FAI set for talks with McCarthy and Kenny

Kenny, who was recently sounded out about taking over the U21 side,

Read More:

“I think managing your country is the ultimate honour,” he said.

“If you offered me the job of managing Real Madrid or Barcelona or Ireland, I would choose to manage Ireland, because it’s the greatest honour you can have as an Irishman.

“I don’t have PR strategy”, he told the Dundalk Democrat. “I don’t have a dream team. I think, ultimately, I’m a football coach and I have great respect for all the players at Dundalk and for everyone connected to the club.”

Chris Hughton, the former Irish international and assistant manager, emphatically ruled himself out of the succession stakes, saying in Brighton: “I can understand any link. But at this moment I have a job here that I’m desperately keen to do as well as I possibly can in.

“Certainly at this moment, for me, I have no interest in the job. The only interest I have is in the job here at Brighton.

“I know the feel of being involved with the Irish team as a player and as a coach because I was Brian Kerr’s assistant for three years.

Day Answer At Future? But And Moment Club This To I Environment It Is Think I Honest This, A Day The Is Like A Wonderful Don’t Know Would Wonderful I In Enjoy At Working Club About Which A

In the race to take over from O’Neill, Neil Lennon has received a spike in support over the last 24 hours, and the Hibs manager can expect to face questions on being linked to the Irish job at his scheduled club press conference today.

Although the process of selecting O’Neill’s successor from what is a narrow field only properly got under way yesterday, the FAI are still intent on having the new man in the post before the Euro 2020 draw which takes place in Dublin on Sunday week, December 2.

As well as the unfavourable optics of the host nation being seen to be without a manager at the prestigious event in the Convention Centre, there are practical reasons why it would be considered beneficial to have the new man installed by then.

The following day, December 3, the group fixture list will have to be thrashed out, with the manager’s wish list for the order in which he would prefer his team’s games to be played, a significant consideration.

Should Ireland end up in a five-team group it would allow for the possibility of two friendlies being fitted into the schedule for 2019 but should the draw place them in a six-team group, it would effectively mean wall to wall competitive football for the duration of the year.

Either way, the next manager of Ireland will have to hit the ground running, with no friendly game taking place before the qualification campaign begins in March.

Unfortunately, it will also be 2019 before Sean Maguire can hope to hit the ground running again after Preston manager Alex Neill confirmed the former Cork City striker will be out until the new year with a recurrence of his hamstring woes.

Having come on as a sub in what turned out to be O’Neill’s penultimate game in charge, Maguire only lasted 13 minutes in the scoreless draw with Northern Ireland at the Aviva.

“I don’t think we will see him until January unfortunately,” said Alex Neil, who questioned whether playing international football, having only recent returned from a lengthy lay-off, was wise.

“It’s really disappointing for Sean. We feel as though we have managed him very well.

"That week where he would have had some down-time he has had to go on international duty, so naturally it’s disappointing.

"Because he had played most of the game for us at Bristol, we couldn’t really stipulate (to Ireland) too much in terms of his training this time around.”