John O’Shea is the latest former Red to appear on the UTD Podcast, with the Irishman joining hosts Sam Homewood, Helen Evans and David May for a 90-minute chat covering all the bases from his illustrious career.
However, Sheasy starts by telling us what he’s been up to since hanging up his boots with Reading in 2019 and joining the Royals backroom staff under Mark Bowen and then Veljko Paunovic.
The 40-year-old, who left the Berkshire club in July, is now working as an assistant coach with the Republic of Ireland Under-21s, although as he reveals in the episode – which you can listen to now – his ultimate aim is to move into club management.
“Yeah I’m just getting the family settled back up into Manchester,”
John begins. “I was down at Reading coaching the last couple of years, last year with a former Red, obviously, in Quinton Fortune.
“Working with him was brilliant and currently now I’m just with the Irish Under-21 team, working with the next generation of Irish kids coming through.
“I’m enjoying it and when everything settles down over the next few months, I’ll look to get back into club football.
“I’m hoping over the next few months I’ll just get out to plenty of football, whether it be training grounds, see managers, work and go to see lots of games,”
O’Shea continues.
“Then every month there’s the internationals so it’ll be busy with the 21s preparing for those games. We’ve had a decent start, we beat Bosnia and drew with Luxembourg, two away games.
“After we beat Bosnia, we were hoping we’d go and beat Luxembourg but we drew away from home. Not the best of results, but it was a great result out in Bosnia so I’m looking forward to the rest of the games coming up.”
The young Boys in Green are currently fourth in their qualifying group for the 2023 Under-21 European Championships, four points off Sweden at the top of the pool but with a game in hand.
While the bid to qualify for the tournament for the first time in the nation’s history is taking up much of O’Shea’s attention, he revealed that he’s currently studying for his coaching badges, which will hopefully allow him to become a manager next year.
“That’s the ultimate aim. Get into management,”
John admitted. “I know it’s a tricky business at the best of times but I’m hoping I’ve had a good education along the way with some of the people I’ve worked with.
“I’m doing a pro licence with the FAI and I’m doing a UEFA course - it’s called a Master's for International Players. It’s a bit of a fancy title but you’re getting a guide on sporting directors, technical directors and how the business side of football works.
“It’s a diploma and hopefully by the end of next summer those two will be done and I can look at a head coach or management role then.”
The UTD Podcast with John O’Shea is available to listen to exclusively on the Official App now.
Look out for further stories from Sheasy as the week progresses.