I'm an ordinary man, nuthin' special, nuthin’ grand, I've had to work for everything I own" are words from the Pete Hames penned song “Ordinary Man” sung by Christy Moore and they could well sum up Brian Kerr.
Kerr was today officially unveiled as the new Republic of Ireland manager at an FAI press conference in the Shelbourne Hotel Dublin.
"Brian Who? may well be how one English tabloid newspaper greeted Kerr's appointment on Monday, but tomorrows headlines will surely say Brian WOW as the diminutive Dubliner took hold of the assembled press and literally stunned them into silence with his charisma and personality.
Just after 2:30pm Kerr entered the Great Room to a standing ovation and was accompanied by his side kick Noel O'Reilly and goalkeeping coach Packie Bonner who is expected to be announced as Technical Director of the FAI in succession to the new International manager.
The conference was expected to last an hour but Kerr answered the questions with such aplomb that seasoned journalists were left speechless and questionless and all in the space of thirty odd minutes.
After the initial how are you feeling stuff, Adrian Logan, UTV's sports editor waded in immediately with the Roy Keane question to which Kerr responded, much to the assembly's amusement:
"I do not think anyone here today would expect me to be foolish enough to tell all four of you here I am going to handle the situation"
"I want Ireland to have the best team out on the pitch. We have a limited pool to pick from and I want the best team to play".
"I have a plan in mind how I am going to deal with it but I want the best players to play for us and you - this is everybody's team".
"I am not going to tell you now how I am going to deal with it, I have got no agendas with any players from the past - I want the players to show me they are good enough to play in our team", he added stressing upon the OUR word.
Asked was it possible to qualify for Euro 2004 he said:
"The team have a lot to do. The team was good enough to qualify for the World Cup, which means we should be good enough to qualify for the European Championships. There will be tough games ahead but we are good enough. I intend to give it my best shot to get as many points as possible. We have difficult games ahead and it is no easy task, but what we will do as a team is do our utmost to achieve the results".
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