Next Ireland Manager - Criteria

Under Matthew Benham, Brentford have had a quite outstanding record in appointing managers in the last decade, including when promoting from within.

And even during the brief period when he was their Caretaker Manager, he immediately won the respect of the players (from a pretty low ebb) and won Manager of the Month within a few weeks of taking over.

As for Birmingham City, he did ok under Harry Redknapp and was then appoimnted Assistant to Steve Cotterill, only leaving them when Cotterill was sacked by their head-case owners.

As for England, ok the U-20;s coaching job is not a "big" oine, but in less than a year he got the U-21's job, which was quite a promotion and where he's done extremely well. In that job he deals with better and bigger "name" players than the ROI squad boasts, with all the hassle that that brings (Agents, Club Managers, media, egos etc). While this was all done (presumably) with the blessing of Southgate, who knows a thing or two about the role - he filled it himself, after all!

Oh, and as a player, LC notched over 500 senior games with a number of decent clubs., the majority in the PL.

So this is not what I am saying, it's what his CV says.

Bandwagon wrote: It just seems to me like a massive risk taking on someone even less experienced than Kenny.

More - and better - experience than SK I'd say, though to be fair, none of it was ever in the LOI, nor can he point to a "glory year" (singular) with the mighty Dunfermline!

Anyhow, as an NI fan, I sincerely hope Carsley doesn't get the job!