Sport

Analysis: FAI’s manager search is as much about finance as football

The embattled and indebted football association has a tough decision to make from a shrinking list of candidates

Then Republic of Ireland manager Stephen Kenny leaves the pitch with his players after a match between Republic of Ireland and Netherlands at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Picture: Sportsfile

Where are all your progressive coaches now, lads?

Amid the rancour and the recrimination that suffused the dying days of Stephen Kenny’s reign as Republic of Ireland men’s manager, those who wanted him gone seemed baffled by the idea that he was the only man equipped to carry Irish football into modernity.

Surely, they posited bemusedly, the “Kenny in” camp didn’t seriously think that their man was the only one capable of transforming Ireland from ...