The length of time needed to secure the right man for the Ireland job has been one of the subplots since Giovanni Trapattoni departed.
Ireland have two World Cup qualifiers left but they are essentially dead rubbers with the Boys in Green pretty much out of the running.
The FAI have some options on the table. On the Football Show last night Dan McDonnell the search for Steve Staunton's replacement took 117 days. The FAI could go down that route and appoint a caretaker. But more than likely they will be far more swift so expect a manager to be in place by October's qualifiers against Germany and Kazakhstan.
That's what John Giles would like to see happen as he told Joe on Thursday Night Football, even with a potentially traumatic game to come against Germany in Cologne.
"I think the most sensible thing would be to have the new manager in straight away. If I could put the new manager in today, I would because you can't have enough time. It's preparation regardless of the result," he said.
He then turned his attention to the options available to the FAI. Martin O'Neill is his favoured choice.
"I think Martin would be as good as anybody. I think his CV is very, very good. He did a great job at Wycombe, Leicester, Villa andCeltic. He had a bad time at Sunderland but that can happen to any manager at any given time. Alex Ferguson was sacked when he was manager of the Scottish team, Bill Shankly was sacked a couple of times in jobs that he had. But you have to look at his body of work and it's been impressive. He's available and I'd say Martin is the outstanding candidate."
But he believes Roy Keane is definitely not the right choice to be thrown into the ring, especially given the impression that he has ruled by fear at club level.
"I don't if you can change personality from club level to international level. If you want to upset people, you can upset them in three or four days. I wouldn't look at him as a candidate for the Irish job. I think you have to go on the CV. I'd rather Roy went back to club football and made a success there and then have the CV to get the international job," said Giles.
He also touched on the issues at schoolboy level and how they relate to the senior team, where Trapattoni went wrong and the reasons behind Shane Long's decline.
Listen to Thursday Night Football here or download the podcast on iTunes:
©INPHO/Getty Images
