John Delaney: Martin O’Neill and Roy Keane will stay the course

While it remains to be seen if the departure of Paul Lambert encourages Stoke City to make a renewed approach to Martin O’Neill, John Delaney has said the FAI “fully expect” the manager and Roy Keane to see their current contracts through to completion.

Speaking just hours before the news of Lambert’s exit broke yesterday, the FAI chief executive said: “Martin has shown a great enthusiasm about his renewal. As you know, he was at the underage matches, he’s been at a lot of grassroots matches, a lot of League of Ireland matches, a lot of sponsorship (events).

“We fully expect that Martin and Roy will see their contract through this time around, like they’ve done before. I think they know their aim is quite simple — to get to the Euros. Wouldn’t it be marvellous to get to the Euros and have two games in Dublin? That’s the biggest prize we’ve ever had for qualifying for a European tournament.”