Republic of Ireland record goalscorer Robbie Keane says there are a lot of good players coming through the international ranks as he prepares to take his time on the management road.
Keane, who is the number two to Jonathan Woodgate at Championship club Middlesbrough, is not part of Stephen Kenny's backroom staff in the new Republic of Ireland set up.
The former Tottenham Hotspur, Inter Milan and Liverpool striker had been an assistant under Mick McCarthy with the national team.
It's understood Keane remains under contract with the FAI, but the resolution of that situation is not believed to be yet at hand.
Robbie Keane was on The Football Show on SKY Sports and the Dublin native says patience is important when it comes to being a manager.
"I have spoken to many people over the last few years that have told me to 'take my time, don't be in a rush'. I remember I was on holidays a couple of years ago and Marcello Lippi, who was my manager at Inter Milan told me 'Robbie, take your time, if you are going to be a coach or a manager, you could be in it for 20 or 30 years, so don't rush into it'. I have certainly taken his advice.
"I want to learn, I want to learn from different people and pick the brains of different managers and players that I have played with over the years. For me this is a leaning curve."
Presenter Dave Jones said that there were some things Keane couldn't talk about when it came to the Republic of Ireland job, but he asked him about young Irish players coming through that we can be excited about.
"Yeah I think they can, I think certainly there's a lot of young players, the 21's have done well. The mention of Troy Parrott has been thrown around quite a bit. Obviously, he only played a couple of times for Tottenham. I think (Aaron) Connolly also for Brighton could be a really good player. I think we are coming into a generation now that we have a lot of good young players coming through which is obviously exciting for Irish football."
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