Cult of Stephen Kenny

He was getting the most of David McGoldrick too. He played direct ball into him and McGoldrick thrived.

He played to his players strengths.

There was a good bunch of Irish players there at the time playing some good stuff..

Enda Stevens, Callum Robinson, McGoldrick & Egan.

McGoldrick is a lovely footballer. Shame we got so little of him. Beautiful technique, clever.

Brazil 5-1 Bolivia

Argentina 3-0 Bolivia

Who the hell is in charge of Bolivia? He's clearly out of his depth. Must've got it very very very very very very very wrong tactically. These results are not acceptable. Bolivia should be at tournaments.

🤣 This guy is a member of the Kenny cult the thread title refers to. Kenny's been an utter failure, he's going to get sacked, get over it.

As weak arguments and whataboutery go, this is up there. Jesus.

Bolivia have only made 1 of the last 18 World Cups.

They would be the South American equivalent of Albania.

Probably easier to comprehand than Stevo.

Vata may be fast tracked in at this stage. Also with a view to tying him down. But in a creative sense i think he'd improve us off the bench. The same with young Moran.

Conor Coventry.

He was already an assistant manager when we qualified for a tournament. He is more qualified to be manager of Ireland than Stephen Kenny, and by a wide margin.

This is from Dunphy's 'The Stand' Podcast.

If any people are adhering to the 'Cult of Kenny' it is Dunphy and Giles.

They both want Kenny to get a new contract, basically because he is Irish and he is a 'nice fella'.

I particularly like the bit where Dunphy was going on about 'Wes' and Trapattoni etc.

But Giles (to his credit) said Trapattoni qualified for a tournament, - "You can only qualify for one tournament at a time Eamon." 

😂



Even Giles and Dunphy said that Stephen Kenny has to at least beat the teams he should be beating.

Dunphy repeated time and again that the current Irish players are 'journeymen'. I can't remember him saying that about an Ireland squad before.

But I went through the side Kenny named v the Dutch and the a few who would have played if fit/selected -

But I went through the side Kenny named v the Dutch and the a few who would have played if fit/selected -

English Premier League - O'Shea, Coleman*, Egan, Doherty, Ogbene, Cullen, Ferguson*, Obafemi, Kelleher (9)

English Championship - Bazunu, Duffy, Browne, Knight, Idah, Smallbone, Armstrong, Manning, Hendrick, Molumby, W. Keane*, Coventry*, Robinson* (13)

English League Two - McClean

Serie A - Ebosele

SPL - McGrath

It does not THAT bad - a core of a higher English championship type side or Lower Premier League.

It made me think is this current Kenny ROI squad worse than NI who qualified for Euro 2016?

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So I looked at the NI team that qualified for Euro 2016 for a bit of contrast.

A team which lost 1-0 to Germany. (which was real backs to the wall) not one for the 'purists'

https://www.whoscored.com/Matches/1035167/Live/International-European-Championship-2016-Northern-Ireland-Germany

Also beat Ukraine 2-0 and lost to Poland 1-0 - narrowly making the knock outs of a tournament proper

At that time:

English Premier League - McGovern, Cathcart, McAuley, Davis, J.Evans (5)

English Championship - McGovern, Lafferty, Dallas, Norwood, C.Evans, Ward, Baird (7)

League One - McLaughlin, McCullough, Grigg (3)

League Two - Carroll

SPL - McGinn, Magennis, Mannus (3)

A-League - Hughes

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So it looks to me that the current ROI 2023 squad is at least a better squad on paper than NI was in 2016.

And although Will Grigg was "on fire" I don't think he even started much!

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Looking at the Martin O'Neill ROI team from 2016 to see how much 'better' it was to both NI 2016 and ROi 2023, should be interesting just as an overview

English Premier League - Coleman, Clark, O'Shea, Whelan, McCarthy, Hoolahan, Long, Walters, Ward, Given, Brady, Randolph, (12)

English Championship - Westwood, Keogh, McGeady, Duffy, Hendrick, Meyler, Murphy, Christie, Quinn (9)

MLS - R. Keane

Overall midtable to lower type English PL,  to higher English Championship I would say?

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So I would argue that it is more how the players are structured moulded and managed. Rather than the players themselves. A manager can make a big difference to a side.

He is going to get sacked. The FAI have postponed it for some ridiculous reason. This doesn't encourage any positivity for finding a good new manager. It's the same old FAI. This is really depressing times to be an Ireland supporter. The next few months playing out meaningless games with a manager who's going to get sacked instead of letting a new manager introduce their style of play and get used to the squad. Then we'll have to watch on as the playoffs for the Euros take place followed by the Euros itself. Then, going by this decision, the FAI will appoint another inept manager and we'll be back to square one.

Stephen Kenny's time as Ireland has come to an end and has to be viewed as a failure.

The bad news for him, as I see it, is that they failed to offer Vera Pauw a new contract despite qualifying for a major tournament. The mens senior team are now further away from qualifying then they were when he started. A sad indictment of his time in charge.

There is no "way it should be played". There's effective and there's less effective. That's it.

I have never understood this philosophy. I'd take a competitive team over an uncompetitive yet attractive team any day of the week.