Keith Treacy: Aspects of Willy Sagnol's Georgia style not easy to replicate with Ireland

Keith Treacy is doubtful that Willy Sagnol would be easily able to replicate aspects of his Georgia set-up if he were to take on the Republic of Ireland job.

The former France international has been one of a plethora of names linked with succeeding Stephen Kenny permanently and guided Georgia to the last-16 at Euro 2024 in the first major tournament appearance for the country from the Caucasus.

A 2-0 victory over a second-string Portugal during the group phase was the highlight before they made their exit from Germany after Sunday night's 4-1 loss to Spain when they initially took the lead.

Whether Sagnol chooses to stay in charge of Georgia in the longer-term will be interesting to see given his stock has risen and that would also be no guarantee that he would choose Ireland, with uncertainty still reigning when it comes to who the FAI are lining up as manager.

However, he has been tactically astute in the way he has led Georgia, putting a workman-like team together, sprinkled with the stardust provided by Napoli's world class winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and highly-rated Valencia goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili.

Speaking on the RTÉ Soccer Podcast, ex-Ireland winger Treacy said he was impressed by Sagnol's tactics but drew a contrast between both nations' sets of players especially in transition from defence to attack.

"Obviously with the Irish thing, you're looking at Sagnol and you're thinking if he came into this Irish team, could he replicate what he's doing with the Georgians with the Irish? I don't think so," he said.

Listen to the RTÉ Soccer podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

"The way they're set-up, the 5-3-2, it's brilliant. There's only yardages because you can drop back and make