At the end of a frantic week for Irish football, Martin O'Neill is out and Mick McCarthy is in, again. A somewhat straight-forward arrangement, the FAI's inclusion of a succession plan caught suitably more people off-guard.
Affording McCarthy both the luxury of a starting and ending date, John Giles has spoken today of the requests that were made of him in weeks building up to the announcements that materialised in the recent days.
Widely reported that the former Irish international and manager had spoken to the Dundalk manager at some stage in the build up to this afternoon's press conference, Giles revealed during an episode of Eamon Dunphy's podcast The Stand that Kenny was not the only one seeking out his advice.
"John Delaney rang me around a similar time for a bit of advice, as he did many other people, so that’s my part in it," Giles explained.
"I’d be delighted to take part in it if somebody wants my advice on anything like that."
Keen not to divulge much more than this, the former RTÉ pundit did touch upon the discussion he had had when called upon by Kenny to offer his thoughts on what was on offer.
"Stephen Kenny rang me a couple of weeks ago for a bit of advice, which I gave him," Giles said.
"I didn’t hear from him since. I didn’t expect to."
In his press conference this afternoon, Kenny explained how "a week ago, I couldn't have envisioned this." Presumably, the call he made to Giles "a couple of weeks ago" therefore concerned the offer that had been made to Kenny regarding the already vacant Republic of Ireland U21 job.
Understood to have initially rejected this offer in favour of staying with Dundalk, John Giles is of the opinion that the current arrangement suits the needs of Irish football, first and foremost.
"As we saw yesterday on the TV, Mick McCarthy is very much in favour of [the succession plan]," Giles reasoned.
"I think it takes Stephen’s lack of international experience out of the equation now. He’s going to be in charge of the U21s. I’m sure he’s going to have a lot of contact with Mick McCarthy as we go along.
"I think it’s a good arrangement. I know a lot of people might be against it. ‘What if Mick does well?’ Well, isn’t that great for everybody? Stephen is in a situation where he’s in a good situation rather than a bad situation."
