FAI chief executive John Delaney has single-mindedly pursued O'Neill as his number one target ever since Kerr failed to deliver a World Cup place in Germany and has used former Irish star Mickey Walsh to keep in touch with O'Neill through Niall Sloane, a close friend of the ex-Celtic manager.

Following a meeting just before the new year, it was decided that if there was no movement on the O'Neill situation within a short period of time, then they would look at either appointing Staunton with an older sidekick, Bobby Robson, to the post or offer it to the former Liverpool and Aston Villa star in some sort of interim capacity.

Delaney, FAI president David Blood and Michael Cody, who make up the threeman committee given the mandate to find the new manager, ideally would like to have their man in place before the friendly game against Sweden on 1 March in Dublin.

This will give the manager a chance to familiarise himself with the players before the Euro 2008 qualifiers in the autumn and also dispel the feeling that they were unable to land the candidate they wanted.

Staunton who holds a record 102 caps for the Republic has been the subject of a huge number of bets over the past week and had hardened from 4/6 and 4/7 earlier in the week to 1/2 at Paddy Power's yesterday afternoon.

Former England Manager Terry Venables is quoted as second favourite at 5/2 but is not considered a serious candidate.