Emmet Malone On Soccer:The division among Irish supporters over the rights and wrongs of Roy Keane's actions in Saipan and after it are unlikely to be resolved anytime soon but the Corkman's departure from Mick McCarthy's World Cup squad did probably make the FAI a little more cautious about the facilities it laid on for the national team on its travels.

A more negative legacy of the Corkman's is the attitude he appears to have inspired among his more devoted followers to anyone who attempts to introduce an element of circumspection into the debate on what it is we should be looking to the current Irish team to achieve.

Back in 2002, as the Irish prepared for the group stages of the World Cup finals and most observers dared to look no farther than the possibility of a place in the second round, Keane suggested the bar wasn't being set nearly high enough. And more than once there was the implication that others within the camp had shown themselves up by celebrating results that could have been better. Those who believed the man could do or speak no wrong subsequently made a habit of dismissing individuals who sought to argue perhaps aiming too high was a sure way to end up disappointed as "muppets". It was an approach which rather handily circumvented the need for an actual debate.

These days, Keane takes an altogether more balanced view of the Irish team's limitations and while he didn't quite feel that "sympathy" for Steve Staunton in the wake of the Louthman's dismissal, he did reflect witheringly on the pool of talent available to Ireland managers and the gulf between the squad's words and deeds.

Since taking over at Sunderland, Keane has been careful not to offer any hostages to fortune. After the manner in which he transformed the team's fortunes last season expectations soared but he neither made predictions nor publicly set targets. It might be as well because a good many of his purchases have not looked too great and, until we see how January's round of spending goes, it seems narrowly avoiding the drop is about as much as he can hope for.

That is not to undermine staying up as an achievement for a newly-promoted side, it's hard to do but it's hardly setting the world alight either.

In Wales last week Don Givens identified the "off-the-wall" levels of expectation here in relation to the national team as one of the major deterrents to anyone considering taking the job (he said the attitude of the media these days was the other one).

Aside from those who had some sort of personal relationship with Staunton, there appeared to be pretty much nobody who was prepared to come out and bat for him in the wake of last month's Cyprus game but it was the manner in which the team performed during his time in charge that, for the most part, did for the former Irish skipper.

Only two competitive results stood out as particularly poor. The defeat in Cyprus was a shambles, the one at home a bit of a mess and in between Staunton was undermined by his dubious decisions in relation to team selection and tactics as well as the side's inability to turn in a convincing 90 minutes.

Yet for all Staunton's difficulties the team is set to finish third in Group D having started the campaign as fourth seeds and while the gap between the top two and Ireland - likely to be 12 points after tomorrow's games - is evidence of how badly things came off the rails at times, the idea a different manager would have succeeded in getting the team to next summer's European Championship finals is pretty far-fetched.

Poland's success under Leo Beenhakker in this campaign has been cited as evidence of the wonders that can be worked by hiring the right man but the Poles were at the last World Cup and have actually taken fewer points per game from this campaign than they did on the way to Germany. Their coach, meanwhile, has had a chequered history and probably took a bit of a hammering himself in Holland after the 1990 World Cup when the Dutch went out in the second round without winning a game.

Other sides, most notably the Scots, have gone close to pulling off a major upset but when push came to shove they lost out to better teams and as of the weekend the top two places in every single qualifying group are occupied by the two countries seeded to qualify.

Ireland's four successful qualification campaigns to date started with Scotland's Gary Mackay sending us to Germany by scoring against Bulgaria and ended with us beating a Dutch side that dominated the game and then getting rather lucky in the draw for the play-offs.

The current squad shows promise in terms of some of its young players and it is unquestionably important none of the more senior players retire but its shortcomings have been all too apparent too. It seems, then, that in addition to a gifted new manager we need our better prospects to fulfil their potential, our best players to stay fit and, perhaps, the odd favour from a third party too.

Here's hoping it all comes together over the next two years but in the more likely event it doesn't, Staunton's successor may have to have greater powers of persuasion than the Louthman if he's to avoid carrying the can.