So our brave boys in green have made a mess of things. The wave of optimism after the demolition of Denmark has crashed onto the shores of disappointment. Twenty offers an interesting multiple choice on the matter.

It’s a far cry from last week, when Stan Staunton and co were confident of four — perhaps even six — points from the games against Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Coming away with just one sucks donkey balls. Naive fool that I am I thought they’d beat Slovakia at least, but our great tradition of throwing a good result away by falling asleep in the final minutes reared its ugly head.

As the manager, Staunton has to take the fall (worth noting that before the matches he said losing was a “worst case scenario”). He was never the right man for the job, having no experience in management. While I applaud him for giving so many young players a chance to show what they can do at international level, but some of his selections have beggared belief. Why he has insisted on playing John O’Shea at right back and Steve Finnan (at most recently Steven Kelly) at left is nonsensical.

He’s got to go, even if ultimately the responsibility lies with the FAI for handing the job to someone unqualified. But as Eoghan asked while the travesty in Prague was played out, who do we replace him with?

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