Never-ending managerial search a stain on Irish football

The term “omnishambles” was coined in the BBC political comedy The Thick Of It, and has entered the lexicon as shorthand for an escalating series of mistakes and bad decisions.

The most high-profile recent example of an omnishambles is Liz Truss’ calamity of errors when she took charge of the UK for 6 weeks in 2022 but an omnishambles is occurring closer to home.

By the time this article has gone online, it’ll have been 161 days since Ireland sacked Stephen Kenny and the FAI is no closer to hiring a manager.

We have written about this issue at length in recent months, but it has become apparent this is an issue that is beyond the remit of sports and is a microcosm of Ireland in 2024.

Late March’s admission by the FAI that an interim manager will be required for June’s friendlies and that a September date for the new permanent manager to be put in place is an astonishing unforced error from the FAI.

The Battle Of Stalingrad lasted 199 days; the FAI are on course to exceed that landmark by the time they hire a manager.

The FAI were slow in replacing Steve Staunton after sacking him in October 2007 but they at least had the sense to bring in Don Givens as a temporary manager to maintain some semblance of professionalism.

It took until February 2008 for the FAI and Giovanni Trappatoni to come to an agreement however continuity was maintained during this time.

Somehow, the FAI have made people nostalgic for the Staunton era when Ireland was scraping victories with injury-time winners over San Marino and being battered 5-2 by Cyprus. 

The football was as visually appealing as Gary Busey skinny-dipping, but at least the FAI governance during that era was borderline competent.

Sacking Kenny in November with no succession plan in place ranks up there with one of the FAI’s greatest blunders (but not quite as bad as letting John Delaney run the organisation into the ground for nearly 15 years.)

In a video released online in mid-April, FAI Director of Football Marc Canham explained the state of the current managerial hunt and in one of the biggest understatements of the year, said “we recognise and realise that is not necessarily the news that people wanted to hear and they may be disappointed to hear.”

He claimed, “we are absolutely committed and determined to find the best person for our men’s national team and for Irish football and that will continue to be our aim.”

The FAI walking back on their earlier announcement that a new manager would be in place by April now appears hopelessly quaint and it would not be at all surprising if Ireland had Bosco and Dustin The Turkey in the dugout for the game against England in September.

September is now the hard target for the FAI to have a manager in place, no ifs or buts.

The delay in replacing Kenny can be attributed to two things: the idea of managing Ireland is evidently as appealing to managers as being the caretaker at the Overlook Hotel and there is some loophole from Kenny’s original contract.

In March 2022, Kenny was granted a contract extension that would have left him in charge until after Euro 2024, at which point the contract would be up for discussion again.

It can now be surmised that because Ireland pulled the trigger on Kenny in November, there is some financial element to sacking Kenny that has not been disclosed to the public and the FAI’s budget does not allow for a manager to be brought in before July 1st.

This raises the question; if the FAI knew Ireland were playing meaningless, stat-padding fixtures in March and June with no consequences, why didn’t they keep Kenny with the intent of letting him run down the clock on his contract?

It would have saved an awful lot of embarrassment and negative PR for the FAI at a time when they could ill afford it.

Keeping Kenny in charge would have been an unpopular decision and there is little doubt that Kenny’s position as Irish manager was untenable last November but it would have been less embarrassing for the FAI to keep Kenny than the shambles we’ve been treated to over the last 6 months.

If Ireland fans can endure Jeff Hendrick playing as a holding midfielder for 10 years they could have endured 6 more months of Stephen Kenny miseryball if it meant getting a better manager in during the summer.

Most international contracts expire on July 1st, and a new contender for the Irish job has emerged in the form of Frenchman Willy Sangol.

The former Bayern Munich man managed to get Georgia to their first-ever Euros and qualified for the tournament despite being in the same group as Spain, Norway and Scotland.

Sagnol’s Georgia saw off Gus Poyet’s Greece in March’s play-off and theoretically could be available after Georgia’s involvement in the Euros ends. 

Sangol may well become the new Lee Carsley, and that’s not a comparison we’d ever expect to make during their playing days.

The Frenchman would be an exotic, progressive and forward-thinking appointment by the FAI, which of course means it won’t happen.

The recent departure of FAI boss Jonathan Hill paints a picture of an organisation that is run by work experience students as opposed to the governing body of a national football team.

Under Hill, the Irish women’s game became something you could actually shout about; the Irish women’s team qualified for a World Cup more recently than the men did and the women’s team are better placed to qualify for the next European championships than their male counterparts.

The FAI were proactive in hiring a replacement for Vera Pauw and were relatively quick to hire Eileen Gleeson as her replacement; Gleeson’s tenure has gone swimmingly so far and it is refreshing to have an Irish football team have a good manager and a good set of players.

Hill’s car crash performance in front of the Public Accounts Committee in February was the nail in the coffin for his tenure and was a perfect encapsulation of where Irish football stands in 2024.

Peter Capaldi’s Malcolm Tucker would have a field day trying to make the FAI look good to the press.

If anyone from the FAI is reading, we are available to take either the manager job or a job on the FAI board.

Let’s face it, we couldn’t be any worse than what is already there.

References are available upon request.