Does the next Republic of Ireland manager need a deep connection to Irish football?
“Oh, most definitely, yeah,” said Dara O’Shea, the Burnley defender. “We are all Irish, we all understand what it is to be Irish and how special it is. We are extremely lucky to have the opportunity to represent this country and to have someone who understands that feeling as well, I think that’s massive.
“And someone that the fans can resonate with too,” O’Shea continued. “You want to have that backing and support from the country and as Irish fans, I’m an Irish fan myself, I’d want that too.”
It’s pointed out that the Dubliner just described the man sitting next to him, John O’Shea.
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“Yeah,” he agreed.
As the FAI exists in its latest information vacuum, the preamble for Switzerland visiting the Aviva stadium focused on who will fill the men’s job next month. The recruitment process has been conducted by director of football Marc Canham, chief executive Jonathan Hill and Packie Bonner, yet it has been largely left to the caretaker coach to field questions about his mystery successor.
There is a Groundhog Day feel to proceedings. At each press conference last year, the Ireland women’s interim manager Eileen Gleeson was asked who would eventually replace her. That is until the FAI appointed Gleeson to the post in late-December.
John O’Shea declined to proffer any information about Tuesday night’s line-up – besides Joe Hodge and Andy Moran being promoted from the under-21s following last Friday’s 7-0 defeat of San Marino – so a permanent successor to Stephen Kenny became the only valid topic for the media to pursue in Abbotstown.
When talks to entice Lee Carsley from the English FA ran aground, Canham asked O’Shea to become interim boss for the March friendlies against Belgium (0-0) and the Swiss before an “on-the-grass” coach would be unveiled in “early April.”
“My remit was to ‘focus on these two games,’” O’Shea explained for the umpteenth time. “If my remit beforehand was ‘John, you are the full-time new manager’ it might be a different situation. But the focus for me was these two games: ‘John, look after these games and see what happens then.’”
Consistently vague answers from O’Shea appear to leave the door ajar for his appointment on a full-time basis.
Question: Canham recently stated that you are the interim boss, with someone else being appointed in April, has anything changed?
“Not from my point of view,” said O’Shea.
So, what is next for John O’Shea? “See my family, see my wife and kids.” In football terms? “Ha, let’s wait and see. Hopefully there will be a few things happening but I will be going back for Easter holidays with my kids…then get back into the swing of things by going to watch games and have a few conversations here and there.”
After being head coach for 10 days and openly seeking a managerial role since leaving Birmingham City, O’Shea might understandably find it difficult to become an assistant again.
“No,” he replied. “As I mentioned, this experience has only enhanced what I’d always been planning, what I’ve always wanted. Ultimately, when you get a taste of it, enjoy it and are motivated by it, why wouldn’t you want more of it?”
Having worked under Kenny and Keith Andrews in Ireland camp last year, the 42-year-old noted the main difference between being an assistant and being the national team manager is selection, which is followed by difficult conversations with the players he excludes.
“Then, talking to your good selves every couple of days, getting used to same questions in different ways, different angles.”
Is he “really okay” with stepping aside? “I wouldn’t be really okay with it, no. But my full focus is on the two games ... I know in my head what I signed up for at the start and whatever happens after the Switzerland game will happen.”
Que sera, sera.
Alex Ferguson, who signed him to Manchester United in 1999, told an Irish reporter working at Cheltenham earlier this month that O’Shea should be the next Ireland manager.
“The manager [Ferguson] would always have contact with me anytime I went into, say, a different role at a club. What he said to me when I finished playing was, obviously, make sure you are involved in the coaching and management side of it now, because you have the temperament for it and the knowledge for it.
“Look, it’s been brilliant to have that backing and that advice, like I’ve always had from him. The big thing he said to me was to enjoy it, trust your instincts and you have to make big decisions – make them, stick to them and believe in them.”
If the FAI’s best laid plans go awry, would he take the job? “Well, that’s ifs, buts and maybes. If we get a win against Switzerland, if we get that good result, we can talk about things afterwards. But I’m fully focused on Switzerland and whatever happens afterwards, we’ll have a discussion.”
To quote Lloyd Christmas, John O’Shea is telling us there is a chance he will become the next Ireland manager.
Back to Dara O’Shea, sitting beside his namesake, on whether the FAI canvassed the playing group, like former FAI chief executive John Delaney did before appointing Giovanni Trapattoni in 2008.
“Us as a group, we just want somebody who understands Irish football and who knows what it is,” he said. “Obviously the manager here has probably the best experience in that sense. He has played so many times for this country and has worked under great managers, great Irish managers too, so there is a lot to take from that as well.
“We are quite a young group and we want to learn, so we want someone who is going to teach us, bring us along the way. Hopefully there is a lot of good that can come from [us] in the future. Look, we just want to play for our country and do the best we can and at the end of the day it’s not our decision who the manager is, so we have to crack on with that.”
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