Irish managerial vacancy:While Red Bull Salzburg officials started to openly speak yesterday about the impending end of Giovanni Trapattoni's two-year reign at the club, headline writers in Ireland were celebrating the news they would have his name to work with for the foreseeable future after the FAI wrapped up a deal to make the 68-year-old the Republic of Ireland coach.

After a day of talks in Milan rather than Salzburg all of the outstanding issues were worked out to the satisfaction of the Italian, whose appointment as Steve Staunton's successor will be publicly confirmed as soon as a meeting of the association's board scheduled for 4.30pm in Abbotstown gets through with the fairly straightforward business of rubberstamping the recommendation of the three-man sub-committee.

What had threatened to be an awkward meeting for the board, the members of which had been railroaded into the commitment to endorse whoever was put before them, should now be a celebratory affair.

The 10 members are sure to unite in support of the nomination, well aware of how popular an appointment Trapattoni will be with a public normally disinclined to hail the association for its vision.

The financial details of the Italian's contract are not yet known but the deal is expected to have matched the €1.4 million or so net of tax he was earning in Austria.

His backroom staff of Claudio Gentile and Fausto Rossi will bring the total gross annual bill for the association to perhaps something near twice that figure.

It remains to be seen whether the FAI have indeed found themselves a wealthy benefactor willing to share the burden of the cost, but even if they have not this looks like a fairly tidy piece of business.

Of course there are no sure-fire things in football, and Trapattoni will not have the freedom to go out and strengthen the squad he inherits, but his record of success in almost every club job he has undertaken suggests that he is well qualified to get the best out of a group that have made a habit of underperforming.

After three-and-a-half months during which there was a vague sense of inevitability about the Englishman Terry Venables getting the job, the capture of Trapattoni represents a genuine coup for the heads of the FAI, who established contact with him, it appears, only within the past two weeks through the British agent Jerome Anderson.

Yesterday's talks went on for the best part of the day, the FAI chief executive, John Delaney, leading a three-man delegation that dealt mostly with Trapattoni's representatives. The coach himself took training at Salzburg in the morning but is believed to have arrived at the meeting last night to complete the formalities of what is believed to be an initial two-year deal.

In Salzburg a senior club official dismissed attempts to raise the issue of Trapattoni's next career move by curtly stating nobody at the club cared who the next manager of Ireland might be - they being entirely preoccupied with retaining their Austrian league title.

When asked about whether an artificial pitch being replaced by grass for the duration of the European Championships would be relaid again when the tournament ended, however, he admitted the question would be one for the club's new coach to decide upon, prompting, no doubt, a collective "Gotcha!" in German from the local journalists.

Among the early names being mentioned in connection with the vacancy to be created at the end of the season, incidentally, was that of Marco van Basten, underlining in a way that is probably totally unnecessary at this stage just how nice it is for football fans when their favourite club is owned by a billionaire.

Trapattoni himself said nothing and, given the formality of the FAI board meeting still needs to be gone through this afternoon, will probably maintain silence in his scheduled lunchtime press conference at Red Bull Salzburg's training ground.

Within the FAI, however, there is absolute confidence they will be unveiling him before tea-time and he will take charge of the Ireland squad for the first time in late May when Serbia arrive in Dublin for a friendly.

With the appointment of the Italian so well flagged, much attention will focus on the remaining positions to be filled in his backroom team and, in particular, the precise nature of the job taken up by Liam Brady if, as expected, he agrees to play an informal part-time role.