The clarification is designed to facilitate a situation where tomorrow’s unveiling of the new management team at the Mansion House will be dominated by football matters. It may be wishful thinking.
Staunton has been accustomed in the past to describing the media as “you lot” and his impressions of the fourth estate are unlikely to be improved should he face a grilling on how he was appointed and his team was assembled. Staunton is taciturn to the point of acidity, while the man who’ll be beside him can talk for Ireland, but if between them Staunton and Bobby Robson’s versions of events don’t chime with that of FAI chief executive John Delaney, matters footballing will have to wait for another day.
That would be a shame for Staunton. Already, there has never been such a negative reaction to the appointment of an Ireland manager since the appointment of Jack Charlton back in 1986. Perhaps most scathing of all was Mark Lawrenson in The Irish Times, who said that Staunton could not be compared to the likes of Marco Van Basten, Frank Rijkaard, or even Rudi Völler or Jürgen Klinsmann, all appointed to major managerial jobs when they had little or no experience. But why not? Nobody questioned John Giles’s qualifications for the job when he was appointed in 1973, while still playing for Leeds United and his six-year tenure was regarded as a qualified success. The Ireland job now is much bigger, but the essence remains the same.
Giles was a great player who turned out to be a good manager. The hope, and it is difficult to put it stronger than this, is that Staunton will be remembered as a good player who turned out to be a great manager.
It’s clear now that it was Staunton who first approached the FAI and that the three-man “headhunting” committee of Michael Cody, David Blood and Delaney met Staunton at his home in Birmingham in mid-November, when Martin O’Neill was still very much top of their list. It was there that Staunton set out his vision of the job.
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He is known to be horrified by the lack of spirit in the Ireland camp since the end of the 2002 World Cup, in particular the way the defence capitulated away to Russia in Mick McCarthy’s penultimate game in charge, and how the Ireland team lost the plot after the Israelis pulled a goal back in the World Cup qualifier back in June.
Stephen Carr’s international retirement at the age of 29 was also fresh in the air and Staunton told the committee what they wanted to hear about the need to restore passion in the Irish side.
Staunton’s appointment has been dominated by the word “passion” — even the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dermot Ahern was hammering on about it disingenuously on Thursday — but his lack of pace and inability to head the ball made sure that he has always had to use his intelligence to survive at the top end of the game.
So what can we expect? Not, for a start, a return to the Charlton years, when the manager’s approach to team matters was laid-back to the point of horizontal in his efforts to engender team spirit.
McCarthy’s era was also probably a little too relaxed for Staunton’s liking, but his players will not have to expect lengthy video sessions and team meetings to discuss tactics, which became an aspect of Brian Kerr’s time, which many of the players came to detest.
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One of the arrows aimed at Kerr was that the FAI insisted on the appointment of Chris Hughton as his coach. Staunton has fared far worse in terms of reports flying round about appointments being foisted on him.
Now that the air has been cleared, there is plenty to look forward to. Kevin MacDonald is a highly regarded coach, who was considered for more senior roles before David O’Leary consigned him to the reserves at Aston Villa.
Bobby Robson is still a slightly more complicated matter. One of his first jobs will be to advise Staunton when the qualifiers for Euro 2008 are decided later this month. After that, the book is wide open, but it appears that Robson may well have a role in the dugout rather than up in the stands on match day.
One thing is clear: Staunton is the man in charge and he has a fighting chance of restoring success. Now let him take it.