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10th September 2025
02:53pm BST
It’s difficult to see how Heimir Hallgrimsson hangs onto his Republic of Ireland job for the remainder of the World Cup campaign.
Ireland suffered a disastrous 2-1 defeat to Armenia, ranked 105th in the world, in their second World Cup Qualifying match.
The Icelandic boss is contracted until the end of the World Cup qualifiers, and with little chance of Ireland making it to next year’s competition in North America, attention turns to who will take the job next.
The list of candidates is pretty long, with some surprise names flying about.
Chris Hughton is currently favourite at 3/1, with Nuno Espírito Santo next at 10/3 having left Forest this week.
Former Shelbourne manager Damien Duff is next (9/2), followed by former Ireland caretaker John O’Shea (11/2), Ferencvaros boss Robbie Keane (6/1), Shamrock Rovers manager Stephen Bradley (15/2) and former Ireland midfielder Lee Carsley (9/1).
We asked fans who they want to see as next Ireland boss, and Duff has come out overwhelming favourite with 30% of the vote. Lee Carsley is next best with 14%, followed by Nuno (13%) and Chris Hughton (11%).
Duff has kept a seriously low profile since his shock departure from League of Ireland champions Shelbourne, where he received huge plaudits for a fantastic turnaround job at Tolka Park.
Vote below on who you want to see as next Ireland manager:
It wouldn’t take a genius to detect the feelings of Republic of Ireland defender Nathan Collins about the future of Hallgrimsson after his post-match interview on Tuesday night.
Collins, who did not escape criticism himself for his performance in both the defeat on Tuesday and the 2-2 draw with Hungary on Saturday, gave a good clue as to how the players feel about Hallgrimsson, telling Off The Ball it’s “hard to say” whether he has full support.
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