KENNY Dalglish was finally ruled out of the running to succeed Jack Charlton as Republic of Ireland boss, after earlier claims in Dublin that he was about to be interviewed.

As the Lancashire Evening Telegraph exclusively revealed yesterday, Rovers had told the Irish Football Association that their approach for Ewood's Director of Football was "unwelcome". Yet stories still came from Ireland yesterday morning that Dalglish was to be one of four men interviewed for the job.

Later in the day, however, the FAI changed course and chief executive Sean Connolly admitted: "We are carrying out interviews and, in relation to Kenny Dalglish, he would prefer us not to speak with him at this stage. There are other people apart from Kenny who will be interviewed and at the end of the day we understand that Kenny has obviously got a very important role to play with Blackburn."

The club took the unusual step of revealing that they had discouraged FAI officials, because they wanted supporters to know their stance on the situation.

Speculation over whether Dalglish is Dublin bound should now cease.

But, of course, he is still being linked with the England job set to be vacated by Terry Venables in summer!

Rovers, however, have made their position quite clear.

They want Dalglish to carry on at Ewood in his role behind the scenes.

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