Hard for Delaney to take a back seat

On SoccerIt was something of a relief to read the other day that Eamonn Dunphy has come out strongly against the appointment of Terry Venables as the next manager of Ireland. What with John Giles' involvement in the process and Andy Townsend being linked to a role in El Tel's new set up, it seemed for a while there as if RTÉ's panel of TV pundits might be about to hand the running of the national team to their opposite numbers at ITV.

Clearly, this would be a novel way of filling the vacancies that exist within the Ireland set up but no more novel, you could be forgiven for thinking, than moving to within a whisker of offering the job to somebody before putting in place the "headhunters" to pick him.

The proposal on the night Steve Staunton departed was that a panel of experts would take the process of selecting a replacement to the point where a single name would be handed to the FAI's board and they, without dispute, would simply rubber-stamp the appointment. John Delaney, it was said (by John Delaney, as it happens) would have no part in the process other than giving the thumbs up to the lucky candidate.

At the time even some of those who felt the people responsible for handing Staunton the job last time around should have no part in selecting his appointment were a little bit taken back by the extent to which the association's main men were actually prepared to outsource the recruitment process. The tone of several of the commentaries that followed, indeed, in effect suggested that the chief executive, in particular, was damned if he did and damned if he didn't.

To judge by the rumblings of the last few days it seems that Delaney reckoned that if he was going to be damned either way then it was at least going to be for something he'd actually played a part in.

While FAI officials were insisting yesterday that the third member of the panel of experts has yet to be put in place, there was considerable evidence that Delaney is in the thick of the real action. Last week, we know, he rang Paul Jewell in the wake of the former Wigan manager's announcement that he was no longer interested in being considered for the post.

The following day he was in London meeting Townsend and discussing a possible role for the former Ireland skipper. And there was a good deal of speculation that Delaney might talk with Gerard Houllier in Durban over the weekend.

Now it is expected that representatives of the association will meet Venables over coming days. There has been no suggestion so far that Delaney will be sitting across the table from the former England boss but the idea that it is happening without the chief executive's approval seems ridiculous.

The appeal of Venables may well be that he ticks so many of the boxes that Staunton manifestly didn't. The 64-year-old has plenty of international management experience, he's said to be good at working on the field with players and he loves dealing with the media so much he once ran a nightclub - Scribes West - that was ostensibly intended to cater for them.

Still, it's interesting that the man so closely associated with Staunton's appointment two years ago is apparently prepared to stage such a dramatic U-turn in the list of qualities he sees as being required by a suitable candidate. More remarkable still, however, is that far from stepping back completely from the process, the real difference this time around would appear to be the association's chief executive is unencumbered by even notional membership of a three-man committee.

There is talk that some of the board members, who will meet to discuss the situation today, are dissatisfied with the way Delaney has made so much of the running on the issue and suggestions, too, that a couple are less than ecstatic with the prospect of Venables being the next manager.

Members who spoke to The Irish Times yesterday gave no hint of being particularly put out on either count, although it's hard to imagine that somebody with the Londoner's track record would be a universally acclaimed appointment.

Giving him the job would presumably require a bit of selling and the suggestion that Townsend will be involved may well be an early stage in that process.

With regard to the process itself, it surely stands to reason that an organisation's chief executive should be involved in the filling of what is arguably its other most important post. Clearly, though, the nature and extent of that involvement should be clearly defined, which is anything but the case in this instance.

Perhaps there was simply some confusion and the panel of three experts is going to be put in place just in time to be handed the successful candidate's name by Delaney for automatic ratification.

And maybe, after the new man has been approved, Gary Lineker, Alan Hansen and our very own Lawro could be drafted in to sort out the remuneration.