Seamus Coleman: 'Why would John O'Shea not be in the running for it?'

Seamus Coleman is 35 now. 

No one has given greater commitment to the Irish cause in modern times than the current captain and the numbers on his birth cert mean that any take he has on the next manager is hardly shaded by any personal interest.

The trickle of support for John O’Shea from inside his dressing room has been noticeable this last week. 

Never more so than when Dara O’Shea expressed the view that the next man up should be someone with an understanding of the Irish game.

There is, in all this, a sense of the inevitable in that players of any hue are expected to talk up the man putting together the next teamsheet but the former Manchester United defender has clearly impressed his players through this international window.

Coleman among them.

“I don't want to sound like someone who's played a couple of games for the manager and I am doing all I can to get him in but being completely honest, the way he has conducted himself, how impressive has been, my time will be up soon but going forward for the future, so it's not on a personal level.

“But I think the way he's carried himself, the work that he, Paddy, Glenn have done behind the scenes has been really impressive. What he has done for his country, that respect he has from people instantly, he will be in the running... I have no idea but why not be in the running for it? I'd be delighted for him, but that's above my pay grade.” 

O’Shea couldn’t break the cycle of dispiriting results with a draw against Belgium when Ireland might have done enough to win and a defeat against Switzerland when a second-half revival of sorts could have merited a draw.

It was still a tenure that seems to have gone down well.

Nathan Collins described the work done by O’Shea, Paddy