NEW REPUBLIC OF Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrimsson says he and assistant head coach John O’Shea have already built up trust as they embark on a new era together.
The pair confirmed the senior squad earlier today for the Nations League double header with England and Greece.
O’Shea and first-team coach Paddy McCarthy were handed responsibility for naming this squad, as Hallgrimsson continues to get up to speed having only been appointed in July.
Leicester City winger Kasey McAteer is one new call-up while striker Evan Ferguson has also been included having made his return to Brighton’s squad after five months out following ankle surgery.
“We just need to start work together to find out what is the best way to work, but in my opinion, personalities click, and there is a good trust between us and I think we can share more or less everything,” Hallgrimsson said.
“As I said before, in the beginning, John and Paddy will have more to say, knowing the players, knowing their characters etc, so they will be guiding me in the beginning, but that is good as they both have experience of playing with them, some of them, and then coaching as well.
“I said before it was really important to have them in the coaching staff for myself, but the benefits are more for the national team and the federation having them staying on. How we do it? I think we can be a bad cop, bad cop, or good cop good cop, we just need to evolve our relationship a bit better before saying.”
The Ireland squad in full ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/Sg8z67MFyV
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O’Shea said it was the right fit to continue as assistant having been placed in interim charge for four games earlier in the year.
“No, I didn’t need persuading at all. In terms of the personalities and the trust, you could see that I was going to enjoy working with him, working alongside him and obviously learning as well. That was a big factor, and when you examine it all, I knew what was going on, to an extent in the background, so I was aware of the situation.
“It was key for me to just assess everything in a cool calm way about it, and go, ‘no, this is really good for me’. I’m still learning and it is a good person to be learning from.
“It’s straightforward for me. In football, we won’t be looking too far ahead,” O’Shea added. “For me, the full focus is on England and Greece, first and foremost, the campaign to come, and obviously the big draw coming up in a few months’ time too. So I’m really excited to continue on, working with the players especially, because they are a good solid group, and I can’t wait for the manager to see exactly what the players are, and get to know them better, and myself and Paddy will hopefully accelerate that process too.”
Hallgrimsson grabbed headlines last week when he said he wanted Ireland to find “a bastard” for the team and he elaborated on that point further.
“It was taken a little bit out of context, but I still like the sentiment. And in a way, we have so many players at the similar level, all of them have nice characters etc. But sometimes you want players on the pitch that will make the opponents feel uncomfortable, and that is what I meant.
“But it is more the fact that I think we have a lot of players that are similar, whether it is the midfielders, whether it is the centre-backs. We are waiting for someone to be a little bit different and can be a gamechanger for us, so let’s see in this camp if someone shows up.”
