EGGSACTLY HOW NOT TO GO ABOUT IT

Mcclean: FAI’S process of finding a manager has been a circus

JAMES MCCLEAN has blasted the FAI’S search for a new Ireland manager, claiming it has left the association “with egg on their faces”.

The 103-time capped star retired from international football after November’s friendly with New Zealand, which was also Stephen Kenny’s last game in charge (inset).

Since then, FAI headhunters Marc Canham and Jonathan Hill have engaged in a desperate search for a new boss yet it now looks like it won’t be resolved by the summer.

“I think it’s an absolute shambles,” said Mcclean. “It seems every week there is a new name being thrown in the mix and then that name is coming out and rejecting it and distancing himself from the job.

“It feels like we’re going around in circles. I think it’s been shambolic from the FAI in how they’ve gone with the process.

“They are trying to give it to every Tom, Dick and Harry and nobody seems to want it. It’s leaving them with egg on their faces.

“From the outside looking in, it’s embarrassing, hopefully they can get it sorted.”

Mcclean reckons the FAI should have been doing the groundwork before Kenny’s departure, which had been predicted long before the November window.

“If they are making the decision that Stephen wasn’t going to stay on, then surely start the process sooner,” said the Wrexham winger.

“This is just… it’s a circus. I don’t know another way to put it, it’s an absolute circus. Here we are, the national team can’t get a manager.”

Mcclean is convinced that the next manager is coming into a “fantastic job” and that the squad is capable of getting to major tournaments.

“It could be an unbelievable job,” he said. “I feel like we’ve got a young, talented squad there that just need the right direction, and the right person to lead them, because the quality is there.

“And if you get a manager who goes in there and gets these lads really believing how good they can be, and a good structure in place, I believe these lads have the quality to take Ireland to major tournaments.

“I was fortunate enough to play in two of them and it’s an experience that you can tell the young lads but until you experience it yourself, it’s night and day, you have to experience it yourself, to see just how magical it really is.

“All this talk about lovely football, and the way to play football... football is about winning.

“I remember the tournaments, I don’t remember the football we played to get there.”