Terry Venables lost his England assistant role last week

Buxton, who worked alongside Venables at Spurs, Crystal Palace and England, believes the former Barcelona manager "fancies" the Republic job.

And Buxton added that Venables sought his opinion on Irish players when they met socially last Friday.

"I would feel he would do a good job for the Republic," Buxton told the BBC.

"For me, he could do the kind of job that Jack Charlton did with the Republic.

"At that stage (on Friday), he hadn't been contacted by anybody about the Republic job although Terry does keep his cards quite close to his chest.

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"But we had a few discussions recently about Irish players and in particular he asked me about the Reading boys (Kevin Doyle, Stephen Hunt and Shane Long).

"I see a lot of games so he would get my opinion on players."

Buxton is highly respected in the football world and also worked as part of Sven-Goran Eriksson's England set-up as a scout.

Weekend reports claimed that Venables had emerged as the main candidate to succeed Steve Staunton.

However, Football Association of Ireland chief executive John Delaney refused to comment on the issue after Sunday's World Cup draw in South Africa.

Venables lost his job as England assistant last week following Steve McClaren's sacking.