Quinn confident his old lieutenants can turn Ireland around

As the man who recruited both Martin O’Neill and Roy Keane during his tenure as Sunderland chief executive, Niall Quinn is even surer the fusion of the pair will deliver for Ireland.

Quinn remains baffled at the decision of Sunderland owner Ellis Short to sack O’Neill last March, though chuffed the parting enabled the FAI to nestle the Derryman into the box seat for the upcoming Euro 2016 campaign.

Keane, too, is someone the former Ireland striker considers the right man in the right role as O’Neill’s sidekick. Speaking yesterday at the opening of an all-weather pitch at the Tigin Rehabilitation centre in Ashford, Co Wicklow, Quinn pointed out any of the negatives associated with Keane’s crash-course in management at Sunderland and Ipswich should be neutralised by the arrangement O’Neill has put together.