National team Following the
Republic of Ireland's failure to reach the
2006 FIFA World Cup, the tenure of manager
Brian Kerr came to an end. A three-man
Football Association of Ireland (FAI) subcommittee spearheaded by its former treasurer John Delaney was formed with the remit of appointing a capable successor to Kerr. Delaney assured the Irish public that a "world class" management team would be appointed to oversee Ireland's qualification campaign for the 2008 European Championship. After an initial flurry of rumours linking names of the calibre of Alex Ferguson, Terry Venables and
Bobby Robson with the post, Staunton was released from his player/assistant manager role for
Walsall on 12 January 2006 and was officially named as Kerr's replacement the following day, with former
England manager Sir Bobby Robson supporting him in the role of International Consultant and with former Aston Villa teammate Kevin MacDonald as coach. Staunton was something of a shock appointment given the names that had been circulated and his own limited coaching and managerial experience. His international management career enjoyed a dream start, something Staunton called "a bit of a fairytale", when he led Ireland to an impressive 3–0 victory over
Sweden on 1 March 2006 with
Damien Duff,
Robbie Keane (captaining the Republic of Ireland for the first time) and
Liam Miller getting onto the score sheet. The victory over Sweden was followed by two friendly defeats, the first a disappointing 1–0 loss against
Chile on 23 May 2006 and then a 4–0 thrashing by
Holland at
Lansdowne Road, Ireland's worst home reverse in 40 years. Prior to the Holland game, Staunton was confronted and threatened by a man outside the team hotel on Monday 14 August with a gun that turned out to be an imitation
Uzi machine gun. The 31-year-old assailant was arrested at a nearby beach and released by police the following day. No physical harm was caused but the event was a public relations disaster for both Staunton and the FAI (this was not the first time an assailant had attacked members of the squad at that particular hotel). Shortly after this incident further embarrassment was caused by the revelation that the FAI had sent news of Ireland midfielder
Andy Reid's recall to the national side to the player's former club
Tottenham despite the fact that he was by then a
Charlton player. It was against this backdrop that Staunton oversaw his first competitive match in charge as Republic of Ireland manager; a 1–0 defeat against
Germany in
Stuttgart, Ireland losing despite a battling performance. Staunton himself was sent off by the referee for kicking a water bottle onto the pitch in frustration during the second half. Worse was swiftly to follow. On 7 October 2006, in their second
UEFA Euro 2008 qualifier, Ireland suffered a demoralising 5–2 defeat by lowly
Cyprus in
Nicosia. Staunton was watching from the stands, having been given a touchline ban for his sending-off in Germany. The defeat by Cyprus heaped additional pressure on the already beleaguered Staunton, who even at this early stage of his leadership was already facing calls for his resignation, ahead of Ireland's next game which was at home to the
Czech Republic on 11 October. The FAI, when pressed on the matter, refused to deny that a poor result would result in the manager's immediate dismissal. An improved performance against the Czechs resulted in a 1–1 draw, a result that eased the pressure on Staunton to some extent. Staunton was seen to be emotional after the 5–0 victory over
San Marino; it was to be the last match to be played on the old Lansdowne Road pitch. In the return fixture, a poor performance ensured the team needed a goal from Stephen Ireland four minutes into injury time to secure the three points with a final score of 2–1. Coming so close to dropping points against a team ranked 195th in the world at the time of the match immediately sparked further calls for the manager's resignation. Ireland returned to form with two successive 1–0 home victories over
Wales and
Slovakia which brought them close to contention for second place in Group D of the UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying groups. Such was the surprise that greeted the results that RTÉ presenter Bill O'Herlihy concluded the coverage of the Slovakia game with the comment, "Ireland are now in contention for qualification for Euro 2008. Who would have thought it?" The upswing in form continued on 22 August 2007 with a 4–0 win in a non-competitive match against
Denmark in
Aarhus. Staunton was delighted with the results and headed into the next set of fixtures with Ireland placed third in the qualifying group. The victories, however, proved to be something of a false dawn as, over the space of five days in September, an injury-hit Ireland dropped five points from two games and saw their qualifying campaign effectively come to an end. Leading 2–1 away to Slovakia the team would emerge with just one point after an injury-time strike from Marek Cech cancelled their advantage. Staunton was disappointed by the performance but four days later, on 12 September, a 1–0 defeat to the Czech Republic in
Prague crippled the qualifying campaign. A 0–0 draw with Germany on 13 October at
Croke Park and a 1–1 draw at home to Cyprus in the same stadium four days later (during which a chorus of boos greeted the final whistle) secured qualification for both Germany and the Czech Republic. Ireland would not be competing in the 2008 European Championship. Amid the fans' dissatisfaction, many pundits commented that Staunton was now effectively on borrowed time Prior to this, John Delaney gave an interview to
RTÉ where he refused to publicly back the beleaguered manager and attempted to extricate himself from any responsibility for his role in Staunton's initial appointment. Staunton, for his part, refused to resign and publicly stated that he intended to see out the remainder of his four-year contract. after which it was confirmed that Staunton's turbulent 21-month reign as international manager had come to an end. He was replaced by
Don Givens who temporarily took charge of the national team until
Giovanni Trapattoni's appointment as manager.
Leeds United On 4 February 2008, Staunton joined up with recently appointed
Leeds United manager
Gary McAllister for a training session, with a view to becoming McAllister's assistant manager at the club. He was given the post later that day. In his first month at Leeds, the club did not win a game, until a 1–0 victory on 1 March against
Swindon Town. When McAllister was sacked by Leeds United in December 2008 after five consecutive defeats, Staunton also left the club.
Darlington Staunton was appointed as a
scout at
Wolverhampton Wanderers under manager
Mick McCarthy. In May 2009, it was reported that he had applied for the then vacant manager's seat at
Port Vale. On 5 October 2009, he was announced as
Darlington manager, to take over officially two days later following a
Football League Trophy game against his previous club Leeds United. His contract was initially to take him to the end of the season, with
Kevin Richardson appointed as his assistant manager. Staunton lost his first game in charge, 2–0 to
Dagenham & Redbridge. On 21 March 2010, with Darlington bottom of the league and facing relegation to the
Football Conference, Staunton was sacked as the Darlington manager. He had won just four games from his 23 league matches in charge, although his sacking was also put down to a record low crowd for a league game at the
Darlington Arena of 1,463 against
Barnet in Staunton's final match in charge.
Sunderland Staunton was then handed a job as a
scout at
Sunderland on 22 August 2011. However, he was relieved of his role in 2013. ==Career statistics==