By Eamonn Murphy

It seems that the FAI currently finds itself on the ugly step of a managerial merry-go-round. For a good portion of the time since Giovanni Trapattoni’s departure as manager of the national soccer team, it seemed Martin O’Neill was only waiting to be asked to ride into town on his white steed and rescue the situation.

Martin O’Neill is assessing his options; Richard Dunne (below) and his Ireland team-mates are low in confidence

But reports last week suggest that with Norwich and Fulham both mulling over a change of manager, O’Neill is suddenly a man with, potentially, many suitors.
It’s not so long ago that he left Sunderland under a cloud. That particular club has since shown itself to have a knack of making questionable decisions.
But it seems that the Derry man might fancy another crack at the day-to-day life of club management before settling for the relatively sedate schedule that an international job would bring.
With Chris Hughton and Martin Jol both holding on to their jobs by their fingertips at the moment, perhaps it’s understandable that O’Neill would chose to keep his powder dry.
It makes you wonder how the FAI plays the game.
The former Northern Ireland international seemed to be everyone’s favourite candidate to replace Trapattoni; from Eamon Dunphy to the man on the street, he would have been an almost universally popular appointment. Any yet, the trail has gone cold.
Reports suggest that O’Neill wasn’t directly contacted regarding the appointment, although it seems unthinkable that his name would be mentioned so strongly without some form of back-channel communications.
Could he have been nailed down for the position more quickly? Or perhaps he’s playing the FAI off against imagined jobs in order to garner a better deal for himself wherever he goes. You can hardly blame him for that.
There have also been some suggestions that perhaps Denis O’Brien has some part to play in the appointment. They say that he who pays the piper calls the tune and the billionaire businessman picked up much of the tab for Trapattoni’s salary.
The FAI claims that his involvement as a benefactor is a purely hands-off role. But given that he has agreed to pony up more cash for the next Ireland manager, is it really beyond the realms of possibility that he might express some degree of support or otherwise for a potential new gaffer?
Of course, any such suspicions would only be given credence when a new name is eventually announced.
In the meantime, Noel King has stepped into the role of caretaker manager for the upcoming qualifiers and he seems to reveling in it. You almost feel sorry for the job King is expected to do. He spoke last week about opening the door to exiled former squad members like Darren Gibson, Stephen Ireland and Anthony Stokes when he sits down to select his players for the Germany and Kazakhstan games.
He has been off watching Premier League games to get a better idea of players’ form and generally immersing himself in the role. You can tell that he loves the idea of sinking his teeth into the job. And yet, what awaits him? A beating by the Germans and then a swift kick to touch when the new man gets the job.
Poor divil.
Meanwhile, Ray Houghton and the wonderfully named Ruud Dokter, the FAI’s new High Performance director, have been tasked with the job of drawing up a list of potential managers in case O’Neill decides to go elsewhere.
The FAI is loftily calling it a “comprehensive assessment of the market”.
What odds on them sifting through a list of names and somehow returning to the name that was on top of the list all along: O’Neill.
Whoever it is that comes in as manager will have to hit the ground running. One interesting issue that will have to be addressed is that of motivation within the Ireland squad.
In the aftermath of the defeat to Sweden at the Aviva, Robbie Keane and Richard Dunne spoke about the need to lower expectations of what they can achieve.
“If you look at the squad we have, we have to be realistic in what we can do,” Dunne said.
“We very rarely put out a team full of Premier League players. If we do, I don’t know how many of them play every week.”
It’s interesting that he said this after a game against Sweden, hardly a team brimful of top Premier League talent themselves.
Is this really the attitude we’re looking for from our international players? We’re not talking self-delusion, thinking we’re world beaters. But surely you want your players to be raging to keep the competitive flame alive.
Can you imagine Roy Keane in his time in the Ireland dressing-room ever resigning himself to the idea that maybe they just weren’t good enough? Of course not. He would have been demanding higher standards.
The quotes smacked of someone who had hung around with Trapattoni a little too much. By the end, it was clear that the Italian thought he would never get much more out of a group of limited individuals.
The new manager will have to start with rebuilding confidence within the squad before he rebuilds the way they line out on the pitch.
In the meantime we wait to see how Ray and Ruud get on “assessing the market” and maybe, just maybe, O’Neill’s future options will sort themselves out sooner rather than later.