Cult of Stephen Kenny

Nothing to do with coaching.

Keane and Duff learnt football the way all the best players do . . . off the streets.

We don't have the players, that's true. But we are not a footballing nation. Football is the 4th sport in this country after GAA, Hurling and Rugby.

Wouldn't inspire a basket of puppies to chase a tennis ball. Has the charisma of a ham sandwich. Out now!

Yes, I don’t think I ever missed and Ireland game, even when we were playing badly if I’m away on holiday, work course.. whatever… find a pub and TV to watch and support.

ive missed a few games the last couple of years, apathy crept in… spoofer in charge not up to it… and a limited team in terms of abilities, entertainment value and guile…. Plenty of effort and earnestness but it ends there…. Stephen Kelly caked in makeup, dressed like Clark Kent minus a phone box whilst going on like he’s won about 17 trophies and barely allowing anyone get a word in isn’t that appealing either.

Yeah exactly. We haven't produced any good player in years, our team would probably finish midtable/get relegated from the Championship at this stage.

That's where we're at now. A small country needs an iconic player to get behind and through them feel that the unlikely is possible. You can't even dream with this Irish team. Clearly the whole team is limited. The under 21's seem okay but still not good enough.

Only luck will improve us, like if a generation of 5 or 6 come through at once.

i always advocated that a government would eventually through big money at grassroots football in this country, coaching and facilities but that won’t happen…

last budget 144 million was available for granting but 1900 clubs and organisations were granted it… across all sports.

only on average just under 76,000 per team / organisation…would barley pay for a set of floodlights

We are playing far better football than under trap, o neil, mc carthy, we create chances, pass the ball well enough but the players have no idea how to put the ball in the net. remember a paddy power advert a few years ago it said time for the Ireland game, 90 minutes of kicking the ball away like its a nest of wasps, that was a perfect way to describe the "football" we were playing at the time, players were terrified of the ball, at least now the players want the ball and try to create something, not just lumping it up to the striker.

Our Haaland is probably playing Gaelic football or hurling. and maybe the Norweigans aren't as obsessed with the English premier league are Irish people are, that is why they have had more success in Europe.

What have you been watching? In the last third of the pitch we look exactly like how Ireland always play. Our only thing in mind is to punt the ball into the box. There's nothing wrong with that, that's how many goals can be scored but there's nothing revolutionary about how we attack. The only difference is our long balls come from a bit higher up the pitch than before.

No we aren't.

Our win v Italy and Austria under Martin O Neill was a far better performance than anything Kenny has served up over 17 competitive games. Our draw away to Italy under Trap and our normal time victory away to France under Trap was a far better performance than anything under Kenny. Our draw at home to Denmark under Mick was better than anything produced by Kenny.

How anyone can actually watch these games and claim we play good football is utterly beyond me. Tonight was a dreadful display, utterly pathetic and it is the norm of the reign. We've seen that performance 6 times in the last nations league, we saw it v Azerbaijan and Luxembourg at home, even Serbia at home we were repeatedly carved open. To claim we are playing better football is just nonsense at this point, unless you value the defenders passing it amongst each other as some sort of total football knock off.

I also highly doubt you watch our games given you have left out the Shane Duffy up front tactic that we have repeatedly deployed, complete with long ball after long ball - across numerous games. Nice football my arse.

Lionel Messi. Our players are physically fine, they lack finesse, skill, technique and guile.