McCarthy in FAI crosshairs to make Ireland return

In what would make for an unusually quick running of the succession stakes, the FAI intend to have a new Ireland manager installed in time for the Euro 2020 draw in Dublin on Sunday week, December 2.

And former Ireland manager and captain Mick McCarthy is the FAI’s number one target to take over for a second term at the helm, following the departure of Martin O’Neill and Roy Keane after just over five years in the job.

There is also believed to be an appetite within the FAI to bring Stephen Kenny on board as Ireland’s new Under 21 boss, though it’s not all certain that the Dundalk boss would be tempted by that position.

Speculation has also been mounting that Robbie Keane and Lee Carsley could be part of a new senior management set-up, and last night Keane’s old comrade Damien Duff said that Ireland’s record goalscorer would be well suited to such a role.

“He would bring a spark and a bond back with the fans,” said Duff. “I know all the lads love him and he would give the whole place a lift.

He can’t pull the jersey back on and score goals for us but he might be able to teach the lads around the box that guile, that X-Factor and streetwiseness that I don’t think anyone has anymore in the Irish team.

“He’s doing his badges and I’m sure he’d be a great coach, a great manager and what a way to learn under Mick.

"He would be jumping in at the deep end and good luck to him if that did happen but usually when Robbie is doing something in his career I always get a text or a call and I haven’t had it yet.”

As of yesterday, it’s understood that Mick McCarthy had yet to hear from the FAI and he will doubtless be mindful of the fact that the last time he was perceived to be on the brink of returning to the post, having been sounded out about his interest, he could then only look on at the fanfare appointment of what was considered at the time the dream team of O’Neill and Keane.

Although currently ‘between roles’ since parting company with Ipswich, the Irish job is by no means the only game in town for McCarthy who is believed to have turned down offers from a couple of Championship clubs while he ponders his next move in management.

But he has never disguised his ambition to have another go at the Irish job and, having taken on the unenviable task of following in Jack Charlton’s footsteps first time around, would not be at all intimidated by what now seems like the enormously daunting challenge of resurrecting the fortunes of a badly struggling side who will start the next campaign in March as third seeds.

And the prospect of being the manager of an Irish team which, pending successful qualification, would be playing home games in the finals of the European Championship would also greatly appeal to the 59-year-old.

With getting to those 2020 Finals considered the highest priority, the FAI want an experienced man to take over from O’Neill, the kind of personality who can lift morale and get more out of the players.

But there is also, Damien Duff believes, an equally urgent need for the senior team to win back disenchanted Irish supporters.

Speaking last night at the launch of Beacon Hospital’s new sports medicine programme with the Leinster Senior League, the current Shamrock Rovers U15 coach said: “I remember growing up, there would be nothing on when Ireland played.

"The road would be empty, my training would be cancelled because ‘no, we’re watching the Ireland game’ whereas Monday night I had my lads out training, thinking ‘would we wrap this up early to go home and watch the game?’ I thought ‘no, if anything, let the session run over because what’s the rush home for?’

They definitely have to win the public back because the last two, three games that have been on, it’s been like background music to you. I think it has lost that feeling, that bond with the fans.

The emphasis on what might be regarded as a safe pair of hands in succession to O’Neill would appear to rule out Kenny, the much-admired and successful Dundalk manager whom many in the Irish game would like to see given the opportunity to test himself in senior international football.

Indeed, in his column in this paper today, Liam Brady says it would be a mistake for the FAI not to consider Kenny for the job. Duff agrees.

“Absolutely, he’s done an amazing job with Dundalk,” he said. “Year in, year out, they are the best footballing team in the league and they deservedly won the double this year.

"Maybe because he doesn’t have the Premier League or any big league behind him, will that sway it? I don’t know. But he has to be in there getting an interview and in with a shout of getting the job.

"He’s been amazing. Yeah, it didn’t work out at Shamrock Rovers and Dunfermline but he’s a brilliant, brilliant manager and absolutely he has to be in with a chance.”

Meanwhile, Matt Doherty has criticised what he claims to have experienced on the training pitch with Ireland under O’Neill, the Wolves man telling ‘Game On’ on 2fm: “You would go into a game and you were thinking to yourself ‘what shape we are going to play’.

"You’d have a few players thinking, ‘aw, I think we are going to play this shape’ or you might have someone else thinking, ‘I think it might be this one.’

"You can’t really have that, especially at international football, people not really sure of their role.”

But the Wolves man also paid tribute to O’Neill for overseeing some landmark results in his time in charge.

“He has brought moments where I have been watching at home and not in the squad and I was a fan also,” he said.

“Some of the times he brought made the hairs on your neck stand up. He was the manager of that so he deserves credit as well.”