Sideline Cut: In the fickle environment of big-time soccer, a manager's worth is a volatile commodity. Brian Kerr has wisely maintained a low profile since his very public dismissal from the Irish job, and now, with all kinds of managerial machinations across the water, he might yet get his coveted shot at a Premiership position.

Kerr may still be an outside choice to succeed Alain Perrin at struggling Portsmouth, but if Harry Redknapp remains locked into his unhappy tenure at Southampton, then the Dublin man may be back with a bang. Such a dramatic return would certainly be in keeping with the theme of resilience and grand ambition that has informed Kerr's sporting life.

To see his name attached to Portsmouth this week, along with that of Northern Ireland manager Lawrie Sanchez, makes you wonder at the kind of blindly emotional faith professional soccer clubs place on their managers. Although the search for a new boss is conducted with a veneer of professionalism and businesslike deliberation, it does seem to be underpinned by desperation.

Clubs and fans want managers to be leaders and faith healers. They want to believe that the right manager can deliver salvation, which is why the intense and charismatic Martin O'Neill remains at the top of every wish-list in Britain, not to mention Merrion Square.

The pressure for Premiership survival is so relentless and huge that by Christmas the bottom of the table is often more intriguing than the top four, dominated as it is by the usual suspects.

The slow and irreversible fall of Leeds demonstrated that reputation and stature do not protect a club or a football city from being sacrificed on the Premiership altar. The immolation that Leeds suffered, through over-ambition and bad luck and a succession of scandals and a desire to join the untouchable giants of the English game by spending heedlessly and banking on European glory, was like a caution to other clubs.

For the majority of English clubs, the Premiership is about mid-table mediocrity, about systematically clipping the vulnerable, newly promoted clubs for maximum points, scrapping for away draws and praying for an afternoon of unlikely glory against the three or four clubs which realistically play for the title.

The performance of Wigan must make Paul Jewell an outstanding candidate for manager of the year already, regardless of where his team finishes up the season. The quiet and assured way in which Wigan have defied the expectations that theirs would be a brief and unhappy visit to the Premiership increases the pressure on the struggling clubs.

Regardless of the salary Mick McCarthy is being paid at Sunderland, the experience of watching a club he so admirably returned to the top flight simply falling apart must be an intolerable burden. McCarthy is such an animated practitioner, wearing his heart on his sleeve every single Saturday afternoon, that it is hard not to feel for him when things are not going well.

The appalling record of no Premiership victory at the Stadium of Light for three years has shrouded Sunderland's season, and there is a grim fascination to be had in watching a team marching painfully and, it seems, helplessly towards relegation.

Across the Tyne, in St James's Park, the days of the Graham Souness era would appear to be almost over, unless he can radically reverse the team's lacklustre form, and David O'Leary is under tremendous strain at Aston Villa.

Managers are the fall guys. Even Alex Ferguson, for over a decade the most dominant and imperious football man in English soccer's new order, seems bound to discover that.

Whatever the monetary reward, Kerr would be entering a cut-throat world, and the demand and necessity for results at Portsmouth or any needy Premiership club would be instant.

Kerr, though, has energy to burn, and it would present him with a great opportunity for redemption, to vindicate himself against the perception that the Irish job was "too big" for him.

But the unholy scramble for managers in various clubs across England makes the silence and stillness emanating from the FAI headquarters all the more stark.

The weeks have rolled by since Kerr's departure, and there is no evidence that anyone of note is even interested in the post. The FAI do have time on their side, and could well be waiting to see how the various scourges at England's angst-ridden clubs finish up. It could be that several men rumoured to be on the FAI's long-list might find managing Ireland to be a more attractive proposition in January than was the case in October.

If Kerr does get his opportunity to prove himself at Portsmouth or some other English town, only then will it be acknowledged that just maybe Ireland let a good man go, and rather too easily. It would be sad, yet strangely just, if Kerr were eventually replaced by a man bounced out of the Premiership carousel, down on his luck and needful of a leg-up.

Up in Northern Ireland, the hard and patient work of Lawrie Sanchez was rewarded with that stunning victory over mighty England. In isolation, it was a glorious moment, but it did nothing to alter the respective positions of the two countries. England is soccer royalty. Northern Ireland's soccer story is astonishing, but the best of it is almost certainly past and the poignant sight of George Best lying in state this morning will hammer that home to many soccer people across the North.

Sanchez seems deeply committed to his post, but if he is offered a Premiership position it is impossible to see how he could refuse it. Although he has rescued Northern Ireland from a bleak period in its football history, it is still difficult to see their teams reliving the incredible summers of 1982 or 1986. Sanchez is making the best out of limited material. If and when he leaves, it may be hard for the IFA to find a suitable replacement. In terms of football management, it is a lonely outpost.

But maybe the Republic of Ireland job is not much better. The most logical reason for prospective managers to take up the position would be to improve their standing in the game. Given our low seeding, the retirement of the most influential player of his generation and the acknowledgement that the current squad is not exactly glittering, it may not be possible to do that. Kerr's vision was always long term and passionate, and the FAI will do well to land a man with a similarly expansive philosophy.

Meantime, the knives are drawn across the water, and you just wonder who is going to be left standing by the time the FAI decides they have to find someone to take charge of the team before the friendly season begins.