Former Republic of Ireland international Keith Treacy believes the Boys in Green will be in "safe hands" under the stewardship of incoming interim manager John O'Shea but feels the FAI have been "reactive" in their search for a permanent head coach.
Ex-Ireland and Manchester United, O'Shea, has been appointed to take temporary charge of the Irish senior men's team for the friendly matches against Belgium and Switzerland in late March, before the FAI intend to announce a permanent successor to Stephen Kenny in April.
A veteran of 118 Ireland caps, the Waterford native served as an assistant during the latter part of Kenny's managerial tenure and also worked with Jim Crawford's Under-21 set-up prior to that.
While O'Shea may lack managerial experience, former international team-mate Treacy backed him to steady the ship for the two friendlies before the next permanent manager is in place.
"John has an awful lot between his ears. I think he sees the game really, really well. You don't spend that amount of time at Manchester United and get that amount of appearances if you don't know what you're doing," he told RTÉ's Game On, adding anecdotally his memories of a quietly spoken and thoughtful character whose career "demands respect".
.@Corktod on the career of John O'Shea after his appointment, on an interim basis, as men's@IrelandFootball manager #rtesoccer #coybig #soccer pic.twitter.com/jKKSTEW894
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) February 28, 2024
"I think we're in safe hands for the two games. I think if the Lee Carsley stuff is true and he's waiting in the wings and John is just going to get us down the road till the point where Lee is unemployed (if he parts ways with the England Under-21s), I think that's a great move.
"But that's still not set in stone and we're still hoping and hoping. I just hope this gets done quickly enough because I know our first competitive game is against the English on 7 September - huge, huge games - so I don't think we're going to play the same style as we did under Stephen Kenny so that's going to take a little bit of time on the training ground and that is so, so valuable at international level."
Treacy added that the FAI's blueprint for the next head coach means O'Shea will be limited in how much of his own stamp he can put on the squad.
"So I think John's hands will be tied. Whatever manager that's coming in has been told they have to work within an FAI framework," he said.
"I don't think that's very appealing to an awful lot of managers, being told how to manage. You might have a look at the group of players and think I can get something out of them with a certain way of playing but if the FAI are telling you you have to play a certain way, it's not great.
"So (interim assistant) Paddy McCarthy, John O'Shea coming in for next month's friendlies, I think it's a good move but Lee Carsley is still the one we have our eyes on.
"Lee would be a clever enough footballer and a clever enough coach to know that there's a way that this Irish team can win football matches but it's not open, expanisve, pretty stuff."
As for the search for the permanent manager, it is now more than three months since Kenny's departure and Treacy feels the FAI have been "reactive" in the manner in which they have undertaken the search for a successor.
"The FAI have been reactive, they haven't really been proactive in what's going on," he said.
"Look, again John O'Shea, it's not the worst move in the world but you would have thought that you want this sort of business to be done nice, quick, early and we just haven't been able to do that.
"It's been rumbling on and rumbling on and I think that's because there's so much of this Irish job that doesn't appeal to people, i.e the framework, the under-15s and senior teams all the way up should be playing the same style of football, I think that's a very difficult thing to do.
"They're talking about young managers. Not an awful lot of young managers want to be international managers and if you get an older manager, I don't think he's going to want to put his fingerprints on the under-15s all the way up to the senior team. That's a huge amount of homework to get through."
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