HAVE THE FAI got a coherent approach to recruiting a new Republic of Ireland manager? That was one of the questions addressed on today’s Football Family, the podcast for subscribers to The 42.
“Lee Carsley is one person and Neil Lennon is another, they seem to be the top two, but their profiles are very different,” said David Sneyd, football journalist with The 42.
He added: “How is this being led? By people making themselves available? Agents? You would like to think if Lee Carsley was your number one choice then your number two, three and four choices are going to be similar.”
Shane Keegan, the former manager of Cobh Ramblers and Galway United, questioned how proactive and imaginative the FAI have been so far in the search.
“This is where I’m genuinely interested to know what has been the recruitment strategy here,” he said, “because in my opinion, be it in sport or in business, if a role needs to be filled I would put it out there to see what applications come in.
“And maybe a surprise application would come in that you’re thinking, ‘Yeah, that’s not a bad one, that makes sense,’ but that would almost be secondary to the fact that what I’d really be doing is writing up my list of the top three, top five who fit the criteria of what we want, and I’d be going after them – not waiting for them to come and apply for the job.
“Obviously you’d start at the top and go after the first one and if that’s not doable you move to the second one. Maybe one name in that five would be somebody who did apply for the job – but just sitting around and waiting to see what comes in, to me, that makes no sense.
“I’m not convinced that we’ve been imaginative enough here. You’ve laid out a bit of criteria that I’d broadly agree with. Surely if you sat down and trawled names that are in football management in the world, you could come up with a few who tick the boxes you’re after calling out there, and are somewhat, reasonably getable.”
If you are not already a subscriber then sign up here to listen to this podcast and enjoy unlimited access to The 42, including entry to our football WhatsApp goup.
