O'Shea and Kerr get to work as new Ireland era begins
A new era has begun – and an injustice belatedly rectified – with John O’Shea taking his first training session as Ireland’s caretaker manager.
The Ireland centurion assembled a 24-man squad, after Liam Scales and Troy Parrott withdrew through injury, on Monday at their Castleknock Hotel base and they had a light workout at the FAI’s pitches within the Sports Ireland campus at Abbotstown.
O’Shea will be in charge for two home friendlies, against Belgium on Saturday and Switzerland tomorrow week, before a permanent boss is unveiled by April – as promised by the FAI.
Lee Carsley remains favourite for the vacancy after negotiations to prise the former midfielder from England’s U21s weren’t completed by the time preparations for the March window began.
O’Shea will likely remain part of the new manager’s backroom staff and there could be a place too for Brian Kerr.
He was unceremoniously ostracised from the FAI after being sacked by former chief executive John Delaney as senior boss in 2005.
Stephen Kenny didn’t take kindly to Kerr’s criticisms of his reign while working as a Virgin Media pundit, leading to a breakdown in the relationship of a pair that were previously close stretching back to the beginning of Kenny’s coaching journey with St Patrick’s Athletic’s U21 team.
The idea of Kerr’s expertise and experience being utilised in this interim arrangement as technical advisor was floated by Marc Canham, the FAI’s director of football.
The 71-year-old is also highly rated by board member Packie Bonner, who worked as Kerr’s goalkeeping coach during his spell as boss between February 2003-October 2005.
Paddy McCarthy and Glenn Whelan, who like O’Shea represented Ireland’s youth teams during Kerr’s successful stint as
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