FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION OF Ireland chief executive John Delaney says the search for Giovanni Trapattoni’s successor will take in managers from throughout the world.
Trap left his position with Ireland yesterday morning in the wake of defeats to Austria and Sweden over the past week.
Derry-born Martin O’Neill is the bookies’ favourite to replace the Italian but Delaney insists another foreign boss could be installed.
“We all want the best man, it doesn’t matter if he’s Irish, English, continental or whatever, once we can get the best man in to get the best out of our players and qualify for 2016,” he told Sky Sports News today.
“That’s what the Irish people want, that’s what the Irish soccer supporters want, and the association. I wouldn’t rule anything in or out at this stage. I’ve been around this process a number of times and you know this morning there’s agents ringing putting names in, that’s what happens.
“And it’s important that we handle the process as confidentially as we can.”
He continued: “I wouldn’t read anything into being a favourite or not being favourite because at the moment the Association hasn’t sat down as a board to sit down and look at the job description.
“There’s many names obviously like Chris Hughton, Martin O’Neill, Mick McCarthy, Roy Keane, Brian McDermott — all those names will be mentioned as well as many others. The FAI Board will sit down over the next week or so and we will put together the type of job description we want as part of the process.
“Ideally it would be nice to have a manager in place by October but that’s not a must because we have 12 months before we play our first competitive European qualifiers next September and I think it’s important we get the right man in so that we qualify for France in 2016.”
