The shortlist: FAI set to choose new Ireland boss from final five

Not long now. A four-year contract is waiting to be signed, reportedly paying a head coach €560,000 annually to prepare the Republic of Ireland for the 2028 European Championships, when group matches will be held in Dublin.

There is lingering hope of third-seeded Ireland being one of 16 European qualifiers at the 2026 World Cup in North America.

But wishful thinking within the FAI has made way for a potent dose of reality. Gone are the days when Denis O’Brien covered half the €1 million salary Martin O’Neill received to reach Euro 2016. And before O’Neill, the €1.8 million understood to be shelled out for Giovanni Trapattoni’s expertise. O’Brien is said to have contributed €10 million to cover management salaries over 10 years.

Also gone is the perception that Ireland are a middle-tier football nation. The senior men’s team was ranked 34th when Stephen Kenny took over in 2020. In under four years, they have plummeted to 60th on the Fifa list.

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“If the thrust of the question is, ‘will we take money that may come from outside the organisation to find a coach?’ the answer is no,” revealed Jonathan Hill, the FAI chief executive, in December after a turbulent agm and appearance before the Oireachtas’ joint-committee on sport left the English-based executive down two key members of his leadership team.

Before departing as chairman of the board, Roy Barrett sought to shoulder the blame for payments to Hill that breached the Government bailout terms from 2020, and Louise Cassidy is leaving for Aldi after 19 months as the director of marketing and communications.

“We should be absolutely focused on using the money that we have at our disposal because that’s right,” Hill continued. “Obviously, budget will be one of the issues [to appointing a new manager]. It’s relevant to all the areas we have to look at in terms of 2024 and beyond. It’s definitely a factor. We’re pretty confident we’ll find the right person.”

Almost every immediate problem facing the FAI can be shelved by Marc Canham, the Hill-appointed director of football, successfully filling the most arduous gig in Irish sport. It could happen as soon as next week but certainly before March friendlies against Belgium and Switzerland at the Aviva stadium.

The Short List

Lee Carsley (49)

Carsley still has regrets about his time in a green shirt, repeatedly stating: “I couldn’t replicate my club form at international level. I’m not sure why that was, but I think about it a lot.”

Grist to the mill.

Carsley earned 40 caps for Ireland between 1997 and 2008 without ever cementing a role in midfield alongside Roy Keane. His major tournament exposure was limited to seconds off the bench in the 3-0 victory over Saudi Arabia at the 2002 World Cup. However, he started nine of 12 Euro 2008 qualifiers when Steve Staunton was briefly the gaffer.

The Birmingham native’s grandmother Jo Cambridge (nee Wiseman) hailed from Dunmanway in Cork before she emigrated to the west midlands in the 1940s.

A tough defensive midfielder, Carsley made almost 500 appearances for five English clubs, including 282 in the Premier League, including six years at Everton where he started his coaching badges.

The first job came at Coventry City, as an under-18s coach, following a brief spell as Sheffield United assistant manager in 2011. He filled several specialist roles with England underage squads in between interim stints as Coventry manager in 2013, for five matches, and Brentford in 2015, for 10 matches, before a year with the Manchester City academy working under Pep Guardiola.

Following three matches as Birmingham City caretaker manager in 2017/18 season, he returned to the FA to coach the England under-21s alongside Aidy Boothroyd.

“I’ve known Lee quite a while, he was my captain at Coventry,” said Boothroyd in 2017. “He’s a good character and his reputation goes before him in terms of what he was as a player; his honesty, his willingness and his work ethic.

“As a coach, he’s been a manager for a little bit so he understands what that might be like. He’s worked at a big club at Manchester City and a little club at Coventry and Brentford, so he’s been around a bit. He’s very trustworthy and he’s honest and he tells it as it is. He’s not a ‘yes’ man and I like that.”

Succeeding Boothroyd in 2021, Carsley guided England to a European Championship title last summer by beating Spain 1-0 in the final.

Despite a lack of sustained experience at club level, Carsley fits the FAI’s “head coach” profile, where he would report directly to Canham.

Chris Hughton (65)

Hughton has an international gig. Ghana’s success at the African Nations Cup was supposed to slam the door shut on a return to coach Ireland, a position he held when Brian Kerr was manager between 2003 and 2005. The Black Stars lost their opening match to Cape Verde, the 73rd ranked country in the world, before a 2-2 draw with Egypt on Thursday. Victory over Mozambique on Monday seems essential for this career coach to avoid unemployment.

The first mixed-race player to be capped by Ireland, going on to play 53 times, the east London-born fullback qualified via his Limerick mother Christine Babs Hughton (nee Bourke) rather than his Ghanaian father Willie.

An initial frontrunner for the position, Hughton’s chance to manage Ireland may have come and gone, especially during a five-year stint at Brighton (2014-19) when the FAI turned to Martin O’Neill and the second coming of Mick McCarthy.

Nevertheless, Hughton has all the credentials. Spending 14 years at Tottenham Hotspur, working under 11 different managers, he temporarily filled the role on two occasions until a move to Newcastle United where he was assistant to Kevin Keegan and Joe Kinnear before, eventually, getting the top job at St James Park.

“It was invaluable and formed the foundation of all of my philosophies as a manager,” he said of coaching at Spurs, a club where he also played 297 games. “Such a long apprenticeship might not be for everyone and some can go straight from player to manager at a young age, but I wouldn’t have been ready.”

In between guiding Newcastle and Brighton back to the Premier League, in 2011 he took Birmingham City into the Europa League group stages, prompting Norwich City to give him what proved an unsuccessful two seasons at Carrow Road.

Another forgettable period at Nottingham Forrest led him to Ghana. Widely admired throughout the English game, the timing could be off but to manage the birth countries of his mother and father would represent another milestone in an extraordinary life in football.

Neil Lennon (52)

Lennon is made of stern stuff. For proof, go back to the 1989 Ulster minor final when he lined up for Armagh alongside the county’s current manager Kieran McGeeney.

Seven years as a Celtic player, during which Gordon Strachan made him club captain, dovetailed with 41 caps for Northern Ireland although his international career ended in 2002 after a death threat was phoned into the BBC. Lennon, then only 31, never played for the North again.

As a manager he steered Glasgow Celtic to five of a possible seven league titles, ceding two to Rangers. His record in European competition — winning 34 but losing 30 from 75 matches across three clubs — coupled with concerns about his temperament at Bolton Wanderers, Hibernian and recently in Cyprus with Omonia Nikosia might steer Canham in a different direction.

The bookmakers disagree, however, recently shortening Lennon’s odds to make him favourite to be appointed ahead of Carsley.

“Managing Ireland would be another ambition of mine, I’d love to have a crack at it,” he told Premier Sports in November. “It is Ireland, and it means so much to me as a person. If the opportunity came along, I would love to have the conversation.”

Chris Coleman (53)

In theory, Coleman, who holds an OBE, ticks every box to replace Kenny. Capped 32 times by Wales, his father Paddy hailed from East Wall in Dublin and had his ashes scattered into the Liffey in 2013.

“There was talk about [declaring for Ireland] when Jackie Charlton was manager of the Republic and there was a tentative phone call that came my way,” Coleman revealed in 2017. “But [my father] always pushed me to play for Wales.”

The Irish link remains strong as his uncle Michael Coleman is an award winning painter, previously based in Temple Bar, while Ireland international Ronan Curtis is his godson.

Crucially, Coleman offers Irish football major tournament experience. Helped immeasurably by Gareth Bale’s peak years, Wales reached the semi-finals of Euro 2016 where they lost 2-0 to Portugal. On Coleman’s watch, they climbed to eighth in the Fifa rankings.

The national job came to the former Crystal Palace and Fulham centre half after his friend Gary Speed died in 2011. Five years and 50 matches in charge of Wales was ended by James McClean’s winner in Cardiff to send Ireland into the 2018 World Cup play-offs, where they were trounced 5-1 by Denmark.

However, Coleman’s record in club football cannot be glossed over. Six of eight managerial jobs lasted two years or less while he never breached the 30-game mark in charge of Real Sociedad, Greek side AE Larisa, Sunderland and Hebei FC in China.

Anthony Barry (37)

When Barry’s name reappeared in connection with Irish football last month, Hill refused to confirm or deny the Liverpudlian as a target but Bayern Munich manager Thomas Tuchel was not long dismissing the notion. “Not true, we can forget about it,” said Tuchel, when asked about the specialist set-piece coach he rates high enough to take from Chelsea to the Bundesliga.

There is a pattern to Barry’s ascending career. Roberto Martínez, having lured him away from Kenny’s management to assist Belgium at the World Cup in Qatar, quickly appointed him as Portugal coach when Martínez changed roles last year.

Irish players speak glowingly of Barry’s expertise at training throughout 2021, and the results support his impact as Ireland went on a six-match unbeaten run after adopting Chelsea’s 3-4-2-1 system.

Like Carsley, he lacks experience but the FAI are seeking a hands-on-coach.

The rest of the best

Penny for the thoughts of Barry’s predecessors in the Ireland camp, Robbie Keane and Damien Duff, should he be appointed as both men have made impressive forays into management.

Keane is having a remarkable first campaign at Maccabi Tel Aviv, sitting top of the Israeli premier league and into the last 16 of the Europa Conference League. The record Irish goal scorer could win his first trophy later this month as they face Maccabi Haifa in the Toto cup final while Shelbourne qualified for European football in Duff’s second season at the helm.

Maybe next time.

Inevitably, Roy Keane and José Mourinho, having been sacked by Roma, slide around the rumour mill but they would need to swallow a significant pay cut and neither fits the job specification sought to revive Irish fortunes in 2024 and beyond. Too much of the traditional manager, unlike Carsley and the apparently unavailable Barry, who are finely-tuned coaches.

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