This is no longer urgent. Before Ireland beat Portugal in Lansdowne Road on Thursday night and turned the world upset down in Budapest yesterday, Heimir Hallgrímsson was pedalling towards the end of his contract with two flat tyres and the chain off.
There was no talk of the Icelander and FAI staying together, not even for the sake of the children. And now? There’s a twinkle in their eyes, like the second reconciliation of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor.
Whatever happens in the heaven-sent playoff, Hallgrímsson will surely be offered another contract and he might even be minded to stay. But you wonder what Plan B had been? Or Plan C-Z?
They must have been thinking about it? Mustn’t they?
The shambolic process that eventually resulted in Hallgrimsson’s appointment officially took eight months from the end of Stephen Kenny’s reign. In reality, it took much longer.
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