Brian Kerr appointed Faroe Islands manager

**Duggie** · 07/04/2009, 8:08 AM

Originally Posted by macdermesser

Also wish Brian all the best and hope that it is a stepping stone to a bigger job .. and maybe eventually back to the Irish job again ;-)

200k a year according to the Irish Times for doing something you love and mixing it with France and Serbia again. It's a bit of a no brainer. Have to laugh at the keyboard brigade questioning whether it is a good move for him.

i think what most of us are saying that its a job thats really going nowhere, other than trying to prevent a possible hiding. we all hope things work out for him.

**dynamo kerry** · 07/04/2009, 8:46 AM

Originally Posted by Fergie's Son

A very strange choice to be sure. Not sure what it means for Brian or his future prospects.

I was elated when he was appointed. He managed to bring Keane back for one last hurah. However, he seemed to freeze in the brighter stage of the national manager. He had a tremendous amount of good will with the press which he lost as he became increasingly more paranoid.

For me, a single example which serves as a microcosm for his time with Ireland, was the home match against Israel in the last WC qualifiers. We were leading 2-0 and had just had a third goal disallowed. We were, quite frankly, all over Israel. Robbie Keane pulls up injured after 27 minutes of the first half. Kerr had a relatively in-form David Connolly on the bench yet he decided to put on Graham Kavanagh instead. Now I'm a fan of Graham Kavanagh but he was the wrong player to put on in that situation. He basically ceeded the momentum back to Israel by putting on a a defensive midfielder. It was the wrong move from a practical footballing perspective and from an "attidue" perspective.

That summed up his tenure as the Irish manager. Good luck to him and I really do hope he does great things (so long as it's never against us).

I completely agree with all of that. It was mind-boggling as decisions go. Good luck Kerr all the same.

**irishfan86** · 07/04/2009, 8:55 AM

I wonder who contacted who- it just seems odd.

Happy to see him back in international football- hopefully he can use this as a stepping stone to greater things.

His style of tactics should maximize their ability to compete.

He knows how to shut down attacking threats and reduce scoring chances against.

He won't have to deal with intense media scrutiny or big player egos either, so I'd say all the ingredients are in place for the Faroes to qualify for the Euros!

**SwanVsDalton** · 07/04/2009, 8:55 AM

Recalling mind-boggling Kerr decisions - I had much less of a problem with the Israel match than I did with the final match of his tenure against Switzerland. At home, 0-0, needing a win, pushing for a goal and what does he do? Like for like substitutions up top (Doherty for Morrison I believe) at a time when we were screaming out for a bit of ambition. As soon as he made that decision he had lost me as a supporter and it was time to go.

Up until that point Kerr had my support. I thought he was a fine hard-working manager but proved himself tactically naive. Wish him all the best though, think this is a win win decision and I think the Faroes will benefit greatly from his organisational experience.

**macdermesser** · 07/04/2009, 9:14 AM

Originally Posted by Duggie

i think what most of us are saying that its a job thats really going nowhere, other than trying to prevent a possible hiding. we all hope things work out for him.

careerwise .. agree at first glance that it is probably not a great move ... ... but from a personal viewpoint, he is getting well paid for a hobby and can mix and plot against France again.

Actually, when you think about it .. he has a very limited number of jobs open to him .. English speaking jobs .. maybe Scandinavia .. and then further afield like South Africa, India, Australia, US, New Zealand.. so if he wants an international job this is probably the only place he can start .. and maybe move up to a bigger Scandinavian country.

Agree with other posters that he would be the ideal Irish U21 boss .. but he has burned his bridges with the FAI with his comments since 2006.

**bennocelt** · 07/04/2009, 9:25 AM

Originally Posted by Armando

While Faroe Islands are obviously minnows of World football they are not quite as pathetic as the likes of San Marino and Luxembourg. Just wanted to say that because reading some posts I get the impression this is how a lot of people view them. In fact, although they lose the large majority of their games they are very rarely thumped

Fair play to Kerr for taking this challenge on, I think he'll have a progressive influence on them. If he can bring them up a seeding he'll have done a great job and it'll open the doors to better jobs. Scandinavian clubs/countries would sit up and take notice for instance if he does well.

def agree here
also have you seen the size of their defenders!!! Im sure Kerr can at least tighten up their defence

I hope he can get some results out there

**Red&White Rover** · 07/04/2009, 9:33 AM

Bitter, bitter man. ****e coach.

We came 4th in a group containing Russia, Switzerland and Israel thanks to his defensive tactics. No we're not world beaters by any stretch of the imagination, but with the players we had there's no way we should have come 4th in that group.

Why the w*nkfest?

He's found his level

**Calcio Jack** · 07/04/2009, 10:02 AM

like anyone else the man needs to earn a crust, so no problem with him taking this job and in fairness he seems to accept that "beggars can't be choosers" and since no one else was offering him a job he's accepted this one... hopefully he'll have some focus and that will help him move on from his pathetic bitterness and we won't have to enjure his clumsily disguised efforts at commentary in the Irish Times which in reality have been stupid in their attempt at being 'clever' and sad in that all they've done is expose him as a bitter and twisted saddo who can't accept the reality of his tenure as manager of the Irish team, he had nothing but a huge amount of goodwilll when appointed to the Irish job and we know and he knows he blew it... maybe he should spend some time with that well know psychotherapist Gabriel Byrne they'd have a lot to talk about .

**Duggie** · 07/04/2009, 10:12 AM

says in the star hes earning 450,000 euro. me arse.

**mediahack** · 07/04/2009, 11:09 AM

Originally Posted by Red&White Rover

Bitter, bitter man. ****e coach.

We came 4th in a group containing Russia, Switzerland and Israel thanks to his defensive tactics. No we're not world beaters by any stretch of the imagination, but with the players we had there's no way we should have come 4th in that group.

Have to agree there. He may have had success with the underage sides but he never stepped up to mark at senior level and couldn't handle the players.

He should have probably replaced Don Givens a long time ago in the U21 set up but he ****ed off so many in the FAI he'll never get a job there again.

It is well known in football that he has a huge amount of info on players from all over the world - his research is meticulous but he used to subject the players to hours and hours of video analysis and they got totally ****ed off!

He was very friendly with many of the media until the latter part of his tenure when he completely turned against them and he paid the price for that!

His recent ramblings in the IT have been disgraceful and it smacks of complete bitterness.

Over the years we have heard his name mentioned in relation to many top jobs (probably his own spin) then it was jobs in the Far East and now he finally manages to convince some association to give him a job - The Faroe Islands, just like his football tactics, safe and without major expectation!

**Stuttgart88** · 07/04/2009, 1:46 PM

Originally Posted by mediahack

he used to subject the players to hours and hours of video analysis and they got totally ****ed off!

He said himself he knew how short players' attention spans were and that a video session would be about 40 minutes max accordingly. It says a lot more about the players and their "professionalism" if that was too much for them.

**jbyrne** · 07/04/2009, 2:08 PM

Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

He said himself he knew how short players' attention spans were and that a video session would be about 40 minutes max accordingly. It says a lot more about the players and their "professionalism" if that was too much for them.

agree, the rugby team spend a lot of time looking at video analysis and look where it got them

**eirebhoy** · 07/04/2009, 5:27 PM

Originally Posted by Red&White Rover

We came 4th in a group containing Russia, Switzerland and Israel thanks to his defensive tactics. No we're not world beaters by any stretch of the imagination, but with the players we had there's no way we should have come 4th in that group.

In fairness it's not really as clear cut as that. Henry's goal in Dublin split all 4 teams up. I do think Switzerland and France were the 2 best teams in the group though. Although Switzerland were battered in Israel (and very lucky to win both Cyprus games, not just the away one like us). It was a very even group and to be honest placings in the group don't tell much of a story when there's only a point or 2 between teams. Let Delaney think going from 3rd in the 04 group to 4th in the 06 group is decline because it's just ignorance.

**jay1** · 07/04/2009, 6:14 PM

IF he does well over there maybe we will see him again managing Ireland, although I dont know if I could stick the Boredom of the way we played then, although it is not much better now i suppose.

**amaccann** · 07/04/2009, 8:09 PM

Originally Posted by eirebhoy

In fairness it's not really as clear cut as that. Henry's goal in Dublin split all 4 teams up. I do think Switzerland and France were the 2 best teams in the group though. Although Switzerland were battered in Israel (and very lucky to win both Cyprus games, not just the away one like us). It was a very even group and to be honest placings in the group don't tell much of a story when there's only a point or 2 between teams. Let Delaney think going from 3rd in the 04 group to 4th in the 06 group is decline because it's just ignorance.

Exactly my thinking; it's also worth pointing out that Kerr only managed Ireland for one full campaign, the aforementioned WC 2006 Group 4 qualifying. His "first" campaign was to join the Ireland setup mid-qualification, so that can hardly count. If Trap had little time to prepare his squad, Kerr had much less.

**bennocelt** · 08/04/2009, 8:23 AM

Originally Posted by amaccann

Exactly my thinking; it's also worth pointing out that Kerr only managed Ireland for one full campaign, the aforementioned WC 2006 Group 4 qualifying. His "first" campaign was to join the Ireland setup mid-qualification, so that can hardly count. If Trap had little time to prepare his squad, Kerr had much less.

thats not true, he had two campaigns - Ireland had many chances in both campaigns under kerr
In the first one - he even got off to a good start with an away win and draw - and he messed it all at home

**sullanefc** · 08/04/2009, 9:32 AM

Originally Posted by bennocelt

thats not true, he had two campaigns - Ireland had many chances in both campaigns under kerr
In the first one - he even got off to a good start with an away win and draw - and he messed it all at home

One full campaign. I think you missed the word full in the above post.

**bennocelt** · 08/04/2009, 9:56 AM

Originally Posted by sullanefc

One full campaign. I think you missed the word full in the above post.

fair enuff - but the point was he had two bites

**irishultra** · 08/04/2009, 10:03 AM

in reality you'd expect the french and swiss to qualify ahead of us but finishing 4th wasnt good enough

**amaccann** · 08/04/2009, 10:10 AM

Originally Posted by bennocelt

thats not true, he had two campaigns - Ireland had many chances in both campaigns under kerr
In the first one - he even got off to a good start with an away win and draw - and he messed it all at home

But that's my point, did he really? He came into the job amid a storm of post-Saipan arguments and the worst possible start to a campaign. I don't believe that he had the circumstances or the time to impose his regime, not properly anyway, until the '06 one. But by then the damage was done I would guess.