Cult of Stephen Kenny

How come we thought we should get results against countries like Greece prior to Kenny being in charge? You were critical of previous managers, why weren't you using these excuses for them?

Which of those actually matter on the pitch though? And they haven't had a club in the CL since 2020-21.

Of the 11 who started against us in Greece, they had 3 in the PL, though 1 has never played a PL league game, 1 in italy (never played a league game there), and the rest are either in Greece or in Turkey.

In general, their football infrastructure is far far more developed than ours, but their squad is no more impressive than ours. This is indicated by their FIFA ranking of 50, compared to ours of 53.

It was a good barometer of us as a side - perhaps the only one of the group, given how far below and above us the other teams are - and we performed miserably.

You hit the nail on the head. I think people are starting to think the Ireland Senior managers job is like working for the Civil Service. Not much accountability and you have to do something really bad to get sacked, or be told that you should move on.

They would hand slips of paper to fellas coming on in the past, now they probably use ipads! The fellas nearest the manager are more likely to get 'instruction' to give to other players

I can still remember Mick McCarthy in his first stint with Ireland, what seemed like a constant 'HAAAARRRRTY HAAARRRTY' to Ian Harte.

The fella in the stand with an ear piece would make more sense, better overall view of pitch than the manager.

We played Georgia under McCarthy in October 2019. Our team was:

Randolph Coleman Duffy Egan Doherty Whelan Hourihane Robinson Hendrick McClean Collins

Why did you expect to beat Georgia then? Why was McCarthy lambasted for drawing over there?

Sure is, sad situation, just keeps getting worse

Would you walk away from a gig where you're earning 550k a year especially if you had no chance of earning it in another role?

No way should he walk. The FAI have a contract with him. He is entitled to see it out. I actually think with Kenny, he genuinely believes he can turn it around and is very well intentioned. But I really don't understand why football fans trot out this line about people resigning and walking away from the money they're entitled to.

He's entitled,well no he's in a job and gotten us next to no where,he's has three years of achieving nothing, nothing and nothing again ,he needs to do the right thing they got rid of Vera pauw after getting the women's senior team to a world cup ,and yet he's sitting there making excuses,he hasn't the ability to motivate the current and previous squads, time for him to walk away and admit he's failed and wasn't up to the task in the first place or they boot him out ,

€540,000 pa for several years achieving absolutely nothing sorry he's entitled to hang his head in shame

The FAI signed a contract with him. He is entitled to be paid for the length of that contract. That is not even up for debate.

He's not been an awful manager in my view. He's come up short consistently. But, for me, he's always been within touching distance of acceptable and just fallen short. As Sadlier said "they always find a way to lose". Kenny's a good manager, just not good enough. However, even if he was absolutely incompetent, he's still entitled to be paid for his contract. I wouldn't walk away from it and neither would you.

If Kenny lost the next 50 matches he wouldn't resign. In fact he'd tell you he's hoping to finish the 51st match strong.

Kenny has had Coleman for most of his reign! McCarthy didn't have Coleman in his last match against Denmark yet we absolutely battered them.

Also, another myth about Kenny needs to be counteracted. He didn't start out bringing through young players. He basically picked McCarthy's team up until we lost to Luxembourg. He then changed his tune and said he was building for 2024. This lie has been repeated by his supporters since and got him a new contract.

Well look where that has left us, nowhere close to qualification and only an outside chance of even getting a playoff.

A lot of opinions on this are ridiculously extreme...

"It's either Kenny or hoofball..."

"No one could have gotten better results than Kenny with those players..."

"Kenny is absolutely clueless..."

"The LOI is a pub league..."

I'm not making up anything! There were injuries so some players came in but he basically stuck with McCarthy's team bar Whelan's retirement. Also, Connolly was brought in under McCarthy. To demonstrate my point, here's Kenny's selections up to the Luxembourg game. Can you see any evidence he was building for 2024 with these selections?

v bulgaria:

Darren Randolph Enda Stevens Shane Duffy John Egan Matt Doherty James McCarthy Adam Idah Jeff Hendrick Conor Hourihane Callum O'Dowda Aaron Connolly

v Finland

Darren Randolph; Enda Stevens, Shane Duffy John Egan, Matt Doherty; Robbie Brady, Harry Arter, Jayson Molumby; Callum O'Dowda Aaron Connolly Adam Idah

v Slovakia

Darren Randolph; Matt Doherty, Shane Duffy, John Egan, Enda Stevens; Jeff Hendrick, James McCarthy, Conor Hourihane; Callum Robinson, David McGoldrick, James McClean.

v Wales

Darren Randolph; Matt Doherty, Kevin Long Shane Duffy Enda Stevens; Conor Hourihane, Jeff Hendrick, Jayson Molumby Shane Long Robbie Brady James McClean

v Finland

Randolph; Doherty, Duffy (c), O'Shea, Stevens; Molumby, Hourihane, Horgan, Hendrick, Connolly; Maguire.

v England

Darren Randolph; Cyrus Christie, Matt Doherty, Shane Duffy, John Egan; Conor Hourihane, Jeff Hendrick, Alan Browne; Daryl Horgan, Callum O'Dowda, Adam Idah

v Wales

Randolph, Doherty, Duffy, O'Shea, Molumby, Hendrick, Horgan, Brady, McClean, Long, Idah

v Bulgaria

Darren Randolph; Ryan Manning, Kevin Long, Shane Duffy (capt), Dara O'Shea; Conor Hourihane, Jason Knight, Robbie Brady; Ronan Curtis, Daryl Horgan, James Collins.

v Serbia

Mark Travers; Seamus Coleman, Matt Doherty, Enda Stevens, Ciaran Clark, Dara O'Shea; Alan Browne, Jayson Molumby, Josh Cullen; Callum Robinson, Aaron Connolly.

v Luxembourg

Gavin Bazunu; Seamus Coleman, Dara O'Shea, Ciaran Clark; Matt Doherty, Enda Stevens, Josh Cullen, Jason Knight, Alan Browne; Callum Robinson, James Collins.

And we did batter Denmark, the stats back that up.

Again, were you making these excuses for previous managers?

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