Even as the FAI move towards official confirmation of Steve Staunton and Bobby Robson as Ireland's new management team, most likely on Monday, there were clear suggestions yesterday that the speed with which the process has moved over recent days has left other candidates for the job angry at the way they have been treated by the association. Emmet Malone, Soccer correspondent, reports.

Staunton's fellow former internationals John Aldridge and Frank Stapleton are said by friends to be appalled that, after arrangements had been made to discuss the job with them during the coming days, they learned the search for Brian Kerr's successor was over only from the media.

A spokesman for the association said last night that while vague arrangements to meet again with Aldridge's agent had been made before Christmas, and discussions with other candidates had been left open-ended, everyone involved had been contacted during the previous 48 hours to inform them that the search for a new manager had "taken a different direction".

Friends of the pair claim, however, that the meeting with Aldridge had been scheduled to take place this week, and that it was only after his agent, prompted by the reports that Staunton was about to get the job, contacted the association that he discovered that the "interview" was to be cancelled.

One of the pair declined to comment on the situation yesterday while the other could not be contacted. Both were candidates for the manager's job when Kerr was appointed, and Stapleton later criticised the way the process had been handled on that occasion, suggesting that the interviews conducted had amounted to little more than window dressing. He is, one suspects, unlikely to be any happier this time around.

But yesterday in Tralee, FAI chief executive John Delaney said: "We are very positive as to where we are with the decision and we think that it has been handled well. We are very happy on how it is reaching its conclusion."

Nevertheless, the association's handling of the pair, along with the fact that Staunton's club, Walsall, said there had yet to an official approach for their player-coach, casts a shadow over the conclusion of what has been a low-key recruitment process.

Officials at the Bescot Stadium have hinted that they might seek compensation from the FAI were they to lose their player-coach, although given the relatively low salary Walsall are paying Staunton the issue would not present a significant obstacle.

Talks between the parties were continuing yesterday, but there is now considerable confidence within Merrion Square that the issues to be resolved can be tied up by Friday, thus paving the way for a press conference to be called for Monday when the two men would be presented to the public.

Among the issues to be addressed is the appointment of an experienced coach. There were reports in the British media that Robson's former assistant at Newcastle, John Carver, was being lined up for the job, but Aston Villa's reserve team manager Kevin MacDonald is, in fact, in the process of being recruited, and the 45-year-old is also likely to be confirmed in the post - along with new goalkeeping coach Alan Kelly - at the start of next week.

MacDonald is a former Liverpool player who had just won the double when Staunton arrived at Anfield. Early the next season, he suffered a badly broken leg at the Dell and never recovered his first team place at the club. He went on to play for Coventry, before moving into coaching.

That his links are with Staunton rather than Robson was being held up within the association as early confirmation of the pecking order within the new management team. This, it is suggested, can also be gauged from the respective salary packages of the two, with the 36-year-old Louthman said to be in line for a package worth roughly €500,000 per annum, around twice what Robson will be paid for his advisory role.

The impending appointments, meanwhile, have prompted a decidedly mixed reaction, with former international players, media commentators and supporters all divided over both the decision to give the main job to a man with so little experience and Robson's role in the new set-up.

There was also surprise in many quarters that Staunton is to be given a four-year contract, something that was pointedly denied to his predecessor Kerr. Within Merrion Square, however, it is argued that the new man will inherit a deeply demoralised squad and will require time to halt Ireland's recent slide, rebuild the squad and, it is hoped, challenge for places at major championships again.

Former manager Jack Charlton welcomed the news that Staunton and Robson are to work together, though. The former Ireland skipper would, he said, benefit from the former Newcastle United coach's vast experience as well as his proven ability to impart the knowledge he has accumulated to emerging managers, as he did with Jose Mourinho and Frank Arnesen.

"Robson has got the experience to teach Steve and his enthusiasm is second to none," said Charlton. "Steve Staunton is a good lad," he added. "I don't know what qualifications he has got for the job, apart from being a good player but I think he would be OK."

Assuming there are no last-minute hitches and the pair are unveiled early next week, then Staunton will have a hectic time as he prepares for his first game as a manager, against Sweden at Lansdowne Road on March 1st.