Republic manager job 'a poisoned chalice'

Aiden McGeady has admitted the job of Republic of Ireland manager has become “a poisoned chalice”.

The 27-year-old Spartak Moscow winger believes whoever succeeds Giovanni Trapattoni will come in for criticism no matter what he does.

Asked if Ireland could play a more expansive game than the system to which the Italian was so rigidly committed, McGeady said: “We could probably end up playing two centre-backs wide, two full-backs pushing on and losing and getting absolutely hammered by all you [journalists] and everyone on TV still.

“You can never really win. It is probably a bit of a poisoned chalice, the manager’s job, same as in England as well.

“If you do well, you are always still going to have people saying ’That’s wrong, that’s not right’. You can’t please everyone.”

The FAI has placed Under-21s boss Noel King in interim charge of the senior team while high performance director Ruud Dokter and former international Ray Houghton assess the field in the search for Trapattoni’s replacement.

But whoever the successful candidate is – Martin O’Neill, Mick McCarthy and Roy Keane remain the three most prominently mentioned candidates – McGeady has warned them the pressure will be intense.

He said: “They have to pick the right man for the job, and I think they are doing the right thing by not rushing into anything.

“It’s always the same two or three names mentioned, but whatever they decide to do, I don’t think anyone will have any problems with it.

“But whoever takes over is going to have a lot of pressure, a lot of expectation to try to turn things around – well, not turn things around, but have a slight change in fortunes.”

Ireland, who lost 3-0 in Germany on Friday evening, face Kazakhstan at the Aviva Stadium on Tuesday night in their final World Cup Group C qualifier.