Lee Carsley turns down Republic of Ireland job to pursue England dream

A big blow for Ireland.

Lee Carsely has turned down the chance to become the next manager of the Republic of Ireland in order to remain as a candidate to replace Gareth Southgate at England. Carsley is currently the England u-21 manager, and has enjoyed great success with them, guiding them to glory in last year's European Championships, putting him on the FAI's radar as one of the best managers available. The former Everton star emerged as a favourite for the Ireland role in recent weeks, despite interest from the likes of Roy Keane, Chris Houghton, Gus Poyet and Steve Bruce, but according to the Daily Mail, the 49 year old has officially turned down the offer to remain in his role with the FA for now. The fact that Carsley represented Ireland at international level as a player, earning 40 caps in the process, made it all the more plausible that he would want to return to the green and white army. However, with Southgate likely to leave his current position as England manager after this summer's Euros, then that job will of course become available, and despite contenders such as Eddie Howe and Graham Potter in the mix, the former Ireland midfielders success with the underage team would put him in good stead to get it.

Keane speaks about Ireland job.

It looks like it is back to the drawing board for Ireland, although their former assistant coaching team captain Keane, made his interest in the role public just earlier this week. "For me, I always think about you with the Ireland job, whether that would work for you," Carragher said on Stick to Football.

"Obviously, that wouldn't be day-to-day. Would that be something that would interest you? "Yeah, international football, I enjoyed it when I was a coach for a while," Keane said.

"I like the dynamics of it, where you're not in every day, and it's not about bringing players in and I suppose dealing with the board every week or the academy. "Yeah, that does appeal. I did like the dynamics when I was coaching with Martin with the Irish team. "We had a little bit of success, and when you've had a little bit of success, then it's brilliant, and obviously there are disappointments. "So, yeah, that could be an option." Related links:

• Lee Carsley reportedly set to be named the new Ireland manager
• Scotland comments on Ireland come back to bite them in new Netflix documentary
• Roy Keane makes his strongest pitch yet to be Ireland manager