Souness joins race to replace Staunton
Bookmakers were scrambling to change their markets yesterday as the race to replace deposed Ireland manager Steve Staunton gathers momentum.
Graeme Souness has signalled his interest in the role, with the experienced manager admitting that he hopes that his past with Rangers will not preclude him from being considered.
"From a football perspective, I think the job has got real potential," said Souness. "I would say the current Irish squad has better players than the current Scottish squad, but this only goes to highlight how brilliantly Scotland have done in this qualification campaign."
"I think Ireland has a good group of players. They are not as good as the group Jack Charlton had, I don't think anyone would dare suggest that. But they have ... the bones of a decent squad."
Souness remains an outsider for the post, while Martin Jol is now second favourite behind David O'Leary at some bookies.
Intriguingly, Jol's case would be strengthened by the possible presence of Chris Hughton as his number two, with the Irishman also leaving White Hart Lane.
Hughton also served as Brian Kerr's assistant during his time in charge.
There are mixed messages emanating from Merrion Square about the leading candidates, with favourite David O'Leary unpopular in some quarters, although his his case was strengthened by Roy Keane's backing.
Terry Venables, who currently serves as assistant to Steve McClaren, but could be out of a job should they fail to qualify for Euro 2008, is reputedly interested, and his odds have been slashed from 66/1 to 20/1.
On Thursday, an FAI board meeting should ratify the appointment of a kingmaker to take the responsibility for finding the right man.
After initially denying knowledge of any meetings, the FAI have confirmed that they met professional headhunters from the UK on Thursday -- as reported in the Irish Independent -- but they claim they were doing so to find a performance director, in a general role.
Ex-BBC broadcaster and former executive director of the English FA David Davies has been tipped as one of the possible choices to find Staunton's successor. Davies quit his post with the FA last year to join executive recruitment consultants kmc international.
- Daniel McDonnell
