Eileen Gleeson may no longer be women's boss but clever bargaining means she still has FAI role

That was the fallback clause she brokered with chief football officer Marc Canham 12 months ago, delaying her internal elevation from head of women’s football into the permanent role of senior team manager.

Seeing her former role has since been filled by Hannah Dingley, it’s not a straight reversion.

The FAI and Gleeson had all flatly stonewalled queries on this peculiar arrangement over the past year, perhaps confident it wouldn’t unravel this way, but last Tuesday’s playoff defeat to Wales exposed Gleeson as being incapable of the job’s demands.

Canham must posit the spare capacity somewhere, a challenge considering voluntary redundancies have been discussed across the FAI, but maybe the injection from a new sponsorship due to be announced this week can defray the cost.

Gleeson emerged from the domestic scene, managing Peamount United and UCD Waves, before becoming Vera Pauw’s Ireland assistant in 2019 and having a short stint as Glasgow City boss.

When that went sour, she returned to her homeland, soon filling what was branded a new FAI role dedicated to the female game.

Yet those populating the sector she came from accused Gleeson of being disconnected from the national league once she was parachuted in as Pauw’s successor 16 months ago, primarily from ditching the home-based sessions facilitating a weekly showcase.

That sense of bewilderment widened when Athlone Town manager Ciarán Kilduff revealed he’d been contacted by the Northern Ireland manager, not the Republic one, for feedback on candidates.

Rather than rectify the gap, Gleeson became more entrenched in keeping her distance.

Even by FAI standards, it seems wholly bizarre that a sacked manager is remaining within the company’s employment.

Had the mooted U23 squad Gleeson floated as an alternative to those scrapped home sessions materialised, that might be a vacancy she’d fill but chief executive David Courell recently cited finances as an obstacle to its creation.

Of course, as they did with Pauw and Stephen Kenny, all the FAI did yesterday – eight days on from the deflation of losing to Wales – was release a manager from an expired contract.

That sole campaign was the deal Canham opted for when appointing from within.

Guiding a team fresh from their first World Cup into the maiden Nations League series against three inferior second tier nations was an ideal audition for the caretaker manager, despite her constant denials of interest in the permanent berth.

Those six wins were followed by five straight losses in League A of the regulation Euro qualifiers before the symmetrical trend was bucked in the final game against France at Pairc Uí Chaoímh.

France may have fielded a second-string side, were heading to finals already and had the imminence of Paris Olympics consuming them but there was a genuine feelgood hue from Ireland's victory.

All that mattered, however, was negotiating the playoff.

Wales were five places behind Ireland in Fifa’s rankings but manager Rhian Wilkinson succeeded in outmaneuvering Gleeson over two legs. The Irish manager’s sore loser attitude didn’t help her prognosis.

“At a meeting of the FAI board and following a review, a decision was taken not to offer a new contract to Eileen Gleeson to continue as head coach of the Ireland Women’s National Team (WNT),” read the statement after Canham had addressed the 14-person board.

“A famous 3-1 victory over France saw the WNT record their best ever result before going on to reach round 2 of the playoffs, where, despite being in a position where we hoped to qualify, the team narrowly lost to Cymru over two legs.” 

Gleeson expressed her desire to stay on in the run-up to those Celtic clashes but results change everything, leaving her silent on the matter afterwards.

Whoever assumes control has a revamp on their hands, given the spine of the team are aged 30 or over.

Ireland’s Nations League B campaign begins on February 21 against Turkey at home. They also have Slovenia and Greece in their four-team pool which runs until June 3 but the real business of World Cup qualification doesn’t begin until February 2026.

It’s a backdrop that’s devoid of urgency.

Protracted managerial searches have become a staple of this FAI regime and it may be a case of Dave Connell taking interim charge.

He’s been in the U19 post since 2011, guiding teams to the Euro finals in 2014 and again this year. He’s coached most of their squad during their formative years.

Striking the balance surrounding the influence of captain Katie McCabe will be uppermost on the to-do list.

To many observers, Gleeson afforded too much scope to the Arsenal player, culminating in Tuesday’s rash display that a fussier referee would have brought to the end within a half hour by brandishing a second yellow card.

The red was issued to Gleeson by Canham but, in reality, it resembles a yellow.

She’s no longer front of house in a position that often seemed to smother her but clever bargaining has kept her in the shadows.