MATT DOHERTY has insisted the FAI need a permanent boss before June to end the “messy” recruitment.
The Wolves defender is the first current player to comment critically on the FAI’s now 152-day search for a successor for Stephen Kenny.
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FAI Director of Football Marc Canham, who previously said a boss would be in place this month, has now said his target is an appointment before the Nations League in September.
But Doherty, 32, believes that Ireland cannot go into the June training camp and friendlies with Hungary and Portugal without a full-time boss.
And he reckons that if John O’Shea is, again, appointed interim head coach having also taken charge of the clashes with Belgium and Switzerland, he should be given the role full-time.
Doherty said: “I don’t know what’s going on over there.
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“It looks messy. It seems to be taking a while and there doesn’t seem to be any clarity.
“To the neutral eye really that it has taken that long.
“If it is John then it will be pretty good,” he said.
“Really they needed someone for the summer so they can implement what they want to do before the games start getting competitive.”
The Association’s plans for an appointment this month appeared to go awry in the past fortnight.
Having declared when O’Shea was installed as interim head coach for March that a full time boss would be appointed in April with the delay over “existing contractual obligations”, media were briefed ten days ago that that remained the plan.
But following the announcement that CEO Jonathan Hill – who was involved in the recruitment – was leaving the Association last week, it was announced that there would be no appointment soon.
The search continues to be led by Canham alongside independent director Packie Bonner, though president Paul Cooke and interim CEO David Courell are now also involved.