Quinn 'very worried' at lack of talent in squad

Former Republic of Ireland striker Niall Quinn has said that the Irish team suffers from a dearth of new talent.

Quinn, another veteran of the golden age of the national team, suspects the job may not appeal to some candidates when they analyse the strength of the current squad.

Quinn identified veterans Shay Given, Richard Dunne, John O’Shea, Damien Duff and Robbie Keane as recent totems of the Republic team, but can see few coming through to match up to them.

“Anybody who feels there is a magician that is going to come in and turn us into a great team overnight, I think they’re sadly mistaken,” Quinn told Sky Sports News.

“The worry for the new manager coming in is: as those five players have come to the twilight – in fact some of them don’t play anymore – what’s come in, what great stars have come in to take their place?

“The answer is: none. I’d be very worried that we don’t have the talent – that we don’t have something strong for a manager like Martin (O’Neill), like Roy (Keane), Mick McCarthy, to go on and kick on straightaway.

“The only upside to a new manager coming in for the Euros is there are eight new places at the competition and that’ll make it a small easier to qualify.”

Quinn called Trapattoni’s departure “inevitable”, given the frustration of the current campaign, and he raised the point that the Italian’s spoken English may have hindered him.

“We didn’t get to know him enough,” Quinn said.

“I’m sure there were things about Giovanni we couldn’t break down because of communication difficulties.”