John O’Shea tipped to join Wayne Rooney at Birmingham City
Stephen Kenny could be facing more strife with his Number three coach as John O’Shea is being linked with joining Wayne Rooney’s backroom staff.
Rooney is reportedly in talks with the club partially owned by American football legend Tom Brady after the Championship outfit this morning sacked John Eustace.
There was shock at the decision given Eustace - who ironically O’Shea succeeded in the Ireland role - was dismissed with the Blues positioned sixth in the table.
He oversaw 21 wins in his 63 games in 15 months in charge, the last of which came on Friday night against Midlands rivals West Brom.
Despite his success, Rooney's availability while stateside with DC United was being monitored and he left that post over the weekend.
Ireland centurion O'Shea is currently in camp ahead of Friday’s Euro ‘24 qualifier against Greece, followed by an assignment against minnows Gibraltar in Faro next Monday. He and Ashley Cole have been heavily linked with joining Rooney at St Andrews.
O’Shea and Rooney were teammates during a decorated period at Manchester United and have remained close friends. It remains to be seen if he’s interested in the job or the prospect of combining both is a viable prospect.
O’Shea has been mentioned as a leading contender to take the Ireland job on an interim basis if the FAI relieve Kenny of his duties in the coming months. Last week the Waterford man spoke about the novelty of stepping away from a club circuit he’d been consumed by as a player and coach since his late teens.
“I was fairly full at it for 20-odd years “ he said at a Cadbury event in Cork.
“Between leaving Reading, I was just doing the Ireland Under-21s with Jim Crawford, so there was a little bit of a spell there of about six months.
“You
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