It's not Steve Staunton's fault Henderson fell out of favour at Brighton and moved to Preston North End's bench over the course of the previous month. However, it was the manager's call to start a rusty goalkeeper over a more experienced in-form colleague. Neither of them is Shay Given but in its own way, that selection was emblematic of this particular reign.

It has been an era of curious personnel decisions, bizarre judgment calls, and puzzling battlefield promotions.

Ignoring traditional criteria involved in picking an XI such as form and regularity of firstteam football, Staunton has evinced a costly fondness for playing individuals no matter what their club status, and parachuting unproven others in and out of the squad at alarming speed. There has been an utter lack of consistency to the management style and a year into his time in charge, we are no nearer understanding what a player must actually do to impress the national team boss.

Eight days ago, Jay Tabb came on as a sub for Coventry City in a 2-0 defeat by Sunderland that left them languishing 17th in the Championship. In an unimpressive first season for one of the division's weakest teams, the 22-year-old has started just nine league games. Why are those statistics relevant? Merely because after an injury to Graham Kavanagh and the death of Alan Quinn's mother left a hole the squad for the trip to Nicosia last October, Tabb was the man Staunton reckoned was a more viable alternative in midfield than Everton's then in-form Lee Carsley.

An unused sub during the Cyprus debacle, Tabb wasn't togged out for the Czech Republic match four days later and hasn't been seen since. But what was he doing there in the first place? Who decided a player struggling to establish himself at his club was worth a crucial spot on the bench that night? And why was he jettisoned so quickly? When the wheels come off so early in a campaign, these sort of questions matter.

After much talk of embarking on a youth movement, Staunton went into battle at the Stadio Olimpico in Serravalle with four untried international rookies - Stephen Hunt, Darron Gibson, Andy Keogh and Anthony Stokes - in the dugout. On such a dismal occasion, their presence might at least be construed as evidence he's building for the future.

Except he's been down this road before.

Recently too.

When he went looking for alternatives during the unravelling against Cyprus, a trio of uncapped players in Tabb, Sean St Ledger and Kevin Foley were among his listed subs. They remain uncapped. Only Foley figured in the most recent squad and that was as a late call-up for the injured Stephen Carr.

By what reasoning Staunton is floating these guys in and out of favour remains a complete mystery. Perhaps it's the enigmatic rationale he applied when springing Newcastle United's Alan O'Brien on the Germans last September. With the game on the line, a player then yet to start a firstteam match for his club took his competitive bow against the third-best side in the world. An unprecedented event in modern Irish football.

The O'Brien case continues to bewilder.

During his fourth cap against the Czechs at Lansdowne Road, the 21-year-old winger earned the unique distinction of having played more for his country than for his club. So far, so perplexing. The truly bizarre twist to this tale is that following a productive January in which he finally got a start for Glenn Roeder's side, and a pair of substitute appearances to boot, O'Brien only made the Irish plane last week as a last-minute replacement.

Subsequently, he wasn't deemed good enough for the bench he used to adorn.

That somebody became a favourite sub while not figuring for his club yet was thought unworthy of togging out after finally breaking through at St James' Park epitomises Staunton's strange way of doing business. Along with bringing back Mick Byrne and relaxing the drinking laws, he appears to have discarded the normal blueprint by which players used to earn international caps. The days when a lengthy run in the club first-team segued into a friendly debut, and a few trips as a squad member learning the scene were necessary before a competitive debut might be risked are long gone. O'Brien got in on the back of a pre-season half against Villarreal.

This manager has more Irish footballers knocking around England's top two divisions and the Scottish PremierLeague than any of his predecessors. The available evidence suggests he has yet to get a grip on the varying abilities of the players available to him - witness Hunt only infringing on his radar after his knee met Petr Cech's head.

On his very first day in the job, Staunton talked excitedly about exploiting the granny rule, and Bolton's Kevin Nolan, Reading's Dave Kitson, Birmingham City's Gary McSheffrey and Aston Villa's Gary Cahill were among those avidly pursued in this regard. The time wasted courting potential Irishmen might have been better spent evaluating those already eligible and eager to wear the shirt.