Former Ireland goalkeeper Shay Given has claimed that appointing John O'Shea on a temporary basis is not ideal.
After the FAI's failure to land a permanent managerial candidate, the role will be held by O'Shea for the time being. O'Shea, who took over for the Belgium and Switzerland ties in March, will now do the same for the upcoming June window.
Those who know O'Shea well do not believe the FAI has handled it well, and the whole situation could have been better organised.
"I don’t think it’s ideal, to be honest," said the former Ireland goalkeeper this week.
"If they had said to John, 'We’ll bring you in for the next four games, and we’ll have a look at it after that,' it would make more sense.
"But it was like, "We’ll announce a manager in April after the first two friendlies," and obviously they backtracked on that, of course. And now they said it was going to be September.
"And then they pick the phone up to John again and say, "Do you fancy coming back again?" that kind of way, you know?
"So I wouldn’t say he has been mistreated, but I think it could have been dealt with better, let’s be honest."
John O'Shea (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)However, Given has given props to O'Shea for handling the mess of situations in which the FAI finds itself.
"But credit to John; he could have easily turned around and said no. 'I don’t want to get involved in these games in June; I want a decision on the long-term future.'
"I don’t know the ins and outs of those conversations or whether John has a long-term future with the FAI with regards to a new manager, and perhaps John has been promised or guaranteed a role within that set-up. I don’t know; I’m just speculating, like half the country, but at the same time, I think it could have been dealt with a lot better, yeah."
Lee Carsley was one of the names mentioned when it came to the next Ireland job and was a hot favourite to replace Stephen Kenny. However, after much speculation, the former Ireland player stayed with the England U21s.
Given believes that his former teammate would be a perfect replacement for Kenny. It may not be the right time, but Given believes the time to appoint Carsley as Ireland boss could come down the line.
"I think Lee would be the perfect candidate because of what he has done with previous clubs and now at international level with the England Under-21s. I don’t think they had won a major tournament until Lee got his hands on them," said Given.
"He would be brilliant because we have a relatively young Ireland squad as well. He knows the country, played forty-something caps for Ireland, and knows it really, really well.
"He said a few months back that it didn’t feel right at the time, but it’s something in the future that maybe he’d look at."
The Republic of Ireland men's team is to play Hungary and Portugal in two international friendlies in June. They will welcome Hungary to Dublin on June 4 before a trip to Aveiro to face Portugal on June 11, with both games kicking off at 19:45 GMT.
