'He certainly has a lot to offer': Crawford insists O'Donnell fully-focused on Ireland under-21s despite Derry links

Bohemians and Republic of Ireland 21s assistant has been heavily linked to the Derry City job. 

Republic of Ireland staff, from left, coach Paul McShane, manager Jim Crawford and assistant manager Stephen O'Donnell before the qualifier against England at Turner's Cross Stadium. Pic: Ben McShane/Sportsfile

Republic of Ireland under-21s boss Jim Crawford has insisted that assistant coach Stephen O'Donnell's full focus remains on the Ireland under-21s despite being heavily linked to the Derry City job. 

Crawford's under-21s take on Finland in Tampere on Friday evening in the first leg of their UEFA European Championship play-off, and Crawford, despite noting that O'Donnell - who currently balances his duties as assistant at Bohemians and the Irish under-21s - has a lot to offer in football management, any Derry talk has been parked. 

Derry director of football Mark Connolly has been in the Candystripes dugout as interim manager of late and led his side to an FAI Cup glory against Waterford last weekend, but is leading the search for a new manager, with 40-year-old O'Donnell said to be the among the front-runners for the role.

"Yeah, look, it's, you know, at the start of the week, there was a little bit of noise about it," Crawford said.

"In fairness to Stevie, he's professional enough now to park it. Stevie's been excellent since he's come in, he's a fantastic character. He loves the game, he's good company and he certainly has a lot to offer in football management, there's no doubt about it.

"I didn't really know Stevie, you know, until he's come in, and I think his work ethic is outstanding. Whatever he does, I don't twist anybody's arm with regards to where they want to go in football.

"The good thing about Stevie is that it's parked up. We haven't spoken about it. When it got into the media, there was those obvious conversations of what's going on."

Crawford reiterated that former St Patrick's Athletic and Dundalk boss O'Donnell only has eyes on the job at hand, and that's Finland on Friday evening. 

"But he's fully-focused on the Irish under-21s, the under-21s set up and this game tomorrow (Friday) evening, which is important for him too, because he's done a lot of groundwork to get this far. So we'll just see where that goes."