Heimir Hallgrimsson denied saying that home-based players need to leave the League of Ireland in order to boost their international chances.
The Ireland manager was addressing Stephen Bradley's tirade in relation to the Shamrock Rovers manager lambasting Hallgrimsson for comments made late last year following his side’s success in Europe.
Hallgrimsson said that "hopefully they (Shamrock Rovers players) will get career change from this success", and Bradley read it as players needing to move to gain international recognition, referring to his words as "absolutely ridiculous".
The Iceland native was a guest on the Late Late Show on Friday night and he said that he would be contradicting himself in such circumstances as he has selected two Rovers players in his provisional squad for the upcoming UEFA Nations League play-off against Bulgaria.
"I didn't say that, no," said Hallgrimsson. "The League of Ireland is improving drastically and last year was really good for the league.
"At the moment we have two guys who play with Shamrock (Rovers), who are in the provisional squad for the national team. I would contradict myself if I said that you need to be somewhere else.
"Of course we need to improve and I think automatically with Brexit more players will stay here and especially younger players will get their first senior caps."
Hallgrimsson felt that Rovers' extended run in Europe is a good thing for Irish football and believes that it can only add to the improving standards throughout the league.
"Last year we had Shamrock (Rovers) go a long distance in the Conference League. I think that creates a positive spiral, it gets interest.
"The players will get the biggest interest, the coach will get interest in what he's doing. The clubs here are looking at Shamrock (Rovers) and what they did good, and that will help things get better here."
Looking ahead to the upcoming World Cup campaign, Hallgrimsson remains upbeat about Ireland's chance of qualification, which will begin with an away trip to Armenia, while Hugary and either Denmark or Portugal will make up the group of four.
"It’s an exciting project," said Hallgrimsson. "What sold me the job was the professionalism around the people who hired me, their seriousness and what they planned to do.
"It’s a good group of players who have probably underachieved for a lot of time. I think I have what it takes to get success. I think we have done good things up to now and I hope we will have the success we want."
"I think we have a good chance of qualifying if everything goes according to plan and are lucky with injuries and keeping our best players on the pitch.
"I think our group is a little bit sexy, it’s equal. There won’t be a runaway winner, teams will lose points and hopefully it’s in our favour."
