"Sometimes a change can freshen things up, but sometimes continuity is a good thing as well. Is there a better man out there to do the job? I think there might not be too many." It's certainly a debate the FAI, who may advertise the post, are having and there were some words of comfort from Delaney when he praised the "tremendous effort in terms of commitment and dedication to the task" of trying to qualify.On Wednesday there was none of the booing which ended Mick McCarthy's six-year tenure, but the post-match analysis was more damning than anything Kerr's predecessor faced. Liam Brady, who has been a savage critic of Kerr, should not be discounted.A significant problem is money. Failure to reach another major championships leaves the FAI financially stretched and there isn't the budget to pay the wages a big name would demand without diverting funds from grassroots football But Ireland are in a cleft stick. The Irish would be delighted if they could secure Martin O'Neill - but that is highly unlikely - while a more feasible candidate is David O'Leary.However at a fans' forum in Dublin, the Aston Villa manager, who was at Wednesday's match, said he had no intention of taking the job. Delaney is enthusiastic about recruiting a higher-profile coach or former player.

The Manchester United midfielder may, nevertheless, follow Kenny Cunningham in announcing his retirement from international football. "I believe I have plenty of club football left in me now," he said, "but if I was asked at some stage in the future and got the opportunity, sure I would love to do it."An intriguing prospect is Sir Bobby Robson - to work in tandem with a younger coach, again raising the name of Keane - while the FAI chief executive, John Delaney, remains a firm fan of Bryan Robson, now at West Bromwich Albion. The board will "assess all the issues in respect of the international team" and qualifying for future tournaments.The front-runners are clear even if the FAI will almost certainly fail to coax Roy Keane into the job. After a match of the long faces, a night of the long knives. The Republic of Ireland yesterday faced up to their failure to qualify for next year's World Cup by effectively beginning the search for Brian Kerr's successor as manager. A statement from the Football Association of Ireland, issued hours after the dispiriting, shapeless and goalless draw with Switzerland, did not confirm that Kerr's €450,000-a-year contract would not be renewed, but it all but brought the curtain down after 33 months and 33 matches in charge. The statement - the first issued by the 10-strong board despite a growing clamour to clarify Kerr's future - said simply that "the implications of non-qualification" will be considered. There is one school of thought that has come to characterise the thinking of the most downbeat Englishman ahead of the World Cup and it decrees that the most desperate aspect of England's campaign next summer is that they must rely on the volatile brilliance of a 20-year-old man-child if they are to stand any chance of success.

It is the creed that says no good will come of placing all our gambling chips on Wayne Rooney and it is, of course, a palpable nonsense.. It is a logic that shakes its head at the folly of relying on one so young, that despairs at the mis-match between experience and expectation. In protest against a change in kick-off time, the hosts, like hung-over park players, failed to show. Scotland "played" 2.7 seconds against non-existent opponents before the "game" was abandoned. As we shuffled out to follow the team bus away from the ground, which had echoed to the refrains of "One team in Tallinn" and "Get intae them!", I saw Estonians donning their kit.Talking of shirts, there was very nearly Gazza-style blubbing in Slovenia when my colleagues presented me with a Scotland jersey inscribed "Shaw 4" (Bremner's old number). The send-off did not stretch to a chorus of "You're not English any more", which the Tartan Army sang to "Anglos" like Andy Goram and Nigel Quashie, but for one FEB, the Scottish revival is awaited with qualified confidence.Phil Shaw's Scotland XI 1990-2005GORAMMcLEISH, HENDRY, CALDERWOOD, DAILLYMcCALL, FLETCHER, McALLISTER (capt), COLLINSJOHNSTON, McCOISTSubs: Sullivan (gk), Weir, Lambert, Hutchison, Gallacher.