Examiner article on O'Neill & the FAI

[wallis]

You dont think that the appointment of Toshack was detrimental to Wales ? Players deciding to quit rather than play for him and then he walks out ?

And Vogts who was resented by the majority of Scotland supporters which led to a lack of crowds at home games and players not wanting to play ? Whatever his supposed contribution behind the scenes may be, the scottish team became a joke under his reign.

[Superhoops]

O'Neil is a major candidate for me. Given the health of his wife he is perhaps thinking of easing his way back into football and the Irish job would be ideal. It is less stress , very few games over the coming months , and near enough to his home.

The hassle and time consumption of a high profile job such as Man U or England is not an option for him in my opinion.

I hope whoever is appointed is going to see the job as a little bit more that a part-time job where they only need to turn up 3/4 days before every game.

I would expect our next manager to be watching both the current players and the potential players in action week in and week out. This would mean spending a lot of the time in England watching 2/3 games a week. I would also expect him to heavily involved in the development of young talent in this country and working as part of the FAI's technical plan.

Say what you like about Erikson, but he certainly puts himself about watching players.

If O'Neill or anyone else is not in a position to give this job their full attention and time then they will be no good to us.

[eirebhoy]

Kerr is probably the only manager we've had that treated his job as a full time job.

[Green Tribe]

His background and roots. A former Northern Ireland international and British citizan. Why would he not manage England?

oh dear......

[macdermesser]

Kerr is probably the only manager we've had that treated his job as a full time job.

Agree with you there ... I guess there is no point in saying at this stage that he should be reappointed .. but what the heck, he should have had another campaign. What makes us think that the two top candidates for arguably the biggest club in the world (Man U) are going to plump for managing Ireland. I mean I love the high opinion that the Irish have ourselves .. but thinking that Hiddink or O'Neill are going to manage us is stretching it a bit to put it mildly. Hope I'm wrong though.

[Stuttgart88]

I can see O'Neill managing us to be honest. Hiddink is a shot in the dark though.

But it does look increasingly likely that Ferguson's reign at MUFC is coming to an end & O'Neill and Hiddink are both of the calibre they require, albeit having very different skill sets to each other. This throws a spanner in the works!

For the time being though I think the FAI are right to hold fire on an appointment. There's a lot that can happen in the next few months in terms of managerial availability though I sencerely hope that they are working hard on a contingency plan if their preferred targets prove unavailable. Maybe this is what the rumoured Ranieri meeting was all about. This is where the experience of a professional international search firm would be invaluable. I hope to God it's not a question of JD & Milo thinking among themselves who'd be a candidate.

[tetsujin1979]

Hiddink linked with the Man U job this morning according to football365, the board are prepared to wait until after the World Cup before offering him the job

[gaf1983]

Next Ireland Manager: Alex Ferguson 100-1 .......
He might be unemployed soon.....