Kerr’s the man

His agent, Fintan Drury, was alongside him during negotiations and is believed to have insisted that Kerr be given a three-year contract, taking him up to the end of qualification for the 2006 World Cup. His annual salary will be lower than the euro 526,000 that McCarthy was getting paid before he resigned in November, with the FAI insisting that Kerr’s remuneration be performance related.
The first item on Kerr’s agenda will more than likely be to organize a meeting with Roy Keane to discuss the Manchester United captain’s possible return to international football. Keane had indicated that he would be happy to sit down with the new manager whenever he was appointed. With less than a fortnight to go until his first game in charge — the friendly against Scotland in Hamden Park on Feb. 12 — Kerr will be anxious to establish whether he is likely to have Keane at his disposal. Early indications from the FAI suggest that Keane’s return is more unlikely than it is likely, the idea of playing difficult away fixtures in Albania and Georgia during the business end of the Champions League season being not particularly appealing to him. If that is the case, the Kerr’s reign will have gotten off to a poor start.
Regardless of how the Keane situation plays itself out, however, his appointment has been generally well-received in football circles. Most of the high-profile members of the Ireland squad who have played under him in the past came out over the weekend to express their delight at the news.
Damien Duff was most effusive in his praise. “I’m delighted the FAI gave the job to Brian, it’s only what he deserves,” Duff said. “He has been brilliant for Irish football for the last five years and, on a personal level, he has been brilliant for the players as individuals. He did an awful lot to help me with my career.”
John O’Shea was equally ready to welcome the new man. “It’s definitely a very good move,” he said. “People talk about whether he has the stature in the game for the job, but you look at his track record. It’s not like it was a one-off or that he just got lucky. He’s the kind of guy who’d be successful at whatever job he’d do.”
Kerr’s closest rivals for the job appear to have been Bryan Robson and Phillipe Troussier. Robson is believed to have told the interview panel that he had spoken to Keane and that if given the job, he proposed to hand Keane a consultative role in team affairs. Troussier, meanwhile, pointed out that every time he had taken over an international job in the past, he always brought in a local as his assistant. This, he proposed, is where Kerr would have come in, with a view to eventually handing over the reins altogether. It is thought that FAI treasurer John Delaney was strongly attracted to this idea but that in the end, he was overruled by acting general secretary Kevin Fahy and president Milo Corcoran, both of whom favored Kerr.
Part of the reason Delaney relented and allowed the other two members of the interview panel to install their man was the fact he found himself at the center of a fresh FAI storm last week. Allegations were rife that he was the FAI official who encouraged Mick McCarthy to mention to then general secretary Brendan Menton the possibility that he might be in line for a bonus because his side was doing so well at the World Cup. At an FAI Council meeting last Friday in Dublin, Delaney denied the allegation and was given two weeks to prepare an explanation. There appears a real chance that Delaney has finally put too many noses out of joint within the FAI and that he may end up paying for it with his job.