‘When he speaks I think you listen’ – Stephen Bradley says FAI should take note of Séamus Coleman’s stance on John O’Shea

Stephen Bradley believes that the FAI board should listen to the comments from Ireland captain Séamus Coleman supporting the candidacy of John O’Shea as the next manager of the senior international team.

The FAI confirmed this week that the recruitment process to replace Stephen Kenny will be competed next month and there’s confusion over a future role for O’Shea, who stood in as interim boss against Belgium and Switzerland.

Coleman, speaking after Tuesday’s loss to Switzerland said he was impressed with the work done by O’Shea on and off the field and stated that his former team-mate should be in the running – and Rovers manager Bradley insists that Coleman’s is a voice worth hearing.

“I don’t know the players personally. It’s a hard one to answer when you don’t know the group. But you can just take them at face value, what they’re saying,” Bradley said today as he prepared for Friday’s home derby against Bohemians which is set to be a 10,000 sell-out at Tallaght Stadium.

“When someone like Séamus Coleman is speaking, who has been an incredible leader and captain for this country and one of the best right-backs in England for the last, I don’t know how many, ten years?

“When he speaks I think you listen, he’s earned that respect in that dressing room but in football in general. Everything you hear about him is that he’s a proper man, a leader, so I think when he speaks you’ve got to listen and take that at face value.

“I don’t know him (O’Shea), I met him in passing a few times but I don’t know him. Paddy McCarthy and Glenn Whelan, I would have played with both of them a lot at Man City. When we were younger we would have gone there quite a lot.

“I know Glenn and his family quite well, brilliant person. I know Trevor Clarke, from working with him at Bristol Rovers, really liked him which is no surprise. He’s doing his work in terms of coaching.

“Glenn always thought about the game, when you played with him. He was that type of player that had to think about the game, and positionally, so it’s no surprise that he’s going down the coaching/management route.

“He really gets the game and Paddy has been around the likes of Roy Hodgson for quite some time and you speak to anyone about Roy Hodgson they’ll tell you how tactically clever he is. You can only learn from that.

“What I like about both is they’re doing their work and I think that’s really important.”

Get ahead of the day with the morning headlines at 7.30am and Fionnán Sheahan’s exclusive take on the day’s news every afternoon, with our free daily newsletter.