QuoteNo sources are given for the relevant amounts that these coaches earn and i find it hard to believe staunton is on 400K a year.
Comment Dave Hannigan
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DURING the Czech Republic's run to the semi-finals of Euro 2004, the English tabloids were incredulous upon learning that the team manager Karel Bruckner was earning a mere 60,000 per annum.
That figure was actually wrong. Following an unbeaten qualifying campaign on the way to that tournament, Bruckner had received a pay rise. By then, he was drawing down a salary of nearly 80,000. These days, he's on an estimated 100,000. That would be approximately a quarter of the annual sum reportedly being paid to Steve Staunton to manage Ireland.
Between the August friendly against the Netherlands and next month's clash with San Marino then, Staunton will have pocketed roughly the same amount that his Czech counterpart takes home in a year. The disparity is all the more glaring when one considers the difference in experience between the pair.
Before making his international name with his country's under-21s in the late '90s, Bruckner had been managing Czech, Slovakian and Slovenian clubs for more than a quarter of a century.
Staunton's coaching CV extends no further than a brief stint working with one of the worst defences in League One at Walsall.
That FAI chief executive John Delaney saw fit to give a novice such a lucrative fouryear contract is surprising given what that kind of money can get a more daring association on the open market.
How about Leo Beenhakker for starters? Fresh from his impressive World Cup sojourn with Trinidad and Tobago, the Dutch veteran took the Polish job for a mere 250,000 a year. If the Poles thought that kind of money might get them somebody with a knack for helping teams of limited ability get results against betterequipped opponents (an excerpt from the job ad for the next Irish manager), they have already been proved right.
Notwithstanding an opening game defeat to Finland, and some expected offthe-field clashes between Beenhakker and the Polish version of Merrion Square, the team has seven points from their past three games. The same week Ireland suffered the most embarrassing result in its recent history, Beenhakker's Poland became the first side in 10 years to beat Portugal in a qualifying match.
Twice manager of the Netherlands, he won three Spanish titles at Real Madrid, spent years immersed in the Ajax system, and has sampled football in cultures as diverse as Mexico, Switzerland, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Yet, he costs nearly half as much as the FAI chose to pay somebody who'd never managed a team in his life.
In a world where the English FA gave Sven Goran Eriksson an annual stipend of £4 million, and the cash-rich Russians fork out 2 million for Guus Hiddink, the salaries of most international managers are much less than people imagine. It's not that long ago since Mark Hughes got the Wales job by default after Terry Venables and Roy Hodgson both refused to work for £100,000 a year. Lawrie Sanchez was until very recently on a similar figure with Northern Ireland and further afield, Sweden's Lars Lagerback signed a new contract after the World Cup for just under 200,000.
Having managed or co-managed his country to four successive major finals, Lagerback is now earning about half as much as the neophyte Irish boss. Is Staunton twice as good as his Swedish counterpart? Would it be cheeky to ask if Lagerback earns more or less than the FAI are paying Bobby Robson, Kevin MacDonald and Pat Devlin for their various ancillary roles around Staunton?
By any measure, the Dundalk native certainly can't compete with the managerial experience or qualifications of the likes of Serbia's Javier Clemente, Denmark's Morten Olsen, France's Raymond Domenech and Switzerland's Kobi Kuhn. If press reports are to believed, he is, remarkably enough, paid more than all of them. John Delaney aside, what football man in Europe would pick Staunton ahead of any of that quartet?
Given that Olsen, Domenech and Kuhn are managing their native countries, Clemente is perhaps a better example of the value available on the open market. Despite an immense football pedigree of its own, Serbia . . . newly weakened by the impending loss of Montenegrin players . . . recently employed the Spanish veteran on a two-year deal.
Mastermind of Spain's memorable 31 defeat of Ireland at Lansdowne Road in October, 1993, Clemente won La Liga twice with Athletic Bilbao, and has also managed Marseilles, Athletico Madrid, Real Sociedad and Real Betis. For the services of somebody who led Spain on a 31-game unbeaten run back in the '90s, the Serbs are gladly paying 360,000.
Four matches into the campaign, they are perched on top of Group A via three victories and a draw. Proving yet again that this is a game where you can get what you pay for.
A few months before John Delaney famously announced his quest to find a world-class individual to replace Brian Kerr, the League Managers' Association in England conducted a survey of its members to find out what they were being paid. The average salary of a manager in League One at the time was put at £80,000. Assuming Paul Merson was even getting that much at a seriously cash-strapped Walsall, Staunton had to be earning significantly less as his assistant. Still, last January the FAI thought it necessary to quadruple his wages to get him to take over his own country and to try his hand at management for the very first time.
Generous. To a fault, some would say.
Copyright the Sunday Tribune.
www.tribune.ie
(cant link to it as you have to register I think)
Interesting article tho that puts them " Staunton was the best we could afford" cries in perspective.
No sources are given for the relevant amounts that these coaches earn and i find it hard to believe staunton is on 400K a year.
I assume that's your heading and not the writer's. In every walk of life we can always find someone who is on more than ourselves. The fact that two countries which have recently come out from under the yolk of communist rule pay their managers less than we do is hardly world breaking news.
Last edited by OwlsFan; 31/10/2006 at 4:34 PM.
Forget about the performance or entertainment. It's only the result that matters.
True - i thought he was on more like 200K. The 400K quoted here seems exaggerated - in any case, you'd buy more beer for 80K in Czech Republic than you would with 400K in Ireland. It's all relevant.
Resign, now!
Yes but the point that's being made is that these managers are willing to accept these allegedly smaller amounts than Staunton is on.Originally Posted by OwlsFan
I assume that's your heading and not the writer's. In every walk of life we can always find someone one is on more than ourselves. The fact that two countries which have recently come out from under the yolk of communist rule pay their managers less than we do is hardly world breaking news.
It doesn't matter whether they're former communist countries or not, just goes to show what the FAI could have got if they had gotten off their arses and looked...
"Well I think they'll be a little disappointed with that" - Matt Holland on TV3 after 5-2 drubbing by Cyprus
do you know I have a funny feeling that the ex-Walsall cone setter's salary was actually deliberately increased by the FAI to maintain the illusion of "a world class manager"
like everything in ireland these days- money talks louder than sense and impresses more eejits
I think what he is saying is that we have not gotten value for money. That's fairly obvious but at least he is putting it well.
There is no such thing as a miracle cure, a free lunch or a humble opinion.
£30,000 for a win £10,000 a draw and bus fare home for a defeat is how it should be done.
Stauntons value for money is a worthy topic. Comparing with the Czech Republic probably makes a case the writer is not trying for. I would suggest Czech Republic salaries possibly 1/4 that of Ireland? This would make 80k = 320k...
Even if that were the case, we still paid too much for an inexperienced manager. Sorry, a no-experience manager.
There is no such thing as a miracle cure, a free lunch or a humble opinion.
After the recent performances Staunton has overseen from the Ireland team I wouldn't pay the gobsh*te 400 euro a year. Whatever he's on it's too much. I'd say if the FAI need to get rid of him (which they already should have done) they'll have to pay through the roof leaving less money available to offer the replacement. They truly are a world class shower of f**kwits that we have controlling our football in this country.
Last edited by youngirish; 01/11/2006 at 11:40 AM.
Its not some tabloid hack. He is a very respected sports writer. am sure he didnt just pull figures out of the air. So you will excuse me if I take his word over yours
did you read the article? point of it was we didnt have to pay so much for staunton and we could have gone elsewhere and got an experienced coach for less money.I assume that's your heading and not the writer's. In every walk of life we can always find someone who is on more than ourselves. The fact that two countries which have recently come out from under the yolk of communist rule pay their managers less than we do is hardly world breaking news.
exactly...
echoes of the salary increase given to macarthy post WC2002 **** up...
It has been mentioned in many newspapers that Staunton is on 400 grand a year and Robson on 200 grand. Lets face it. We bought the Brooklyn bridge.
Judging by the mess the FAI is making of the league it looks like appointing Staunton is the least awful decision Delaney's made this year...
54,321 sold - wws will never die - ***
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It is usually the manager who pays for management development.
Not the other way round
class post!
[QUOTE=Billsthoughts;566001]Its not some tabloid hack. He is a very respected sports writer. am sure he didnt just pull figures out of the air. So you will excuse me if I take his word over yours
QUOTE]
Would this be the same Hannigan who said about a decade ago that work would start in 6 weeks on a site for the dublin dons? Respected my hole. If he was so respected why is it that he is now copying and pasting from America? A corkman who has never put the words Cork City into print. Tabloid hack is spot on.
Agree that Stan is on too much money but you cant blame him for that. Look who employed him.
KOH
yeah that makes sense.
Shame I have to spell it out for you. If he was such a "respected sports writer" how come he completely ignores his hometown club?yeah that makes sense.
Hannigan is dummy without the bile.
KOH
NY Hoop - I'm no fan of Hannigan either but as ever you can't see the wood for the trees. I'll spell it out for you - There is something really really dodgy about the apointment of Staunton. The hacks all know about it, they know the nature of the dodginess but not the exact ins and outs.
Several hacks are digging away at Delaney/Staunton and will soon be able to out the pair of crooks. In the meantime, Hannigan's piece states the obvious that Delaney paid waaay over the odds for a neophyte manager but crucially alludes to the fact there may be other reasons for it beyond football.
Hannigan is not part of the day-in-day-out press pack and so can afford to make broad hints. You getting this?
KOH
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