From Brendan Crossan in the Aviva Stadium, Dublin
THE FAI has intimated that interim boss John O’Shea won’t be the next permanent Republic of Ireland manager after the former defender was unveiled to the media following his appointment last week.
Director of Football Marc Canham echoed the FAI’s press statement that a permanent successor to Stephen Kenny will be announced in “early April”.
The fact that Canham was precluded from mentioning managerial candidates at Monday’s press briefing because of “contractual obligations” suggests the association knows the identity of the next man to take the reins.
“The process has been ongoing for a period of time and we have given a series of updates, quite recently really,” Canham said.
“We’re really near the end of the process and that’s confidential, so I can’t answer the question directly, unfortunately, but we are really at the advanced stage of the process. For different practical reasons, including contracts, we can’t confirm that until early April.”
When the question was posed to O’Shea about his interest in remaining in charge beyond the March friendlies with Belgium and Switzerland, the former Manchester United defender said: Let’s hope that takes care of itself, but ultimately for me, I’m focused on these two games and we’ll see what happens then.”
O’Shea is expected to name his squad for the friendly double header in Dublin on March 14.