Cyprus v Ireland Nicosia, tomorrow Kick-off: 6.0pmWhile Brian Kerr maintained a low profile yesterday ahead of this morning's pre-match press conference in Cyprus, his agent, Fintan Drury, severely criticised the media's treatment of the manager in an interview with Today FM's Last Word programme on Wednesday evening.
The former journalist laid the blame for the level of speculation regarding his client's future squarely at the door of the media, and suggested the team's failure to get in to a stronger position to secure a place at next summer's World Cup finals in Germany is down to the limitations of the group of players available to Kerr, rather than any shortcomings on the part of the manager.
Drury described the treatment of Kerr in the media over the last few weeks as "pretty unbalanced", and said "certain sections" are "determined to try to force his destiny".
He suggested that the distance Kerr had put between himself and members of the press with whom he had dealt more closely while in charge of St Patrick's Athletic and the Irish youth teams had generated resentment which, in turn, had led to negative coverage.
"Brian has had to adopt a more controlled approach to giving the media access since he became senior manager, that's at the root of a lot of it," he said. "There is also an editorial push in certain quarters which is simply anti-Brian Kerr, but I don't think this is being fomented from within the FAI."
He cited the claim in the Evening Herald that Kerr had fallen out with Roy Keane over Robbie Keane's drinking during the build-up to the France game, a story he described as "totally fabricated", as an example of what the manager has had to endure recently. He said the treatment of the drinking story itself showed that while various journalists had run stories to the effect that the players were unhappy because Kerr was being too strict with them, "when he does show a bit of flexibility they'll be the first people to come down on top of him like a ton of bricks".
Drury went on the claim that Kerr was more accessible to the media than other international managers, and that he attracted more coverage from the Irish media because, unlike his two recent predecessors in the job, he lived in Dublin.
With regard to the heightened speculation over Kerr's position, he emphatically rejected the suggestion that the manager had prompted a good deal of the talk by revealing at a press conference that he was "endeavouring to find out" from the chief executive what his contractual position was.
"I heard a journalist on RTÉ earlier this week saying that Brian had brought all the bad publicity on Sunday on his own head. Now, clearly that is ludicrous."
Drury, who also represents a number of players, including Ireland squad member Liam Miller, went on to observe that the fact the team was in its predicament reflected the limited strength of the panel available to Kerr rather than offering a true indication of his abilities.
"He's working with a squad which, while talented in certain respects," said Drury, "is not the most talented of the last 15 or 16 years and he has extracted 13 points from the group so far and we still have two games left."
