Another manager gone. With Sunderland seemingly intent on stealing Sam Allardyce it means another Irish manager out of work as well. It all seems a helluva long time since Joe Kinnear was guiding Wimbledon to sixth in the Premiership, or O'Leary himself was on his European odyssey with Leeds or Martin O'Neill was wanted for every job in football. Whatever slant you put on things, there's a lack of men in the top jobs from this island right now.

The Peter Crouch and the Shaun Wright-Phillips of it is that there are now only five managers working in the English league . . . Mick McCarthy (Wolves), John Sheridan (Oldham), Gary Waddock (QPR), Jim Gannon (Stockport County), Sean O'Driscoll (Bournemouth) . . . who have connections or history with the Irish set-up. Three of them have been appointed in 2006, two of them are considered possibly short-term. Not figures to die for by any means.

So where have all the Irish managers gone?

Well taking the average age of the club manager as in his forties/early fifties that takes us back twenty years or so. Of the 25 or so players that Ireland brought in the squads to Euro '88 and World Cup '90, just six have had a go at club management in England.

Only two of those were in the top division . . . David O'Leary and Mick McCarthy . . . and let's face it, for all the bluster surrounding O'Leary's time at Leeds, neither of them were a huge success. Only three are managing as we speak, and one of those is the national gaffer. Cast your mind back to the time from the mid-80s to the early 90s and it seemed potential management gleamed from every corner, with the bunch of natural leaders not so much dotted as blobbed throughout that group. Now think of the ones who haven't given it a go who you'd have nailed as sure things. Bonner, Beglin, Moran, Houghton, Townsend jump out right away as fellas who've drifted into media work rather than towards the training ground. Hughton, Sheedy, McLoughlin are a few who haven't made it past coaching or assistant roles. What about the ones who had a lash at it?

Well, Mark Lawrenson didn't last too long at Oxford - couldn't work with Robert Maxwell . . . so he opted out for good and cosied up to the BBC. Ronnie Whelan left Southend after relegation, did okay with Panianios in Greece and was sacked by Olympiakos Nicosia of Cyprus despite having a not so bad record. When asked for one word on his time in Europe he mentioned "corrupt", which may explain the use of the word "never" when asked about managing again. Frank Stapleton did a spot of coaching at Huddersfield, nabbed the main job at Bradford but was sacked after a few years for failure to get promotion and his year in the US was on the wrong side of confused.

John Aldridge spent five years at Tranmere but struggled to get past the perception that they were a cup team until eventually even a handful of great nights wasn't enough anymore.

The most gifted player of an era, Liam Brady, had problems with the step up (take note Roy Keane). Brady went straight for the goldfish bowl of Celtic, signings didn't come off and in his own words he found there was a lot to learn.

A 5-1 thrashing by Neuchatel Xamax didn't help and it all went south after a couple of seasons, followed by a runof-the-mill, nothing spell at Brighton. None of these have managed since 2001, which makes pretty much a whole generation of possibilities lost there folks. Why? Well, we'll come back to that.

Ok, comparisons might be a tad false and tricky at times but just for kicks let's have a look. From the Italian squads of that time, Carlo Ancelotti and Roberto Mancini are in charge at the two Milan clubs, Roberto Donadoni has just slipped into the top job in Italy after a spell with Livorno and Walter Zenga was at Red Star Belgrade until last month. Holland have Frank Rijkaard in charge of Spain's biggest and Europe's top club, Ronald Koeman at Benfica, Erwin Koeman at Feyenoord, along with Marco Van Basten as the national coach. The Germans have eight players from their World Cup '90 squad managing at the moment in some shape or form, with another three just recently out of work. England have had a curiously low takeup from their squad of the time . . . only Bryan Robson from the Euro '88 group is currently managing and that's with West Brom . . . but have more to fall back on.

Even without their wellknown internationals coming through, and Stuart Pearce is taking steps at rubbishing that particular theory, England can still quite fairly point to Roeder, Allardyce, Pardew, Jewell, Boothroyd in the Premiership alone. Scotland can point to David Moyes and Gordon Strachan, Wales to Chris Coleman and Mark Hughes. Here lies part of the problem.

Ask former Irish chief Eoin Hand to explain the potential areas for concern here and the first thing he'll mention is that the old boys network is still alive and kicking and that the first place a club will look for a manager is close to home.

"The owners of the clubs over in England will still look after their own first. Apart from the real progressive guys at the top who might look for the Wengers and the Mourinhos, generally if a vacancy comes up they'll prefer to get an English or British manager in than look at someone from Ireland. It makes things more difficult, " he explains.

The facts back that up.

Take away the big four in the Premiership and all the other managers are British except for Martin Jol at Spurs. An Irish manager is going to have to be a big name to get work.

We've already listed how the biggest names in Irish football of the last 20 years have either been uninterested, unlucky or simply incapable. Unfortunately the domestic avenue is probably a cul-de-sac.

Where as retired Italian players can work their way through the ranks of Serie C to Serie A or the Spanish can make their names in La Liga, it's extremely unlikely an Irish manager will be spotted doing great work in theEircom League and get his break in a big job in England. Roddy Collins is the only Irish manager to do that recently and it didn't turn out well. There's a close to zero chance of someone doing a Rafa Benitez or a Jose Mourinho on it . . . an average or non-player bursting onto the scene to make a great manager in one of the big leagues. The market for Irish managers in Europe is nonexistent. Which leaves us back at square one: the star name.

Hand knows what route aspiring manager should be following anyway. A certain M O'Neill had it down to a tee he reckons. "Lots of players get towards the end of their careers and aren't really sure how to go about it and maybe almost fall into it. But Martin is a very intelligent guy and he had it all mapped out in a way, the starting at a small club, the progression from Wycombe to Leicester to Celtic, it was nearly perfect really."

And of the future? "Well you mentioned Roy Keane. I know he'd have the motivation to do a job but there's a whole lot more to it. Could he get his point across in a different way to players depending on what they needed, does he have the communication? Could he deal with chairmen? What about the press? It's all part of it. Obviously if Roy got involved there would be a great initial boost to a club but once that period is over, would he have the skills to progress players, to improve the team? I think he'd need a good team around him to do it."

It might be fun all the same to watch him try. And it might be needed as well.