John O’Shea has been offered an assistant coaching role in Heimir Hallgrímsson’s Republic of Ireland backroom team.
The former Iceland and Jamaica manager phoned O’Shea on Wednesday, asking him to consider remaining part of the senior international group having been the interim manager for recent friendlies against Hungary, Portugal, Switzerland and Belgium.
“I told John that I would really like him to be part of this journey,” said Hallgrímsson. “In the context of continuity, if he is on board, we will progress faster in what we want to achieve. Same for the rest of the staff, to tap into the culture.”
Hallgrímsson and his wife will move to Ireland. FAI director of football Marc Canham has already suggested Malahide in north Dublin as a suitable base. The Icelander’s contract runs until after the 2026 World Cup qualification campaign.
There does remain a hazy timeline around the 231-day recruitment process led by Canham, who indicated in February that a “head coach” would be appointed in “early April”. Canham remains adamant that the first choice was always Hallgrímsson but the new coach revealed that the decision was only made in recent months.
Neither would confirm an exact timeline of how the confidential process unfolded.
“Heimir was the outstanding candidate,” said Canham. “He led Iceland to the knock-out stages of Euro 2016, with Iceland and qualified for the 2018 World Cup. Most recently he took Jamaica to the Copa America. Both countries surged up the world rankings, that was critical to us.
“It was always about getting the right person,” he continued before revealing: “Heimir was the only person we offered contract terms to.
“We wanted to appoint Heimir but he had been very consistent and very committed to the Jamaican national team competing in the Concacaf Nations League and the Copa America.
“This was a decision we respected. We remained in contact with Heimir and were willing to wait for him to become available.
“It was always about getting the right person.
“As you‘d expect, and in order to protect the Association, we remained in contact with other candidates, we were open and transparent in conversations with Heimir.
“We were happy to wait for our number one candidate.”
Reports had previously linked Lee Carsley, Willy Sagnol, Gus Poyet, Roy Keane and a number of other experienced managers to the job.
“If we had our time again, we would have said from the outset that the focus was on getting the right person for the job. The learning for us is that we should not have set dates around the appointment.
“We never set out to mislead people,” Canham replied to a question about his previous comments in February. “We recognise that was not the best communication from us.”
Hallgrímsson said: “I had other offers but I was leaning towards [Ireland]. Before the Copa America I talked to the president of Jamaica [federation] and told him I would resign after the Copa. I tried to depart Jamaica in as positive a way as possible.
“It was always kind of exciting and the top of my list to come here. I don’t know what date it was when I was clear in my head to take this. But I always admired the professionalism from the [FAI] board.”
Before Canhan and Hallgrímsson spoke at the Aviva Stadium, FAI interim chief executive David Courell began by trying to explain why the announcement of the Ireland men’s manager comes in the same week as historical allegations of inappropriate relationships and unwanted sexual advances by male coaches towards female players.
“Please know our preference would have been to make this announcement at a different time but due to a range of factors we had to proceed today,” said Courell.
“We communicated that to the group of women in advance and asked for their understanding. We do not want to dimmish or try to move on from what is a matter of the utmost seriousness.
“Despite today being an important day for Irish football those courageous women remain at the forefront of our thoughts. It remains the top priority of the Association.”
This announcement also overshadows Friday night’s Nations League fixture between Ireland and England at Carrow Road in Norwich.
“We have tried to pay absolute respect to the women’s international team,” said Courell. “We spoke to Eileen [Gleeson] in advance of the announcement. She understands. This is the reality of professional football. Unfortunately, the calendar is jam-packed, there is never an ideal time for these announcements. We had secured our preferred candidate and wanted him to get going as quickly as possible.”
Courell added that to delay the announcement would only impact the women’s game against France in Páirc Uí Chaoimh next Tuesday.
- Sign up for push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Join The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
- Listen to our Inside Politics podcast for the best political chat and analysis
