HEIMIR HALLGRÍMSSON WILL meet John O’Shea in Waterford today as he aims to convince him to become his assistant manager.
And the new Republic of Ireland senior boss says that it “makes sense to me” that there will be a path for O’Shea to eventually take his job on a permanent basis.
Hallgrímsson admitted that it “takes a good character” to consider returning to the role of assistant after the former Ireland and Manchester United defender took charge on an interim basis for the last four games.
The Icelander’s surprise appointment was confirmed by the FAI after a 230-day search last Wednesday, with his contract running until the end of the 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign.
After initially chatting with O’Shea on a video call, he says he will drive to meet O’Shea today to thrash out a deal.
Hallgrímsson cited how his own route into international management with Iceland was similar, initially working as Lars Lagerbäck’s assistant for the 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign before becoming joint-coaches when they reached Euro 2016 and then taking sole charge for the successful 2018 World Cup campaign.
“My way into national team coaching was exactly like that and I think the assistant coach should be the one that carries the knowledge to the next cycle and they (the FAI) have obviously shown that they believe he is going to be, or is good enough to be the coach,” Hallgrímsson said.
“So I think it’s a no-brainer, whatever happens back to me, I always say the same thing, I want to leave the shirt in a better place when I go, and to have a guy that has been doing the things with us is probably always the best one to take over, if you want continuity, growth and development.
“That kind of makes sense to me but it’s always difficult to have been the head coach and then stepping down to be assistant coach. That takes a good character to do that.”
Hallgrímsson says O’Shea is “the most important guy for me” and will “start with him and take it from there” as he puts his coaching staff in place, but as of yet he is unsure of the Waterford native’s intentions.
“I think it’s better for me to talk about it after we speak but if he wants to meet probably he’s considering. I think it’s more positive than negative.”
Hallgrímsson was speaking at at one of the FAI’s soccer camps at Verona FC in west Dublin and he confirmed that he and his wife are in the process of settling on a place to live as well as in his new office at FAI headquarters in Abbotstown.
“We’re just trying to look at the country, where we want to live, looking at sites. That’s more or less what we have been doing for the last two days and then looking at the [Euro 2024] tournament, I saw the game yesterday etc, and then just trying to familiarise with people in the office, all of those people.
“That has been the last two days since we met, not a lot of info since then but we’re trying to gather our heads around where we are, who we should talk to, who can help us etc.”
