Insider Kerr emerges as favourite for Ireland job

Brian Kerr, the Football Association of Ireland's technical director, has said he would be happy to succeed Mick McCarthy as manager of the national side if approached about the job.

Since McCarthy's resignation, a number of external candidates, including John Aldridge, Bryan Robson, Joe Kinnear and Kenny Dalglish, have been linked with the post. Kerr is viewed by bookmakers as an outsider, but the FAI's technical director, who is also in charge of the association's youth teams, has received backing in the Irish media.

"Of course I would think about the job," Kerr said. "Any sensible person would think about being offered the chance to coach their national team, though the FAI certainly haven't approached me.

"I haven't shouted out about the job because that's not the way I operate. I've only ever once applied for a job and that was when I was at St Patrick's Athletic and I went for the youth team job at the FAI, but I was under the impression that I would be able to combine the two."

Kerr managed St Pat's for 10 years in the League of Ireland, before joining the FAI. He then led the Republic's Under-16 team to the European Championship title in 1998 and a third-place finish in the 1997 World Under-20 Championship. In five years, Kerr has led Irish teams to eight major finals. "It's interesting that the media have come out very strongly for me," he said. "Whether the association sees it that way is a different matter."

Kerr believes the FAI could be making a mistake if it were to appoint an overseas coach. "Mick McCarthy's team played a more sophisticated brand of football, but the team retained the essential competitiveness and aggression. That gave us an edge," he said. "Whether a foreign coach could do that I'm not sure. [England's Sven Goran] Eriksson has been successful because he has managed to retain an English style. Maybe that is because the Swedes play a similar game."

Last week the FAI's preparations for the 2002 World Cup were slated by an independent report, but Kerr said that expectations exceeded the association's resources. "There has to be a sense of realism," he said. "We're a small country, which doesn't have have a full-time professional league. All the funds are generated by the national team. But if all the funding goes to the international team, what happens to the youth teams and the development of young players?"

In Scotland, John McGinlay is chasing the manager's job at Ross County and has made a 500-mile round trip to look at the side he wants to lead. The former Bolton Wanderer, who started his career in the Highland League, has just quit non-league Ilkeston after arguments with the chairman.