Will NI’s manager search damage World Cup dream?

It is less than seven weeks until Northern Ireland Women begin their 2027 World Cup qualifying campaign and they still do not have a manager.

In fact, the Irish Football Association is welcoming applications for the role until Friday, 23 January – just 37 days before their opening fixture, away to Switzerland on Tuesday, 3 March.

Tanya Oxtoby stepped away from the role on 20 November to take over as Newcastle United Women’s manager after two years in charge.

Eight days later, the IFA issued a statement that they had “started preparations” to recruit her successor, but they have not moved much further beyond that almost three months on.

It is extremely worrying for NI given the condensed nature of the World Cup qualifying campaign, with all six games concluded by May.

While England, Scotland, Republic of Ireland and Wales all have their respective houses in order, NI look ill-prepared for their quest to reach a second major tournament and their first World Cup, the longer the protracted search goes on.

Rather bizarrely, the role of Northern Ireland Women’s manager is being advertised on the football recruitment agency Football Careers, which suggests the IFA do not currently have someone lined up to take over.

The job specification says the ideal candidate would be based in the United Kingdom or the Republic of Ireland and “will be tasked with inspiring and preparing elite players to compete on the international stage while shaping the future of women’s football”.

They must also “lead the senior women’s team in the next phase of its development and build on recent progress”.

What is not mentioned, is the fact that given the short lead in time to their first competitive game, the chosen candidate will be tasked with hitting the ground running.

That is easier said than done, especially in international football and with a squad that had an average age of 24.8 in their previous game against Iceland in October and when the domestic-based players have not played since last year.

NI have qualifiers against Switzerland, Malta and Turkey home and away in March, April and May.

Qualifying for the World Cup, which will be held in Brazil in 2027, follows the same format as the Nations League.

Only the four group winners in League A will automatically qualify for the finals, with the remaining teams having to go through the play-offs for the remaining eight places.

For NI to earn a play-off they must avoid finishing bottom of their group.

Switzerland reached the quarter-finals of last year’s Euros, Malta held NI to a 0-0 at Windsor in Euro 2025 qualifying, while Turkey are unbeaten in their past five games.

Playing against the Swiss away first, arguably the strongest team in the group, will be a real baptism of fire for the next manager.

The new boss will be without top goalscorer and captain Simone Magill for this campaign as she is expecting her first child.

They will therefore be tasked with choosing a captain in the interim as well as quickly getting up to speed with the pool of players available and deciding who could replace Magill.

The next manager may also have to lean on the experience of Under-17 and Under-19 manager Gail Redmond for a rundown on the players and the state of the game in NI.

They will have just a week at most on the pitch to prepare players for the Switzerland game, so clear communication will be key and implementing grander tactical ideas may have to wait until further down the line.

While NI have gone almost three months now without a manager, it is nowhere near as long as it took the IFA to appoint Oxtoby as Kenny Shiels successor in 2023.

It was close to seven months after Shiels had stepped down in January 2023 that Oxtoby was unveiled as the new NI manager in August of the same year.

Like who comes next, the Australian had a short timeframe of 26 days to prepare for her first game – a 3-0 Nations League defeat by Republic of Ireland in Dublin on 23 September.

That was the first of six Nations League games she preceded over by the start of December and the results were mixed.

There were two wins against Albania, a defeat and a draw against Hungary and a heavy 6-1 loss at home against the Republic, which Oxtoby said at the time highlighted that the Irish were “two or three years” ahead of her team in terms of development.

Northern Ireland feel like they are at a similar crossroads two years on now, having to develop again further to close the gap to top nations under the guidance of a new manager with new ideas at a critical juncture in the international cycle.

Meanwhile, the Republic in their second year under Carla Ward, have a real chance of reaching back-to-back World Cups and have developed style of play under their manager.

It has always felt like that this qualifying campaign would come too soon for NI given the youthful nature of the squad.

That feeling has only been exacerbated by the fact the national team is so close to a big game and question marks still hang over who Oxtoby’s successor will be and when they will belatedly be in place for the qualification campaign that looms large.