National team
Following the Republic of Ireland's failure to reach the 2006 FIFA World Cup, the tenure of manager Brian Kerr came to an end. A three-man Football Association of Ireland (FAI) subcommittee spearheaded by its former treasurer John Delaney was formed with the remit of appointing a capable successor to Kerr. Delaney assured the Irish public that a "world class" management team [11] would be appointed to oversee Ireland's qualification campaign for the 2008 European Championship. After an initial flurry of rumours linking names of the calibre of Alex Ferguson, [12] Terry Venables [13] and Bobby Robson [14] with the post, Staunton was released from his player/assistant manager role for Walsall on 12 January 2006 and was officially named as Kerr's replacement the following day, with former England manager Sir Bobby Robson supporting him in the role of International Consultant and with former Aston Villa teammate Kevin MacDonald as coach. [15] Staunton was something of a shock appointment given the names that had been circulated and his own limited coaching and managerial experience. [16] [17]
"I know that the calibre of the team I have will bring a huge range of experience and talent to the challenges that lie ahead ... I'm the boss. I'm the gaffer. At the end of the day what I say goes, the buck stops with me ..."
— Staunton upon his appointment as Republic of Ireland manager. [18]
His international management career enjoyed a dream start, something Staunton called "a bit of a fairytale", when he led Ireland to an impressive 3–0 victory over Sweden on 1 March 2006 with Damien Duff, Robbie Keane (captaining the Republic of Ireland for the first time) and Liam Miller getting onto the score sheet. The victory over Sweden was followed by two friendly defeats, the first a disappointing 1–0 loss against Chile on 23 May 2006 and then a 4–0 thrashing by Holland at Lansdowne Road, Ireland's worst home reverse in 40 years.
Prior to the Holland game, Staunton was confronted and threatened by a man outside the team hotel on Monday 14 August with a gun that turned out to be an imitation Uzi machine gun. [19] The 31-year-old assailant was arrested at a nearby beach and released by police the following day. No physical harm was caused but the event was a public relations disaster for both Staunton and the FAI (this was not the first time an assailant had attacked members of the squad at that particular hotel). [20] Shortly after this incident further embarrassment was caused by the revelation that the FAI had sent news of Ireland midfielder Andy Reid's recall to the national side to the player's former club Tottenham despite the fact that he was by then a Charlton player. [21]
It was against this backdrop that Staunton oversaw his first competitive match in charge as Republic of Ireland manager; a 1–0 defeat against Germany in Stuttgart, Ireland losing despite a battling performance. Staunton himself was sent off by the referee for kicking a water bottle onto the pitch in frustration during the second half. Worse was swiftly to follow. On 7 October 2006, in their second UEFA Euro 2008 qualifier, Ireland suffered a demoralising 5–2 defeat by lowly Cyprus in Nicosia. Staunton was watching from the stands, having been given a touchline ban for his sending-off in Germany. The defeat by Cyprus heaped additional pressure on the already beleaguered Staunton, who even at this early stage of his leadership was already facing calls for his resignation, [22] ahead of Ireland's next game which was at home to the Czech Republic on 11 October. The FAI, when pressed on the matter, refused to deny that a poor result would result in the manager's immediate dismissal. [23] An improved performance against the Czechs resulted in a 1–1 draw, a result that eased the pressure on Staunton to some extent.
Staunton was seen to be emotional after the 5–0 victory over San Marino; it was to be the last match to be played on the old Lansdowne Road pitch. In the return fixture, a poor performance ensured the team needed a goal from Stephen Ireland four minutes into injury time to secure the three points with a final score of 2–1. Coming so close to dropping points against a team ranked 195th in the world at the time of the match immediately sparked further calls for the manager's resignation. [24]
Ireland returned to form with two successive 1–0 home victories over Wales and Slovakia which brought them close to contention for second place in Group D of the UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying groups. Such was the surprise that greeted the results that RTÉ presenter Bill O'Herlihy concluded the coverage of the Slovakia game with the comment, "Ireland are now in contention for qualification for Euro 2008. Who would have thought it?" The upswing in form continued on 22 August 2007 with a 4–0 win in a non-competitive match against Denmark in Aarhus. Staunton was delighted with the results [25] and headed into the next set of fixtures with Ireland placed third in the qualifying group.
The victories, however, proved to be something of a false dawn as, over the space of five days in September, an injury-hit Ireland dropped five points from two games and saw their qualifying campaign effectively come to an end. Leading 2–1 away to Slovakia the team would emerge with just one point after an injury-time strike from Marek Cech cancelled their advantage. Staunton was disappointed by the performance but four days later, on 12 September, a 1–0 defeat to the Czech Republic in Prague crippled the qualifying campaign. A 0–0 draw with Germany on 13 October at Croke Park and a 1–1 draw at home to Cyprus in the same stadium four days later (during which a chorus of boos greeted the final whistle) [26] secured qualification for both Germany and the Czech Republic. Ireland would not be competing in the 2008 European Championship.
Amid the fans' dissatisfaction, many pundits commented that Staunton was now effectively on borrowed time [16] and the FAI announced that an emergency meeting was to be called to discuss Staunton's position on 23 October. [27] Prior to this, John Delaney gave an interview to RTÉ where he refused to publicly back the beleaguered manager and attempted to extricate himself from any responsibility for his role in Staunton's initial appointment. [28] Staunton, for his part, refused to resign and publicly stated that he intended to see out the remainder of his four-year contract. [26]
On the evening of 23 October 2007, after initially indicating to reporters that the FAI meeting would take place in Dublin's Crown Plaza Hotel, where two executive rooms had been hired for use by the FAI, it emerged that Staunton had met the FAI in secret in the Radisson Hotel at Dublin airport where he made his case to be retained in the job. The FAI subsequently met in private discussion for six hours [29] after which it was confirmed that Staunton's turbulent 21-month reign as international manager had come to an end. [30] He was replaced by Don Givens who temporarily took charge of the national team until Giovanni Trapattoni's appointment as manager. [31]
