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Giovanni Trapattoni still has his fine Italian loafers under the FAI’s desk but Niall Quinn has an ideal candidate to take over Irish football’s top job. Yep, you guessed it, he wants Roy.

He was the man to first give Roy Keane a go at the managerial game, and it worked out for a while at least, so now Niall Quinn thinks that maybe the Corkman is the man to lead Ireland.

Following Ireland’s dismal showing at Euro 2012 there is some talk, probably pointless but humour us, that the time is right for Trap to go. After four years in charge he has brought us back to a level of respectability but the Euros proved that we need a change. That’s the argument anyway.

As you can imagine, there’s a betting market on the next man to take over (you can check out our friend Paddy Power’s odds here) but the mighty Quinn reckons it’s time for a long shot to take over.

In his Irish Independent column today, here’s how Quinn tries to sell us on the idea of Roy for Ireland.

Roy does not accept mediocrity and Ireland’s performances in this tournament were mediocre at best. That is what he was criticising, the idea that we were happy to accept those standards.

It would take a huge leap of faith from both him and the FAI to appoint him, but also the fans he has railed against and the players he has criticised. But can he be the spark that ties it all back together and leads Irish football to redemption?

There is history between him and the FAI, but there was history between him and me before he accepted an offer at Sunderland and he did a great job for me there as manager.

He is available and if he sees a problem with the way Ireland are doing things, is he prepared to take the problem by the scruff of the neck and impose himself on it?

Aside from the obvious conflict between the likes of John Delaney and Keane, which we imagine are fairly insurmountable, is Niall talking some sense?

The former Manchester United man has been a divisive figure in Irish football for a very long time so even if the majority of Irish fans agreed with his comments regarding the team and fans last week, it is hard to imagine Keane uniting the nation behind him.

Keane did a good job at Sunderland, where it was poor transfer market moves that eventually did for him. That, at least, won’t be an issue with Ireland. His time at Ipswich was brief but someone like Brendan Rodgers had a bad short spell at Reading before going to Swansea, and now Liverpool.

Keane will get another chance somewhere, probably sooner rather than later. In all likelihood, Trap will be in charge for two more years. By then we will know a lot more about Keane the manager. He may well still be in the pundits chair.

One former friend, Eamon Dunphy, certainly thinks so, telling Twitter this morning that his destiny is to be in the studio not on the sideline.

Unless Niall puts in a few calls to Abbotstown, of course.