Stephen Kenny appears to be the people's choice as Martin O'Neill's successor with Ireland, although he doesn't appear to be the FAI's - Mick McCarthy is reportedly flying in for talks amid reports all will be signed, sealed, and delivered before McCarthy appears on Goals on Sunday at the weekend.
Another man supporting McCarthy is former Bohs, Carlisle, Rovers, Cork and Derry manager Roddy Collins. Writing in his Irish Daily Star column today, Collins says that Kenny's candidacy for Irish football's top management job is "laughable".
Collins says that he admires the job Kenny has done with Dundalk - referencing his four league title in five years - and while he also mentioned his Europa League group stage success, Collins says that "he prefers to judge people on how they maintain the standards they have set". (Curiously, there is no mention that Kenny has consistently been forced to sell his best players at the end of each season).
Nonetheless, Collins says that the League of Ireland is no grounding for the international job.
Stephen is a great man and I have a huge amount of respect for him, but the League of Ireland is a pub league in an international context. It's the easiest league to win. I won it with my eyes closed after just two years managing there.
Stephen has done a great job with Dundalk winning four league titles out of five, but I don't believe that qualifies him to manage the senior national team...
...Stephen is a great League of Ireland manager, but there are only two teams in the League right now and he has the budget to blow everyone out of the water.
The full column is in today's Irish Daily Star.
