STEPHEN KENNY would be well advised to rent rather than buy in Lincoln if he is named as the local club's new manager.
Fellow Dubliner Mark Kennedy was named as their boss on May 12, last year. He was given just one full season in charge.
After only 11 games of their League One campaign this season, he was gone. Lincoln City are now looking for their eighth manager in a decade.
Even though his experience with Ireland has been a bruising one, Kenny doesn't lack self belief.
He would back himself to get Lincoln up the table, but the fact that he is being talked of as Kennedy's successor is another reminder that few Ireland managers hit the heights after leaving the national team job.
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Ireland have had 11 managers since the old system of the team being picked by the 'Big Five' group of FAI blazers was done away with at the end of the 1960s.
What is most remarkable is how youthful most of the men who've led Ireland have been. Six of Ireland's managers - Mick Meagan, Liam Tuohy, John Giles, Eoin Hand, Mick McCarthy and Steve Staunton - were in their thirties when appointed.
History tells us that this job might well be the peak for Kenny, that it'll be all downhill once he does go through the exit door at the end of this year.
Run through the history of Irish managers and you find that none of them got glamour postings when they moved on from the national team. Tuohy's next job in football was with the students of Trinity College, Dublin. Giles took a punt on Vancouver Whitecaps, and Hand tried his luck in the brave new world of Saudi Arabia with Al-Taawoun.
Charlton and Trapattoni never managed anywhere after leaving Ireland. Kerr's only managerial job was with the Faroe Islands, and five months with Darlington in League Two is the sum of Staunton's experience since he was pushed out the door by the FAI.
McCarthy slowly rebuilt his career after his first term ended in 2002 but, second time around, he had Cardiff City fans baying for his blood. And you won't find many Nottingham Forest fans who'll talk kindly of Martin O'Neill's time in charge.
The Ireland job is the toughest gig in the country as everyone has an opinion on how you're doing - even Ministers for Sport...
It often starts well for Ireland managers, it never ends that way.
The pattern is familiar. Initial euphoria quickly followed by a crash landing and messy recriminations. Even the most maligned were greeted as saviours early on. Sift through the back pages and you might be startled by what was written and said about Staunton following the 3-0 win over Sweden in his opener - a friendly.
Just a matter of months later, Staunton was being branded a muppet and pushed quickly towards the exit door.
No Ireland manager had as much goodwill behind him for a sustained period as Kenny, even though results were disappointing.
Eventually, something had to give. He will be trying to rebuild his managerial career somewhere else very soon.
Whether he can do so at Lincoln is debatable.
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