Town boss Mick McCarthy won’t meet headhunters Ray Houghton and Ruud Dokter but will speak directly to senior FAI figures if they want him to succeed Giovanni Trapattoni as Ireland manager, according to today’s Sunday Times in Ireland.
The Blues manager — or an intermediary — is said to have indicated to the FAI that he won’t take part in the interview process currently being conducted by Houghton and Dokter but would talk to the Association’s top men if they approach him directly regarding the role he previously occupied between 1996 and 2002.
The other frontrunner Martin O’Neill is understood to have spoken to the pair, who are due to report back to the FAI board within the next fortnight, for a second time last week but so far without confirming whether he would take the position if it were to be offered. The Northern Irishman continues to be linked with various vacant club jobs.
McCarthy, who yesterday said he had still received no contact regarding the vacancy, is believed to be unhappy that the FAI are yet to intimate whether he is in the running or not, feeling that the speculation is unsettling for Town.
There are also suggestions that the FAI may be content for the speculation surrounding McCarthy to continue while they pursue another target. Last time the job was vacant former England boss Terry Venables was a strong favourite before Trapattoni was appointed.
In addition, billionaire businessman Denis O’Brien, who will help fund the new manager’s wages, is not thought to favour McCarthy’s reappointment, although he has stated he has no input in the selection process.
The Daily Star on Sunday says McCarthy could, as TWTD reported on Thursday, rule himself out of the running if there continues to be no contact from the FAI.
They report that he could distance himself from the job if there has been no approach by the end of the week. With Town in action on Friday, the Blues boss’s weekly pre-match press conference is likely to be held on Thursday.
Houghton and Dokter are believed to be holding the last interview of the process this week. McCarthy has dismissed speculation that he is the man they’re speaking to with former Blues boss Roy Keane now reported to be set to talk to them in the days to come.
McCarthy is back to being the widespread favourite, ahead of O’Neill, but the big mover in the market over the weekend was ex-Leeds boss David O’Leary, whose odds are down to 4-1 with one bookie.
Elsewhere, former Blues skipper and coach Tony Mowbray is perhaps inevitably tipped to be McCarthy’s potential successor should he move on by the Daily Mail.
Meanwhile, ex-Town striker and coach Chris Kiwomya has left his job as manager of Notts County by mutual consent with the Magpies bottom of League One.