Last year, Arthur Mathews, the cocreator of I, Keano, compared the association to "a perpetually exploding clown's car". When John Delaney took the wheel, there was a real expectation of saner, safer motoring ahead. Even the sacrifice of Brian Kerr, in Delaney's bloody hands, seemed sensible pruning. Back then, the chief executive announced that the vacant position was "a high-profile job and it's certainly one that we are confident we can get a topclass manager for; one who can bring passion and make the necessary tactical adjustments during a game to manage our team going forward."

Back then, all the usual suspects were rounded up. Ferguson, O'Neill, Keane . . . all the greats. Then, as bookmakers stopped taking bets, first on John Aldridge and then Terry Venables, Steve Staunton's name started to sneak up in the odds. Paul Merson, his boss at Walsall, said that he and Staunton would read the papers every day and wonder when the phone would ring.

And then it did. The devil is in the detail and we may never know the minutiae of the Transfiguration of Steve Staunton. His relationship with the media is poor (though this at least means bypassing the traditional honeymoon period between Ireland managers and the press they grow to loathe).

But Delaney, unlike many of his predecessors, is a genuine football man and maybe, just maybe, it was the passion that sealed it. Across 102 performances in a green shirt, Staunton was never found wanting in that department and occasionally he went beyond the call. In McCarthy Park . . . Jim Duggan's documentary on Mick McCarthy's first campaign in charge of the Irish squad . . . there's a scene in which the camera catches an Ireland team waiting in the tunnel before a crucial game against Lithuania. Staunton, his face white with determination and his fists clenched, stalks the line of players, shouting: "We don't get beat. We don't get f***ing beat." They didn't.

That won't be enough to take a Republic side whose morale is currently off the radar to a major tournament. But maybe, just maybe, it's a start.

Whisper it, but he was actually born in Drogheda. The family . . . parents Tom and Rosaleen and five children . . . moved to the Ard Easmuinn estate in Dundalk when Stephen was still in short trousers. The Corrs lived there too, making the housing estate one of the most famous in the country now that they've left. He was still at Friary National School when word spread across the town that Stephen Staunton was something special. "From the age of 10, everyone knew who he was, " remembers one contemporary. "It wasn't even that he was that great a footballer, he just had this aura about him. There was no way he wasn't going to make it."

He was six when he first turned heads. His older brother, David . . . later a star for the Louth GAA team . . . was playing for St Malachy's Under Eights and Stephen was watching.

When the ball was struck out of play it knocked the ice cream cone out of the younger boy's hand. A coach suggested Stephen take his revenge on the pitch. Just one cornetto and a career was in motion.

He played as much gaelic football as soccer back then, winning a Louth Senior Football Championship medal with Clan na Gael when he was just 16 and a pupil at the local De La Salle secondary school. But it was back at the Dundalk schoolboys' team, St Dominic's . . . that his ambition was cast.

Simply, he never wanted to be anything else and the whole town knew he was on his way.

For all that, the big break came relatively late. Unlike most of his contemporaries in football, he got his Leaving Cert under his belt before he signed for Dundalk FC. Within months, Liverpool came calling. The Merseyside giants collected the 17-year-old's signature for £20,000 when they came to Cork to play a Republic of Ireland XI and the Stauntons were invited along. He arrived as the last great Liverpool side was beginning to break up.

Ronnie Whelan, Mark Lawrenson and Jim Beglin were in the first team; John Aldridge and Ray Houghton would join soon after Staunton.

He remembers it as a happy time, living with legends. After a spell in the reserves, Kenny Dalglish sent him to Bradford City on loan where he matured into the kind of player the manager wanted back and in his first team. He made his senior debut in the autumn of 1988, two years after he'd crossed the water.

He had come to Jack Charlton's attention at Bradford.

The Irish manager brought the then 18-year-old into the camp in advance of Euro '88 with plans of Italia '90 in mind.

That autumn, with the Republic at the start of the wild rollercoaster ride that would last for the next decade, Staunton made his debut in a green jersey in a friendly against Tunisia.

In August 1991, he signed for Aston Villa for £1.1m. It wasn't his choice, but he was never bitter and still sings praise for Liverpool on cue. He remained at Villa for seven years . . . far longer than he'd worn a Liverpool shirt . . . before returning to the club that had engineered him on a free transfer in 1998.

He was there, an occasional feature of the first team, for two years, before moving to Crystal Palace for a month, then back to Villa where he stayed until August 2003.

Coventry City was Stan's next stop. He stayed with the blues for two seasons before joining Walsall as player-coach in the closed season last year.

He is Ireland's most capped player and the only man to have played in all the World Cups the Republic has qualified for. He has captained the national side 16 times; the last time he wore the armband, it was still warm from Roy Keane after the Saipan debacle. He was a staunch McCarthyite during that troubled time.

So maybe, just maybe, there is true grit under that mildmannered exterior. Maybe, beneath the modesty and shyness, John Delaney's top-class manager is waiting to emerge.

But before this weekend, Steve Staunton had never managed a football team. "There's steps and there's leaps, " said Paul Merson on Thursday, "but that's a massive leap."

Still. Maybe, just maybe.

Stephen Staunton Born 19 January 1969, Drogheda Educated De La Salle College, Dundalk Married To Joanne; they separated last year; two sons, Kyle and Patrick In the news In spite of a complete lack of management experience, he has been appointed manager of the Republic of Ireland