FAI to address missed manager deadline as search draws a blank
The FAI will today issue an update attempting to explain their latest missed deadline for appointing a new manager.
Marc Canham’s vow to unveil Stephen Kenny’s successor in early April hit the buffers recently when talks broke down with Gus Poyet, the former Greece manager now out of contract.
Other candidates such as Chris Hughton have been sounded out since that plan went awry but it’s understood director of football Canham has nobody lined up imminently to fill the vacancy.
John O’Shea will be asked to fulfil interim duties again for the double-header of friendlies at home to Hungary on June 4 and Portugal in Aveiro a week later unless the FAI succeed in luring one of their many targets in the meantime.
More probable is an appointment over the summer months when contenders are free of their contract commitments elsewhere.
The FAI are believed to be now operating on the basis that it’s better to have the best qualified, available and affordable boss in charge for the Uefa Nations League opener against England on September 7 rather than installing a name originally well down the pecking order.
This was flagged as the week that the identity of the supremo would be revealed but the only announcement so far was the predicted departure of chief executive Jonathan Hill on Monday.
He had been part of the headhunting team alongside Canham and Packie Bonner, to the fore of hatching deals on prospective bosses. A legacy of Hill’s three-and-a-half year reign will be his inability to deliver a manager.
These two topics were uppermost on the agenda when the FAI’s chairman Tony Keohane addressed staff on Thursday at a Townhall meeting called during this latest turbulent week for Irish football.
The former Tesco CEO oversaw
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