O'Shea and Ireland out to impress against Belgium and make the most of a wasted window

It feels as if the Association have spent most of their second century finding a successor to Stephen Kenny, to the point that the second deadline for the appointment has now been missed.

Advertisement None of this is O’Shea’s fault, but that of the FAI’s, whose search process has dragged on to historic lengths. These two games are half of Ireland’s preparatory games for England and the rest of the Nations League in September, so to not have the head coach installed for them is a waste of precious time.

The extension – let alone expansion – of an existing sponsorship deal is a big deal in the commercial world, given its obvious expressions of satisfaction and confidence. Sky have proved great partners for the women’s national team, and the extension of their support to the men’s team is a fine achievement by the FAI’s commercial team. But the FAI didn’t even send a press release about it: a PR company did so on behalf of Sky, but it wasn’t sent to many of the country’s soccer reporters.

Tedesco likes to pack his midfield with physicality, with the likes of Orel Mangala and Amadou Onana often preferred to the more technical Youri Tielemans. This will be Ireland’s biggest problem, as the midfield is the weakest part of the Irish squad and it is also entirely lacking in physicality.

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