Stephen Kenny in interviews...

How can anybody ask who would do better with a straight face? Seriously?

Kenny is about an average English league 3 level manager, so the question should be who wouldn't do better?

But Kenny's level as a manager isn't even the biggest issue here, what is mostly overlooked here is the quality of players that he can bring in, any decent players with potential to play for Ireland but may have an option to play for England too, what is it that makes a player play for Ireland if they have the two options? that's the manager - and Kenny has the confidence and charisma of a limp mickey, if he was my manager in a warehouse job I'd leave

The public attending Ireland's games appear to be behind Kenny, and I think that royally p*sses off a section of the barstoolers. They dearly wish to load the wagons, light the torches, sharpen the pitchforks and run this man out of town, like happened to Kerr, to Staunton and to Trapattoni.

I'm not against giving him another campaign. At this stage, things can't get a whole lot worse. If nothing else, it will put the brakes on people who said that a new playing style needs to be given a chance. Kenny would have had 3+ years to execute his project come the end of the coming Euros campaign. If he fails there, then yeah, I've no problem with him going, and getting back to some nice old two-banks-of-four safe hoofball.

Agreed, I meant a player who would be on the fringes of making it into the England squad, but who can also be approached to play for Ireland - in such cases its the Ireland manager who would draw the player

I hear the Polish, Lithuanian and Nigerian managers are scouting in Ireland for talent. Following up the League of Ireland examples including Eamon Zayed and Roberto Lopes. Nigeria missed out on Ogbene. But to be fair, I remember him not being able to get a game with Cork, and throwing in his lot with Limerick.

If (I know) we had won in Armenia we would have 10 points and they would have zero. Still not enough to get above our third seeding in the group, so we finished as expected. I think Germany 7 points and England 3 in their group was more striking. Especially the 0 - 4 result for England against Hungary.

Is this what you are looking for?

If you mean when did any player join because of the manager, then you have plenty of examples when Jack Charlton approached players such as Ray Houghton, John Aldridge etc

It can be down to very fine margins. We matched Portugal away and led at 89 minutes, losing to a goal in the 96th. A win would have given us a chance of a playoff.

Charlton was very nearly just another in a list of hard luck stories. Except for the 86th minute goal by Scotland in Bulgaria which got us to Euro 88. That was Bulgaria's only loss at home, and they had a formidable home record. Had we not qualified then, the knives would have been out for Charlton from more quarters than just Eamonn Dunphy.

Kenny is getting the best out of what is available.

He isn't. Certainly not consistently.

Our pool of players isn't great, but it is good enough that we should be comfortably beating teams like Qatar, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Luxembourg. Those dreadful results are down to Kenny.

All very well not being slick at the PR and being genuine. That's fair enough.

But not if you don't answer the questions that are asked and just sort of waffle in an unconvincing way.

Well, if you agree that we don't see any decent players here, then you have to ask why not, and then the answer is either they aren't being approached, or they are being approached and are rejecting - its basic logic derived from the primary question.

You've totally articulated all my thoughts on the national team situation as it is now, well done. Last straw for me was being played off the park by Georgia away in I think 2017 where they looked like Spain 2008. I think Glen Whelan got an undeserved equaliser.

Also Georgia have that Georgian kid playing for them in Napoli who they're saying could be the next Maradona for them. When will we ever get a once in a generation talent again? Or will we ever again?

That’s possible, the point I was making in line with the context of the thread title is that the manager is expected to do more than just apply team tactics, there is some appeal required from an International manager, especially Ireland as we are so close to a pool of possibly available players.

What a ridiculous thread. It is true that he is not exactly a natural in front of the camera, I'd argue that the majority of people aren't, but I find him much more interesting than most football people who are clearly overly media trained and just lash out the same cliches over and over again. I actually enjoy listening to Kenny, I think he thinks carefully about what he says. On live television it is probably not something that comes across brilliantly, plus the results definitely have not helped - what can you say after you lose at home to Luxembourg for example?

Here is a more in depth interview with him which might show another side to him: https://soundcloud.com/user-914121770/loi-central-s06e29-live-from-lost-lane-with-stephen-kenny

The results and his future as national team manager is another argument, but asking if he has some kind of disability because he is not completely at ease in front of the national and international media is idiotic.

Yeah, remember when we beat Armenia comfortably under Trappatoni in Euro 2012 qualifying ? That’s right, me neither. 2-1 at home, with the aid of an own goal and them having their keeper sent off. Beat them away in fairness, but only 1-0 with a late Keith Fahey goal.

Did I say we did ? I’m just pointing out that we haven’t exactly been beating these team “comfortably” for quite a while now. It didn’t start with SK. For 70 minutes at home we were very comfortable until the wheels nearly came off. Similarly, the first half over there was ok, if no more than that. On another day we’d have taken one of our first half chances and got away with a fairly unimpressive 1-0 win. Again, in the second half the wheels came off.