Heimir Hallgrimsson faced the media on Thursday afternoon to begin his reign as Republic of Ireland head coach in earnest.
The Icelandic 57-year-old's first game in charge will be against England in the UEFA Nations League this September.
Flanked by FAI director of football Marc Canham and interim CEO David Courell, Hallgrimsson's first press conference lasted for over half an hour in the bowels of the Aviva Stadium.
Here are five key takeaways.
1. He will be based in Ireland and is contracted until the end of the 2026 World Cup qualifers
It was a pre-requisite from the FAI that the incoming boss would be based here and Hallgrimsson confirmed he is indeed moving to the Emerald Isle.
"Yes," he replied when asked if he's relocating. "That will that will be the next days. Me and my wife, we want to stay on the island, just to get to know the culture, the people, especially the football culture and the league. Even though it's a short distance to Iceland, a two-hour flight, doing the job it would be better and more helpful to be here and know the people."
Canham and Courell confirmed his deal runs until the end of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.
2. He offered clarification over previous comments made about Mason Greenwood
A few months ago, when still in charge of Jamaica, Hallgrimsson said he would "love" to recruit Mason Greenwood, whose father was born in the Caribbean country. In January 2022, Greenwood was suspended by Manchester United over allegations relating to a young woman after images and videos were posted online.
Hallgrimsson said in March: "I think what he has gone through in the year and a half since it happened is worse than I can imagine, being in the press and on social media. I can only imagine what he has been going through. The case went through stages and the case was dropped, so it's not up to me or anyone else to judge him on that."
Today, when asked about those comments, Hallgrimsson responded: "It's always in what context the question is asked in what scenario the question is asked. I absolutely don’t approve of his actions, just to make that clear.
"The question to me was after the president of the Jamaica federation and after the general secretary, so obviously the coach got the question. The political answer was that obviously all coaches would like to have the best players available, that was kind of my answer.
"I didn’t need to take a decision on selection and it never came to that. I was trying to maybe duck the question, because answering questions like this, whatever you say will always be people supporting and against what you are saying so that was just an answer in the scenario at that time."
3. John O'Shea & Co could stay on board
A part of Stephen Kenny's backroom team, John O'Shea served as interim head coach for the March and June international windows and could well remain under Hallgrimsson.
Canham said he has told O'Shea he's "an important part of what we wanted to do moving forwards".
Hallgrimsson also left the door open to the former Manchester United defender to stick around, with Glenn Whelan and Paddy McCarthy potentially staying on too.
At Jamaica, he had Swedish coach John Wall and fellow Icelander Guomundur Hreidarsson on the coaching ticket, but Hallgrimsson is keen to maintain an Irish core here.
"I talked to the guys on the board, they all praised the current staff," he said. "I talked to Seamus Coleman this morning, he praised the staff a lot, the same with John O'Shea. I don't come with demands to have staff with me here.
"I think culture-wise it would be good to have Irish staff continuing so I am flexible, adjustable and I am in an environment where people around me know more about things than I do. Hopefully it will work out as smoothly as possible."
4. He has been the FAI's number one target since March
Canham boxed himself into a corner last March when he said he expected to name the new head coach by April. That never happened, but the director of football repeatedly stressed today that the board had identified Hallgrimsson as the best man for the job in March and were always focused on getting him.
However Canham did admit that the FAI should never have publicly declared their ambition to have everything sorted by April. Hallgrimsson never intended to leave Jamaica until after the Copa America, which is still ongoing. The Reggae Boyz were knocked out at the end of June, with Hallgrimsson resigning afterwards.
"We made a decision that Heimir was our number one candidate," said Canham.
"We hoped to conclude that process, it wasn't possible. Heimir was consistent all the way through that he was committed to the (Concacaf) Nations League and Copa America. The learning from us was the we shouldn’t have communicated that we hoped to make an announcement at this point."
5. Ireland will be going 'back to basics'
Hallgrimsson will, first and foremost, focus on making Ireland hard to beat. Under Kenny, the team played possession-based football that was often easy on the eye but lacking a clinical edge - and too easy to score against.
Fans can expect a more rigid approach under the new man.
"In football in general you need basics, especially at international level," he said. "It's tricky to be a national team coach, it's totally different being a club coach and a national team coach. Your time with the players is so limited, so you need to have the basics perfect before you build on something different.
"If you get the basics, being organised, being compact, being a strong unit, that's always the first thing you need as a national team. Then you can build on progressively from that thing."
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