Robbie Keane is involved in a head to head tussle with his old Ireland boss Martin O’Neill for the Celtic manager’s job - and reportedly met with club owner Dermot Desmond at a secret location on Monday night.
The Scottish Sun reports online that Keane was set to hold talks with Desmond about a return to Parkhead and a return to management just a week after quitting Hungarian side Ferencvaros.
The Irish record goalscorer played on loan at Celtic for six months in 2010 and has enjoyed title winning success in Israel and Hungary in his short managerial career to date.
He is keen to return to the dug-out as soon as possible after leaving Ferencvaros just after winning the Hungarian Cup with the Budapest side last month when they were pipped to the title by Gyor FC.
The Scottish Sun reports that Keane will add Celtic legend Scott Brown and former Irish international winger Jonny Hayes, currently B team boss at the club, to his backroom staff if he convinced Desmond to give him the job.
But O’Neill also has a part to play in this story with suggestions he could move upstairs into a Director of Football role if Keane returns to Glasgow.
While the report also states that O’Neill could stay on for another year after snatching the League title from under Hearts’ noses during his second term as interim boss in the season just finished.
O’Neill was quizzed on the Celtic job last week while in attendance at the Belfast Telegraph Sports Awards.
He said: “I’m seeing the owner next week, but I think he’s looking for a younger man – a 71-year-old! I am getting awfully old, but I don’t know what’s in his mind, and whether I would have the energy to do it again. But it was nice to be asked first time.”
Northern Ireland manager Michael O’Neill has revealed he’s held talks with both FAI Director of Football John Martin and FIFA over the Republic’s plans to step up the recruitment of dual-elilgibility players.
O’Neill made the revelations to the Belfast Telegraph following comments from Martin at a media briefing last month that the FAI will increase their efforts not to lose out on players like Conor Bradley of Liverpool.
O’Neill responded to those recent comments from Martin in his interview with the paper’s Steven Beacom. “I know John from his time at Shamrock Rovers and I’ve had a conversation with him post those comments,” said O’Neill who has also seen highly rated Chelsea youngster Chris Atherton switch to the South.
“It wasn’t directly around those comments, it was just on the situation in general. This is a situation that we have dealt with since I’ve been in the job (first time around). It’s important that we have dialogue with the FAI on this.
“I’m not in favour of young players making international transfers and I’ve had that discussion at FIFA because I think that in our situation, for young players, maybe because of where they’ve grown up or their background, it’s a more difficult decision to make.”
Ireland’s controversial Nations League home game against Israel looks more likely than ever to be moved out of Dublin and to a neutral venue as the FAI Board prepare to discuss their options in the wake of growing public opposition to the October fixture going ahead at the Aviva Stadium.
Ahead of a reported Board meeting on Tuesday night, the Sunday Times’ Irish football correspondent Paul Rowan has written that Irish manager Heimir Hallgrimsson will back the idea of a neutral venue as his players prepare to release their own statement on the controversy.
Rowan reports that, asked after the against Qatar on Thursday night about facing Israel outside of Dublin for the ‘home’ game, Hallgrimsson replied: “Do I think it is a good idea or not? Depends on the situation. If it is unplayable here, then it is a good idea. If it can be played here, I want to play here.”
Sinn Fein and the Social Democrats will both bring motions to the Dail this week calling on the Government to stop the Israel game but Fianna Fail and Fine Gael are both backing the FAI stance that the game must be played in Dublin.
Katie McCabe has fulfilled a lifelong dream and signed for the Chelsea club she idolised as a young girl in Tallaght - with dreams of one day wearing the same club shirt as Damien Duff.
From a family of Chelsea diehards back in Dublin and now in Cork with Ireland preparing for Friday’s World Cup qualifier against Holland, McCabe was unveiled as a Chelsea player as her Arsenal contract came to an end.
The Irish Independent reports that McCabe said: “It’s a new chapter in my career. This is something that I feel I’m ready for right now. All I wanted was Damien Duff shirts when I was a kid, and he was winning trophies with Jose Mourinho.”
Newly capped by Ireland senior boss Heimir Hallgrimsson, midfielder Rory Finneran will drop down to the under 21 squad for upcoming friendlies against Croatia and Qatar and a training camp just outside Zagreb this week.
RTE Sport reports that Ireland boss Jim Crawford, who worked with the senior setup as Finneran made his debut against Grenada in Spain last month, has included the 19-year-old in his travelling party for the first time, alongside seven other new faces.
Newcomers also included are Dundalk striker attacker Gbemi Arubi, Cork City teenager Cillian Murphy, Shamrock Rovers pair John O’Sullivan and Naj Razi, Burnley’s Kian McMahon-Brown, Brighton and Hove Albion defender Sean Keogh and Stoke City’s Gabriel Kelly.
