EAMON DUNPHY has taken aim at Heimir Hallgrimsson once again – this time for his absenteeism in last week’s footballing fixtures.
Hallgrimsson spent his summer scouting domestically, as he plans to use the January internationals to run the rule over League of Ireland players.
He is keen on creating a route for domestic players into the Ireland set-up, citing how he did the same with Iceland, who played out-of-season internationals.
The Icelander did not attend any games in the UK, Ireland nor abroad last weekend.
57-year-old instead chose to scout players from afar using the Wyscout website.
While the remote scouting service affords modern coaches a level of data unimaginable to bosses in days gone by, it has also earned its fair share of critics – one being long-time media vet Eamon Dunphy.
Writing in his column for the Irish Mirrior, he said: “The problem is that he isn’t going to games where he can assess players that can play for Ireland.
“Even the most blinkered League of Ireland fan would struggle to make a case for any of the Bohs, Sligo, Galway or Derry players.
“John O’Shea and Paddy McCarthy effectively picked his first squad as he wasn’t familiar enough with the players.
“That makes it all the harder to understand the nonsense of not trying to improve his knowledge by going to games.
“If I was Minister for Sport, and the FAI came looking to me for money, I’d tell them I had one question – where was Hallgrímsson last weekend?
“No matter how impressive their PowerPoint presentation, no matter how much corporate jargon they used, that goes to the core of the current FAI.
“Eventually the penny dropped that having an absentee CEO was a bad look. Now they’ve landed us with an absentee manager. It’s a joke, but nobody’s laughing.”
It’s not the first time Dunphy has locked eyes with Heimir this month.
Last week he demanded Hallgrimsson be SACKED as Ireland boss after two disheartening home defeats to England and Greece.
Both 2-0 losses mean the Boys in Green have lost four consecutive home competitive matches for the very first time.
However, only time will tell if the Iceland native is right to be resolute in placing faith in his old scouting system.
