Jim Crawford hails John O'Shea's calmness and knowledge

Republic of Ireland Under-21 manager Jim Crawford is confident that his one-time assistant John O'Shea has the temperament and knowledge to make a success of management.

Crawford's team are in Serravelle ahead of their European Championship qualifier away to San Marino on Friday (5pm, live on RTÉ News channel and RTÉ Player).

Speaking to the media on Thursday, he was inevitably asked about interim senior boss O'Shea, who was part of Crawford's coaching team in their tumultuous qualifying campaign for the 2023 European Under-21 Championship, which ended in a penalty shootout playoff defeat to Israel.

O'Shea was drafted into the senior management set-up early in 2023 and has been installed as interim manager for the March international window, as the football public await the announcement of a new permanent manager.

After working at close quarters with O'Shea, Crawford praised his temperament and football knowledge and acknowledged his shrewd choices of assistants, with Brian Kerr and Glenn Whelan being drafted into the set-up.

"John will bring an air of calmness. His knowledge of the game is second to none," Crawford told RTÉ Sport.

"He was extremely influential to us in the last campaign that took us to our first ever play-offs. I've nothing but admiration for him. He had a lot of input.

"He has a fantastic knowledge of the game. As a head coach, you need to be able to control your emotions too. And he can certainly do that.

"He sees the game in a very clear way. He's got the communication skills to transfer his ideas to the players, no problem. He's extremely likable.

"What underpins all that is the career he had as a player. When you go in as a head coach, it's totally different to being a player, it's a different skillset.

"But