Opinion: Process to appoint new Ireland boss should not be hastened by late Hungary victory

The wait to appoint a successor to Stephen Kenny as the senior men’s Ireland manager has entered its 197th day, but if the decision makers in the FAI are prepared to narrow their search based on the credentials of a summer friendly, then the plight of the national team runs deeper than the performances on the pitch.

June has proved to be a defining month in the recent history of Irish football. There was the sweaty shambles in Yerevan in 2022 as Kenny’s declaration that Ireland would top their Nations League group fell flat on its face at the first hurdle.

Then the make or break game of last year’s European Championship qualifying campaign away to Greece in Athens was the final nail in the coffin for Kenny. He could have been dismissed then but the process of his departure was as long and tedious as the search to find his replacement.

The Aviva Stadium has long been engulfed in a sense of apathy but last night, at least, the script of some horrifying June chapters changed for the better.

Troy Parrott, responsible for another sliding doors moment in the Kenny era, when after a win over Scotland and a credible draw against Ukraine in Poland, the Dubliner ran into Hampden acreage. One on one with Craig Gordon, Parrott fluffed his line and instead of winning 2-1, Ireland lost by that scoreline.

On Tuesday night, in much less vital circumstances, Parrott went through on goal and scored. Just. It was another poor finish but luckily for him and Ireland, a bounce of a ball, a break went their way.

This Ireland team have only known how to lose games but a first win since October, a first in three games for interim manager John O’Shea and a first against a team that isn’t Gibraltar might act as a turning point for this group of players, even if it was a June friendly against a Hungary side who have bigger fish to fry this month rather than worry about losing for the first time in 14 games.

For O’Shea it’s a great moment for someone who has been a terrific servant to Irish football and who has been placed in an impossible position to cover up for the FAI’s incompetence regarding the search for a permanent senior manager.

The two March friendlies did little to enthuse the cause for O’Shea to take the reins full time but it’s clear from the winning goal celebrations from the touchline that the Irish centurion believes he still has a shot of landing the gig that nobody wants.

That told in his starting XI last night. It’s June, it’s been a long season, a dreadful season for the national team. Seeing Seamus Coleman, Shane Duffy, Robbie Brady and Matt Doherty listed to start in a summer friendly, players who are not the future of this team would not have drawn many nods of approval.

But it showed that O’Shea still believes if he can churn out a couple of results from this window he might be able to convince the powers that be to at least give him the Nations League campaign.

In an ideal world the March and June friendlies - at least the latter - would have been used as preparation for the new manager to build a team, blood some new players and prepare for what is a daunting Nations League group in September with England, Greece (who did the double over Kenny) and Finland all eyeing promotion to League A.

The rumour mill surrounding Kennys successor earlier in the year was like being at the local fun fair. Which rollercoaster are you going to get invested in? Carsley? Poyet? Barry? And God forbid you’d go for a spin on the Steve Bruce or Big Sam teacups.

Now the constant noise has been replaced by a deathly silence for the last couple of months with O’Shea at present, the only man standing in the spotlight.

Without an obvious alternative, O’Shea holds the baton and for now, is in the driving seat.

The win is welcome, but June friendlies should never be used to determine whether a manager should or should not get a job.

Do the FAI wait for someone to get the sack after a disappointing European Championships this summer? Do they gamble on an early season EFL Championship managerial casualty. 

Or, with a competitive game looming, do they bite the bullet and promote O’Shea in an order to bring some stability to an organisation who does not currently have a permanent men’s senior manager or CEO?

The fact is, whether Parrott missed, or Hungary had scored from the previous dead ball situation, there would not have been enough evidence to necessarily rule out O’Shea either.

Nicking a result is a habit this group of players need to get into, but once the final whistle blew the result is relatively inconsequential, despite its welcomeness to a team devoid of confidence.

The players like O’Shea but if the FAI were to appoint him in the near future it would only raise further questions over their already massively flawed recruitment process which began without giving him an interview.

In their bizarre in house update on the managerial situation where Marc Canham said the appointment of a permanent manager would be delayed until September, it wasn’t mentioned that O’Shea would be reinstated for the June friendlies.

Is nicking a win at the death in a game that didn’t mean anything to the opposition enough to get the job of bringing Irish football from its knees on a permanent basis?