Former Birmingham City, Newcastle United and Brighton boss tipped for new manager job

Former Birmingham City manager Chris Hughton is being tipped to become the new manager of the Republic of Ireland national team.

The ROI have been without a manager since it was decided in November that they would not be renewing Stephen Kenny's contract. Former Blues coach John O'Shea was in interim charge against Belgium and Switzerland, but he is not expected to get the job on a permanent basis.

Former Birmingham boss Chris Hughton however is emerging as a strong contender for the role according to the Irish Sun. Ireland recently announced their CEO was departing and David Courell who is standing in as the interim CEO, could appoint Hughton, as they claim some association insiders are putting him forward for the role.

Lee Carsley, who played for Birmingham from 2008 to 2010 was the main contender for the post, but talks fell flat. The 50-year-old is the manager of the England under-21s team and led them to European Championship success last summer.

Former Fulham defender Chris Coleman, who took Wales to their first major tournament, and led them all the way to the semi-finals of EURO 2016 was also spoken about. Coleman was another contender who shortly after being linked with the job, was ruled out. Last week, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer emerged as the bookies favourite, but sources close to him dismissed it as speculation.

Hughton has been out of work for three months after being relieved of his duties as the Ghana national team manager. The Black Stars failed to get out of their group in the Africa Cup of Nations tournament which was held in January to February.

Ghana was the first national team job that Hughton had taken in his 15-year managerial career. He was appointed permanent manager of Newcastle United in 2009 and won them the Sky Bet Championship following their relegation but was sacked just a few games in to the next season.

Hughton responded by taking over at Birmingham following their relegation and managed them during their UEFA Europa League campaign, whilst leaving them to a play-off spot. He departed at the end of the campaign to take up the job at Norwich City, leading them to an 11th placed finish, but was dismissed towards the end of the 2013/14 campaign.

For a second time in his career, he won promotion from the Championship, this time at Brighton, but after just under four years, he was relieved of his duties. He returned to management over a year later with Nottingham Forest and guided them to safety, but was sacked following their worst start to a season since 1913.