With Gerard Houllier, the club spoke about him at first but it wasn't supposed to be joint managers. But that's what happened. Of course I pointed out that it had never worked before but if those involved thought it was for the good of the football club, I'd be willing it to give it a try.

At first we were just bringing in another coach. Obviously Gerard had good experience and we just needed another coach. After that, whether he put pressure on people in order to become more than a coach, I just don't know. From my side, I never had any ego about it, I just had worries about it not working and as the future told, it didn't work.

I never looked at it as undermining my position in any way though. At first I thought, well, there'd be two heads and there'd be added experience, but I think as soon as you bring someone in, you're undermined automatically.

Initially when there was a conflict between me and Gerard I made the decision. We'd talk about it with the staff but in most cases it was my call because Gerard was prepared to sit back in the early stages.

But obviously as time went on we had different ideas.

Football is about different opinions. What time is the bus leaving? What time are we training tomorrow? Simple things became difficult.

And there was no wrong answer, just different opinions. Players saw that happening, they saw things not working together and at the top level that causes serious problems.

It wasn't so much him growing into a role either. I knew it wasn't working and there was no way the club was going to sack Gerard. It wasn't working for me, him or the club. It could only have got worse over a longer period of time so it was time to take action.

But the Irish system is not the same. Steve Staunton's got a guy at a different level and they are not both doing the same job. He has a guy helping him, no more. When you've two people doing the same job, with the same remit, that's a different kettle of fish. Sure, it will still be a tough job; there can be no doubt about that. For Steve it's a massive step. But he knows the game. And I actually think it makes a lot of sense to get Bobby Robson in. It will help a lot. But Steve is the one who is there to be his own man and make the decisions. That's what he should do. He can look to these people around him . . .

Robson and Kevin McDonald . . . but somewhere along the line he'll have to make things the way he wants them to be.

I think it's set up well for that. Steve's got bags of enthusiasm and Bobby can guide him in the right directions and help him but Steve will be the manager and the one making the final decisions.

He'll live or die by that.

Ideally, everyone should go through the system. It's nice to be reserve team coach, assistant coach and work your way up that way yet you can only take that when things work out.

But when you get an offer of a job like the Irish one and you've got the experience Staunton has, if you feel you can do it, you have to take it.

What you do however, is back yourself with experience.

There's no question that had to be done. If you are going to go with a guy who's relatively new in the coaching game, you have to bring in people around him. It's a lot of money for Bobby Robson, but I'm sure he's not that interested in the money. I'm sure he doesn't need it and he is a backstop and that was needed.

He'll have to help Steve and not hinder him, that's the way it will have to be. Initially though, it might not be easy for Bobby to be an assistant.

He's been a number one wherever he's gone for so long now and it's not easy to step back and be an assistant. But it's certainly a better blend than what Gerard and I had.