FAI CHIEF EXECUTIVE John Delaney says it’s important the Association take their time in appointing a successor to Giovanni Trapattoni.
The Board met on Monday and appointed Noel King as caretaker manager while charging technical director Ruud Dokter and former player Ray Houghton with drawing up a shortlist of potential candidate.
The move has been seen as the FAI cooling their interest in favourite Martin O’Neill but Delaney insists this is the best way to find the right man for the job.
“I think it’s important that we get the right man in,” he told RTÉ’s Joe Stack this morning. “I could appoint — or the FAI could appoint — one of 20 people today because there’s been lots of applications and lots of interest. But I think it’s better that we take our time over the appointment.
“We took a lot of time the last time to appoint Trapattoni and it turned out to be a very good appointment for us particularly over the first two qualification groups he managed us. So we’ve decided to ask Ray Houghton and Ruud Dokter our High Performance Director from Holland to go to the market, analyse the market and come back to the board telling us what they think could be a shortlist for the next Ireland manager.”
Asked how long the Irish football public can expect that process to last, Delaney admits he doesn’t know.
“We have these games in October, Noel will manage that,” he said, “Noel deserves that by the way. Noel was technical director of the FAI under Jack Charlton in 1988, he’s managed the women’s senior team, he’s managed the U21s, he’s played League of Ireland, he’s managed in League of Ireland so Noel King deserves this. And good luck to him in October in that regard.
“And in the meantime, Ruud and Ray will check the market out, come back to the FAI board and at that stage we’ll appraise the public as to what the timeframe will be.”
The Abbotstown boss insists the position is still an attractive one for potential candidates.
“There’s absolutely no question about that. And there’s three reasons why. First of all the qualification for 2014 European Championships is an easier task. There are good young players there despite what some people may have said with people like Seamus Coleman, Robbie Brady, Shane Long, James McCarthy, young Wilson, Shane Duffy, many, many good young players.
“And on top of that Denis O’Brien’s terrific support of the project, if we so wish we have the ability to pay a salary that brings in a level of interest,” he added.
