Of the coaches in these islands who are actively looking for a job at the moment, there's no one who jumps out, and speculating about a Premiership manager taking the position was always going to be a waste of time. It's accepted that no manager in England's top league is earning less than £1m a year . . . roughly two and a half times what the Ireland job pays . . . so why would anyone make that sort of move?

Given the underwhelming candidates who were out there, it's not that much of a surprise that the FAI have gambled on a tried and tested former international player who lacks the appropriate managerial credentials.

It's clear that Staunton has no track record as a coach, but it galls me when people like Philippe Troussier crop up in almost every list of runners for every international job. Who is this guy? What has he done apart from drift around the world managing countries for a year or two and then moving on? That's not necessarily a qualification to manage Ireland, and yet I read that Troussier has experience and that Staunton has none. True, but also meaningless. For me, Staunton is infinitely more qualified to lead Ireland than that guy.

I hope that John Delaney has watched over the years how Staunton has interacted with the other players, and how influential he has been, because that was exactly how Liverpool arrived at the conclusion that Kenny Dalglish was the right man to succeed Joe Fagan.

Mark Hughes made a successful move from the playing ranks into international management, and in the past, so did Franz Beckenbauer and Johnny Giles, so there are plenty of precedents for an appointment like this.

It's not Staunton's fault that the FAI wouldn't have the sort of knowledge necessary to identify up and coming new managers in England, not his fault that they don't know enough about football to appoint a less well-known coach who has shown real promise, and not his fault that it has been decided to give the job to someone who is acceptable to both the Irish supporters and to the media.

The problem here is not Staunton, it's the addition of Bobby Robson to the ticket.

Some commentators have already said they would prefer to see Robson in charge with Staunton learning his trade as a sidekick, but I would disagree with that.

Robson has had his time, and while that might be ageist and even a bit disrespectful, I would definitely have preferred Staunton on his own.

The inclusion of Robson is little more than windowdressing. It's the FAI's way of saying they admit that Staunton is inexperienced, that they're taking a bit of a gamble, so never mind the quality, feel the width of the veteran advisor. This is a manufactured partnership, cosmetic rather than practical, designed so the association can present Staunton in a more favourable light.

It doesn't take an expert to realise that Staunton has had no contact with Robson during his career, and that makes it practically certain that Staunton had no hand nor act in the selection of Robson.

I just hope that Staunton has been told that he's the manager, he picks the team, that all the decisions surrounding the team will be his, and that it's simply because of his inexperience that there'll be someone alongside in order to make the FAI's decision look better.

Robson might have a role in planning the European Championship qualifying campaign, or in assessing the opposition, or in handling the media . . .

something he failed to do that well when he was England manager . . . but I can't believe he'll be involved in the selection and scouting of players.

When Kerr's contract wasn't renewed, Delaney said he was confident the FAI would appoint a top-class manager.

That clearly hasn't happened, so Robson has been brought into the equation as an FAI solution to an FAI problem. If his role turns out to be greater than I think it should be, then Staunton will have a problem, but if it is simply window-dressing, no one can blame Staunton for grabbing an opportunity that doesn't come around too often.

I got to know Steve when he first broke into the international squad, and even as a teenager it was obvious that he had plenty of confidence. I can't say if he has the tactical knowledge and organisational skills to be successful, but he did show leadership qualities in the latter part of his playing career with Ireland, Aston Villa and Coventry.

He has never been one to court the media, which is a good thing. For my money, managers who go that route are lacking in self-belief. I also have no doubt that he would have the respect of the current players. When he was appointed captain after the Roy Keane debacle in Saipan, I'm sure he was telling the rest of the squad to put the episode behind them, to back the manager and to get on with the tournament.

Later, he wisely never had anything good or bad to say about Keane. A lot of people wanted to know his thoughts on all the controversy in the build-up to that World Cup as he had been the senior player in the middle of the storm and as he was retiring, but he chose to keep his counsel, and I admire him for that.

I presume that Delaney spoke to the likes of Shay Given, Damien Duff and Robbie Keane before making the decision. When you're thinking about appointing someone who was a former player with no managerial experience, you would want to canvass a few opinions regarding his leadership qualities.

There's a certain logic to the appointment given the lack of top-quality candidates, but I'm apprehensive about the Robson situation. If the FAI present it in such a way that Robson is there if Staunton needs him, then it might be acceptable, but if the new manager is undermined in any way, this arrangement is likely to come unstuck.

ON Thursday morning, John Delaney, Declan Conroy and Michael Cody, the FAI's chief executive, communications consultant and secretary, left Dublin Airport in separate planes, Delaney and Conroy heading for Birmingham, Cody for London. It had been 90 days since the Board of Management meeting at a nearby hotel had ended with Irish soccer in the market for a new manager of the national team and by now all that was left to work out were the final stages in squaring that circle.

Cody had a lunch appointment with Bobby Robson who, despite being Geordie to the bone as man, boy and elder, still has an apartment by the Thames in Fulham. By the end, Robson's fee had been signed off on and they'd settled on a title as well. International football consultant. That it was about as makey-uppy a piece of nomenclature as could be imagined wasn't going to foam down the fire that was already burning back in Dublin over Robson's role but the way the FAI saw it, this was a storm that would blow itself out in time. Best to get started, to get things moving.

Earlier, 130 miles north at Walsall's Bescott Stadium, Delaney and Conroy met with the club's chief executive Roy Whalley. All business with the club had been sorted out by phone and fax over the previous four days and this was little more than a handshake. Figures weren't discussed . . . it had already been agreed that the association would pay Walsall 30,000 in compensation . . . and within 10 minutes the pair were on their way to a meeting in Birmingham with three of the four men in whose hands they were about to place the foreseeable future of the national side's fortunes.

They spoke with Steve Staunton, Alan Kelly and Kevin McDonald for just over an hour, after which Staunton and the two FAI men drove to London to sit down with Cody and Robson. One day, three meetings, a few hundred miles and a lot of ground covered. The 11th Ireland soccer manager had been appointed on a four-year contract, his international football consultant for two with a review at the end of it.

It's far from a secret that Steve Staunton wasn't the first choice. When that 18 October Board of Management meeting finished, it's not as if Delaney turned to the gathered officials and said, "Right, anybody got Stan's number handy?" Nobody is in any doubt that if the circumstances of Martin O'Neill's life were different and if he could have taken convincing, we'd be meeting him in the Mansion House tomorrow morning and not Staunton.

In fact, it was only in the past fortnight that the FAI decided once and for all to give up on the Derry man.

Despite O'Neill ruling himself out of the running in a hastily-convened press conference in Dublin within a week of Kerr's departure, the association hadn't let go of the hope that his mind could be changed. Although they never spoke to him directly, the vibes they were getting back through intermediaries . . . former international Mickey Walsh and Niall Sloane, a close friend of O'Neill's . . . gave Delaney just enough encouragement not to abandon the idea altogether.

That said, the chief executive is no fool. He knew that the reality of the situation was that whatever chance he had of snaring O'Neill was a slim one and that the odds were heavily stacked against it. So it was decided that some exploratory meetings would be carried out with potential candidates in December and that the association would proceed as if O'Neill wasn't an option.

Staunton impressed with the depth of his feeling for the job and for how the spirit of the international squad could be picked up off the floor. Importantly, given Delaney's marked distaste for Brian Kerr's keenness to involve himself in as many areas of Irish football from the bottom up as possible, Staunton's candidature concentrated heavily on his existing relationships with the current senior squad. Technical plans, player pathways, all that jazz would be for the association to take care of.

His obvious shortcoming was . . . is . . . his lack of experience. The FAI are adamant that it was Staunton's idea to include on the ticket someone older and more worldlywise than him and Staunton himself is expected to say as much when the question is thrown at him upon meeting the media tomorrow. The official version of events goes like this. Ten days after their first meeting, Staunton outlined the backroom team he had in mind. McDonald and Kelly would be his assistant and goalkeeping coach and he wondered if it would be okay if he asked Robson to come on board in an advisory capacity. Niall Quinn knew Robson of old and he established the link between him and Staunton.

In time, the FAI hope that the minutiae of Robson's appointment will be regarded as a small detail, a trivial piece of ephemera. And perhaps it is. Their version of events is emphatically that in no way was Robson forced on Staunton and that, actually, Staunton was the instigator. "Bobby will do whatever Stephen asks him to do in terms of getting the best out of this Irish side, " Delaney said on Friday night.

"Quite simply, Bobby's brief is to assist and support the manager in whatever way the manager wants."

Which is all very well to be saying in the heady first days of a new appointment. But if there's trouble in the tea leaves, it's likely to be Robsonshaped. If things don't work out between him and the new manager, it will be interesting to see whether or not the itwas-Steve's-idea-really story is stuck to. For now, we can only take it at face value, however unlikely it sounds.

But that's for the future.

Back in December, Delaney, Cody and David Blood, the FAI president and the third member of the three-man committee given the job of finding a new manager, came away from the meetings with Staunton happy that they'd found someone with a clear and present passion both for the job and for what the job means. They still hadn't completely given up on O'Neill but at least now they had satisfied themselves that they had an option on someone that they'd be happy with.

The next step was to gauge putative player reaction. Shay Given, Robbie Keane and Kevin Kilbane were all asked how they'd feel about the appointment of the man who captained them during the last World Cup. To a man, they sent back positive soundings. "You couldn't but be supportive of him, " said one. "He'd be somewhere between Mick and Brian.

He'd be a great leader."

Armed with this and Staunton's impressive display at their first meeting, Delaney's mind was 90 per cent made up. He decided that if no change came in the O'Neill situation in the first week of the new year, Staunton would be formally offered the job. After all did indeed remain quiet on that front through that week, he went to meet Staunton last weekend, and on Sunday they shook hands on a deal.

By then . . . to Delaney and Conroy's chagrin . . . the Sunday Tribune had broken the story. There were suggestions later in the week from Bernard O'Byrne, the association's former head honcho, that the story had been leaked by the FAI as a way of dipping their toes in the water and gauging public reaction. On a couple of counts, this was arrant nonsense.

First off, the FAI wasn't the source of the Tribune story.

Beyond that, moreover, not alone were the FAI angry that Staunton's name had made its way into these pages, but the public reaction has been so cool in the past week that if it had been a case of toedipping then surely they'd have jumped a mile out of the water by now.

For rarely, if ever, in living memory has the appointment of a team's coach been received with quite so little enthusiasm as Staunton's has these past few days. Reaction has ranged from incomprehension at the appointment of someone who's managed precisely the same amount of teams as, say, Samantha Mumba to, at best, quiet beseeching to give the lad a chance. Yet, contrary to O'Byrne's premise, the FAI have neither flinched nor wavered.

And nor should they. So Staunton isn't some precocious amalgam of Stein, Shankly and Mourinho, but did we really and truly expect to get someone who was? Not for the first time, expectation has led some among the Irish soccer public to get carried away with themselves.

Look at what the job is. A team at a low ebb without a competitive win over serious opposition since September 2001. A bunch of unconnected, apparently uninterested players. A smallish salary, relative to other countries.

This wasn't the easiest sell in the world. Consequently, there weren't an awful lot of interested buyers.

Staunton, then, is a triumph of what's left. Nobody knows how good or bad he'll be for the simple reason that he has no record by which to be judged. All anyone can do is wish him all the best.

And maybe cross fingers and toes while we're at it.

ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS . . . ROOKIE MANAGERS ON THE INTERNATIONAL STAGE THUMBS UP. . .

FRANZ BECKENBAUER West Germany Der Kaiser is the daddy of the group, the ultimate aspiration. With no coaching quali"cations or dugout time previously on his CV he delivered a World Cup final place in 1986 . . . falling to Maradona's Argentina . . . and a World Cup win with an ordinary enough German side in 1990.

MARCO VAN BASTEN Holland Unproven of course. Still. Van Basten took over a Dutch side wildly under-performing and riddled with petty rifts. A new, very Dutch, very stylish formation and way of playing followed as did the removal of the largely-unhelpful Patrick Kluivert and Clarence Seedorf. And a side that found the Czech Republic too hot to handle in Euro 2004 managed to beat them twice in an almost-perfect march to this summer's World Cup.

Flowing football, results, a young enthusiastic group and, most of all, apparent harmony in the Dutch camp all deserve credit.

MARK HUGHES Wales Ok, opinion may differ as to whether Hughes left his country in better or worse shape than when he took them over. But you can't argue with a bit of morale-boosting courtesy of an aggressive style, an epic home win over Italy in a Euro 2004 qualifier, a record 10 matches unbeaten (especially as it followed 12 without a win), and a qualification play-off reached.

Achieved, interestingly for us, with a limited squad. The man himself admitted it took a campaign to get his head round the job. Again, interesting for us.

QUESTION MARKS. . .

FRANK RIJKAARD Holland His current joyous incarnation at Barcelona of course tinkers with memories of what was a mixed bag with the national team. Didn't need to qualify for his only tournament, was never taken seriously by his own media due to a lack of coaching nous, and went 11 friendly games without a win or apparently a de"nite idea of what was going on. And yet his side contributed to some of the standout moments of Euro 2000 with a belter of a game against France (won 32) and that performance against Yugoslavia (6-1). In the end, beaten by the Dutch penalty disease and his own high standards in resigning.

JURGEN KLINSMANN Germany A curiously similar case to Rijkaard. The fact Germany didn't need to qualify for the World Cup makes analysis of his job so far dif"cult, yet he is suffering severe media criticism over a lack of tactical ability mid-game, and his apparent surferdude lifestyle in California. Plus, he has taken to heaping pressure on himself with proclamations like "our target is to win the World Cup" and "we've already booked our hotel in Berlin ["nal location]" though the feeling that he's getting to grips with the job was helped by a handy showing at the Confederations Cup last year.

Organisation seemingly second to none.

AND THUMBS DOWN. . .

DEJAN SAVICEVIC Serbia and Montenegro Nothing but bad vibes from this one. Savicevic took over in 2001 despite having no coaches badge, qualifications or experience in preparing teams. He resigned after a run of results that included a 3-0 loss in Finland and a crushing 2-1 (two goals conceded in the last four minutes) defeat to Azerbaijan. His cause wasn't helped by the team's age pro"le, mainly veterans from European football and youngsters from the domestic league.

GHEORGHE HAGI Romania Took the post with typical self-confidence in 2001, claiming "soccer has no secret to me. I'm well prepared to implement my ideas on the pitch". His "rst managerial appointment ended bitterly six months later after a 3-2 play-off defeat to Slovenia left them out of the World Cup for the "rst time since 1986. Hagi was slammed for his tactical naivety and mistakes on the line, even though the players wanted him to stay on.

HRISTO STOICHKOV Bulgaria We know, we're picking some fiery emotional types here.

Just to signify the possible plummeting from legend to, well, non-legendary status.

Stoichkov took over in 2004 and Bulgaria failed to reach the World Cup after disappointing losses to Sweden and Croatia. He also earned a 4-match ban for suggesting Lennart Johansson was involved in fixing the Swedish result. Still in the job though.