Cult of Stephen Kenny

The judgement on the quality of player Ireland has at its disposal obviously shouldn't be made from game to game, but rather over a prolonged period of time, taking into consideration such factors as being consistently able to beat lower seeds even on a bad night, or being able to recover from setbacks.

What also remains a crucial element is having at least one really standout player to build the team around. This has been true of the great Irish teams under Charlton and McCarthy. It's something Kenny's side lacks, though that's not his fault.

Despite that and despite some bad results, the public largely appears to be behind Kenny and his apparent desire to change the way Ireland plays, so it's unlikely he'll be shown the door in the Autumn, regardless of what how the remaining NL games pan out. He'll get one more campaign after that at least.

I think a lot of people would be happy for Ireland to qualify just so they can go to the finals with the lads and maybe film themselves something whacky and lovable which goes viral and endears the Irish to the world, like serenade an old woman, deliver shopping to a disabled person's home, play Galway Girl on some instruments made out of scrap iron and wood, sing The Fields of Athenry while getting absolutely hammered, or such and such.

You obviously have not been following Obafmei`s career have you?

You can or cannot say Bazuna would have made a save

Oshea is knocking on the door after a bad injury, he will force Duffy out of the team within the next year

If everyone is fit it is clear Ogbene will not be a starter, he plays wing back for his club and Doherty is the main in that position and he is definitely not a front 2 striker

These the two things are mutually beneficially, if a good you set up is in place and a system and the way teams play is consistent from under 14 to senior level it will benefit the senior team in the long run and the senior manager has to facilitate that.

The strength of Irish football (rightly or wrongly) was always judged on how many players we had at the top English clubs and how the international team are doing. The former speaks for itself and it has a knock on effect to the international team. It was great scraping through to finals with Trapp and ONeill but it only papered over the cracks that were under the surface but the every day Ireland fan didnt care, all they want is a big day out and thats fair enough but consistent big days out would be even better. He may take a lot of criticism from some but Kenny is doing the right thing for the long term and it probably will cost him his job and some point but in 10 years time Ireland will be in a much better place if the FAI match what is being done. They really need to up their game big time, i recently read that Irish kids that are going over to English premiership clubs are 2 years behind in the S&C development than their English counterparts, it is things like this and proper structures and coaching which the FAI need to concentrate on which will move Ireland forward. Gone are the days we pay for a big high profile manager to scrap out a result at the expense of everything else. The team has started to change now the FAI needs to too

Not to mention our incredible win record of 4 wins in 6 international tournaments, how we didn't bring home those trophies is beyond me......

If that is what you took from my post then there is no point discussing this with you! Kenny is cog in the wheel, as well as the FAI, as well as every coach employed by the FAI etc etc

Lads have we learned nothing , Kenny & his team do alright when there's no pressure on, but once it cone down to the games that matter & qualifying campaigns , We fail

None of the big time payers want to be still playing football right now and its show in the results across these nations league games,

There just glorified friendlies that most players don't want to be playing in ,

Give Kenny the Euro qualifying camping and when he makes a pigs ear of it let him go ,

There was enormous pressure on them for these last 2 games. Kenny job would have been untenable if we had lost both I think. Also, our best chance of qualifying for the Euros is through this nations league

Even within our financial constraints you think ? The FAI are broke so the new manager would have to work for a lot lot less than your average PL manager gets. There no Trap money anymore.

Yes even with that,

Kennys on just over half a million a year, That's decent wage for an international manger,

You slate Kenny, get asked to name just 1 person to replace him and cant......

You do realise that the football Ireland played in the last 10 games is vastly different to his first nations league campaign? We have been more direct, playing it out from the back less. If you cant even acknowledge that fact you shouldnt comment the way you do. Maybe a professional manager knows more than you and the players actually are capable of doing it? Irish players have been told since 2008 they are too Sh** to play football, that gets into players heads.

So because the results finished positively they are now meaningless friendlies? And people complain pro Kenny people put spin on things.....We and nobody in group 2 are big time footballers and it looked fairly important to the Ukrainian players over the last 2 weeks.

As someone else stated there was massive pressure on the last two games because people like you said if he lost he should be sacked. Again he wins and draws one, finishes on a positive note and now its "theres no pressure".. Talk about utter waffle