects to deliver a short-list of suitable candidates to the FAI within the next fortnight. And Stapo, who was the record Irish international goalscorer until Niall Quinn eclipsed his 20-goal total, would dearly love to make the next round of interviews. He said: "I spoke to Bryan three-and-a-half weeks ago. There are lots of candidates, particularly from abroad, and Bryan has a list of people to whittle down to about five before the interviews will start. "I’ve spoken to him again and he doesn’t think anything will be concluded until the middle of January." --- Reid and Robson was bad, but this is taking the pish.
The more you read about it, the more it seems that the good ole FAI are going for the cheap, quick-fix to get us through the Euro qualifiers. Moran and the Plank have been heavily tipped over the last few weeks. Could it be that they aren't thinking of a 'serious' boss until after Euro 2004? Surely the FAI wouldn't be so short termist? Ahem.
Stapleton? This registers as a mild shock, even if all the FAI is doing is talking to him. Those of us who have followed MLS since Day 1 recall that Stapleton lasted just one year with the New England Revolution, with the whole Alexi Lalas benching row that year not helping his cause-- but just out of curiousity, what other jobs has he held since 1996, besides New England and Bradford City? Any ideas, anyone? (And BTW, anyone have a link to any articles about this news?) I'd be extremely surprised if he got the job-- but then again, no one ever expected Jack Charlton to receive serious consideration for the post in the late 1980's, either. Credit to the FAI, they've cornered the market on unconventional wisdom... Cheers, William
I saw the interview on Sky Sports and he sounded like he thought he might have a chance. I can't believe he'd make it onto a list of 55, never mind 5.
Oh god no, Kerr is now elevated to God Status as far as the management job is concerned given other candadates, as for other jobs I don't know any of any other besides Bradford and his short spell in the MLS.
So let's put the pieces of the puzzle together here... Big Frank's run at the Bradford helm ended in 1995, which ran right smack-dab into his one year in MLS with New England in 1996. And no coaching work to speak of since then. That's six-plus years out of the day-in, day-out coaching rigors-- and that makes six years out of the loop as well. I can't see how he can get the job, much less get considered. I'm not speaking poorly of the guy, just objectively. Frank's one hell of a nice man-- having interviewed him on a couple of different ocassions for a magazine I used to work for-- but he just does not have the track record required for a coach or manager of international stature. So therefore, there are certainly more qualified people as well to take over for Mick McCarthy. Anyone know a list of any rumored candidates, aside from Stapleton? Cheers, William
Yeah, I can't see how he's being considered at all. As for other people, there's Brian Kerr (I'd be amazed if you'd heard of him but I hadn't heard of Arena before he became USA manager, he's very highly rated here) Joe Kinnear (Managaer of the famous "Crazy Gang" Wimbledon team and current manager of Luton where he recently achieved promotion to division 2 and is doing very well there) John Aldridge (Manager of the infamous Tranmere cup running sides that claimed many a scalp, missed out on the playoffs in division one barley before he sold nearly all of his big names and got nothing in returned, resigned when Tranmere got relegated two years ago) Kenny Dalglish is rumoured (Won the title with Blackburn) Troussier claimed he was approached but the FAI denied it (Managed Japan at the 2002 world cup). Those have all been connected to the job either by the FAI or themselves, there's probably alot more I've missed out on or that have been kept a secret.
Interesting list, Slash/ED... thanks for the info. I think you can count Troussier out, along with any other managers with a vagabond reputation. I'm not sure Dalglish would want it-- I saw him at a press conference in Melbourne some months back, and he gave the general impression that he was quite happy not having to deal with the daily wear and tear of being a coach or a manager. So that leaves just the Irish coaches-- which isn't necessarily a bad thing... maybe the FAI would be best served by an Irish coach to the benefit of Irish players. Of the three, I would put them in the order of Kinnear, Aldridge and Kerr. Kinnear, by virtue of what he was able to accomplish at Wimbledon, is definitely a shrewd tactician, something that is required at international level. Aldridge, like Stapleton, is someone quite successful as a player but really hasn't cut his teeth as a coach yet. And Kerr, being the unknown commodity that he is, would be a risk... but then again, I did say that the FAI have shown us before that they've cornered the market on unconventional wisdom. I think your Kerr/Arena analogy is curious, can you tell me what Kerr has done at domestic level? Back in 1998, Arena was a natural choice to succeed Steve Sampson, having won back-to-back MLS Cup titles as well as filling the trophy cabinet for D.C. United. So what has Kerr done to suggest that he'd be a viable candidate? But among the names you've bandied about, I'd say that just based on common sense, common knowledge and just an educated hunch, Joe Kinnear would be the best man for the job, far and away from Aldridge and Kerr. But I could be wrong, and that wouldn't surprise me, either. Cheers, William
Having read what I've read about Trossier I'm glad the FAI ruled him out. Dalglish around the time the job because available did express an interest himself, international management isn't day to day afterall and requires alot less commitment then club level. I agree Kinnear is the best choice, and he himself said he wanted the job more then once, unfortunitly he's not got much of a chance. As Wimbledon manager, there was a row over the releasing of two players (Kenny Cunningham and Mark Kennedy) for international friendlys. Kinnear was very vocal about how stupid he thought they were and even wanted to start a premiership managers petition about it, this is well known to have gotten right up the FAIs noses and they still hold a grudge right upto this day apparently. On top of that, he also turned down the job when managing Wimbledon when McCarthy was appointed, but he was going to have agree to a salary of 1/5th of his Wimbledon salary, I don't blame him, considering the fact he had a clause in his Wimbledon contract allowing him to talk to Tottenham (His club) or Ireland if the job came up underlines there wouldn't be a commitment problem but I don't see it happening which is a shame. Kerr did manage in the Irish Eircom League, but I'm not sure about his record as a manager. However, he made a name for himself as boss of our youth sides. In one year, he won the European U16 Championship, the European U18 championship and came third in the U20 world cup, recently he came fourth in the European U19 cup aswell, his record at youth level is amazing. Also, players such as Robbie Keane, Damien Duff and John O'Shea, all members of one of those sides, say Kerr played a massive massive part of their devolopment and helped them be the players they are today. Now, I know youth is alot different to senior management, but his success can't be ignored and the members of the squad who played under him all say they'd love him as manager. John Aldridge I would say has more experience then Stapleton, he did have a considerabley high reputation as Tranmere manager, got to a FA cup Semi Final I believe, may be wrong, but they had some unreal cup runs including one of the most famous FA Cup Ties of all time, 3-0 down to Southampton in what was already the reply, in normal time they managed to win 4-3, was quite an amazing match. Narrowly missed the playoffs and eventually got relegated when all the players who earned their reputations in the cup runs left them and he still had little to no money to spend. I'd put all three above Stapleton, and Dalglish aswell, not sure on what order though.