Having been recruited as an "adviser" to Republic of Ireland manager-in-waiting Steve Staunton, veteran coach Bobby Robson's first tip to the Louthman might well be to turn down the job - if the views expressed in his recent autobiography are anything to go by.
In Farewell but not Goodbye, the former England manager argues on the basis of his experience at Fulham that, far from benefiting from having played with some of the men now at his disposal, a new manager seeking to exert his authority over former team-mates - just the position Staunton will find himself in as of Monday - is at an enormous disadvantage.
Aside from guiding England to the quarter- and semi-finals of the 1986 and 1990 World Cups respectively, Robson enjoyed remarkable success at club level in four countries during a management career that included memorable spells at Ipswich, PSV, Porto and Barcelona.
During the couple of years after he retired from playing, however, he struggled to establish himself on the coaching side of the game, and in his autobiography, published last year, he makes it clear his greatest problem was the difficulty of suddenly having to deal with former team-mates in an entirely different manner.
Robson's first job in management was with the Vancouver Royals, a fledgling member of the ill-fated North American Soccer League, who appointed him almost immediately after he had finished playing with Fulham. But when a financial crisis at the club contributed to his sacking, the Englishman found himself back at Craven Cottage, where he took charge of a team struggling at the foot of the then first division table.
Fulham would ultimately be relegated and Robson would lose his job early the following season. And his analysis of the situation might make rather stark reading for Staunton ahead of an unveiling which the FAI have tentatively pencilled in for 11am on Monday in a Dublin city centre hotel.
"Nothing went right," he recalls of that first English campaign spent in a dugout almost 40 years ago. "I had played with most of my Fulham team less than a year before, and suddenly I was their boss, which created a whole new dynamic.
"Johnny Haynes was to succeed me, and lasted less than a month, partly for the same reason. Brian Clough" (who had not played at Elland Road, but lost his job after upsetting most of the leading players) "lasted 44 days at Leeds. Johnny lasted 28 at a club where he was a legend. He was a great guy and an illustrious player, but he was never manager material.
"I would," he concludes, "advise any young would-be manager not to start where they've been a player. Go somewhere else. I would say that even to Alan Shearer at Newcastle. It's much harder to impose your authority on men who were your mates and your comrades only a few weeks before."
Staunton's situation is somewhat different given that it is an international team he is about to take over and it is more than two-and-a-half years since he featured in an international game, but it is clear nevertheless that Robson feels he will face a major challenge in this department.
As he sits down to select his first Ireland squad in a couple of weeks for the game against Sweden on March 1st, the former Liverpool and Aston Villa player will have no fewer than 14 of the 22 other players who travelled with him to Japan and South Korean during the summer of 2002, including eight who started the match against Spain, the 36-year-old's last for his country.
The numbers might actually rise should Staunton talk one or two former team-mates out of international retirement. Roy Keane is clearly a Clyde-like long shot, but Stephen Carr (29 years old), Gary Kelly (31) or Dean Kiely (35) might yet be fielding calls from the new man.
Staunton is expected to swing swiftly into action after Monday's press conference. The former Ireland skipper is likely to take the opportunity to size up the administrative support available to him from Merrion Square and look at training facilities while in Dublin, before embarking on a hectic schedule of contacting players and watching games back in Britain.
He will have just a few weeks before he has to name his squad for the Sweden game, but it would be a surprise if he does not follow the approach adopted by Brian Kerr early in his reign of naming just about everybody who is fit and available in order to weigh up his options as extensively as possible.
FAI chief executive John Delaney confirmed this week that other friendly games are likely to be added to the team's schedule towards the end of the season, and Staunton will be anxious to get as many matches under his belt as possible before the campaign to qualify for the Euro 2008 finals gets under way, most likely in September.
Among his first official tasks as manager will be the draw for that competition, which takes place in the Swiss city of Montreux on Friday fortnight, when the Republic will be among the fourth group of seeds.
