In an ideal world – whatever that is – the intention would have been to begin this piece by musing that at least the circus pertaining to the Republic Of Ireland manager job appeared to have the curtain drawn on it. But it appears it may still only be the interval therein as John O’Shea – appointed to the job that seemingly nobody wanted – has had that most curious of words – ‘interim’ appended to his job description.
To me, the term is the ultimate cop out. If his role was described as ‘Caretaker’, it would surely be more fitting if – as has been touted – the Waterford man is only going to be in charge for the two forthcoming friendlies, with the Brains Trust seemingly confident they wlll have a full time occupant of the hotseat by April. My view, however, is that ‘interim’ was deployed for very tactical reasons as it doesn’t have an air of finality about it. In other words, buying the FAI more time.
For, if past history is anything to go by, it seems highly unlikely it will be as straight forward as they are pinning their hopes on. That said, I would be more than happy to let Lee Carsley skip off on his merry way. After all, he was quick enough to turn his back on Ireland and take up the England U-21 job.
You don’t turn your back on your own. If they are your own. Though in the interest of fairness it would be remiss not to acknowledge the former midfielder did a highly commendable job with the lion cubs.
Still, he’d have as much hope of replacing Gareth Southgate as I would of taking over from Leo Varadkar. And I don’t mean as Taoiseach. For what it’s worth, my view would be that the powers that be will do very well to attract a better candidate than Chris Coleman.
Then again, the rapidity with which the Welshman removed himself from association with the position probably tells you all you need to know what his thoughts were on either the process or what the FAI were in a position to facilitate.
Now, obviously, being one of our own and a former Manchester United star, there would be absolutely no objection here to the versatile O’Shea getting the job. Other than the fact that his managerial experience is paltry at best. Balancing those fears, mind you, is the fact that he was part of backroom team during Stephen Kenny’s tenure, so at least that would provide a modicum of continuity for what is largely a young team.
Not many would envy his incoming workload.
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