Cult of Stephen Kenny

Kenny still getting support from some quarters too -

https://www.sportsjoe.ie/football/niall-quinn-stephen-kenny-295175

Would rather Stephen remain on long term and develop the squad

rather than a mercenary failed/elderly UK based “boss man” parachuted in who has no real interest in Irish football.

I find it absolutely hilarious that the FAI might be considering renewing SK's contract because it'd be the cheapest option. The fans can't complain then.

It's the clearest sign yet of what some of us have been saying all along: The FAI are ridiculously incompetent and the current state of Irish football is a direct result of that. They pissed the money away and these decisions are being forced on them. Its not SK's fault there's no money and fair play to him for giving it a go as opposed to others who'd have their hand out.

At least the fans will have a figurehead to hate and there won't be any scrutiny of what's going on behind the scenes.

Though I'd take any such rumours with a pinch of salt.

Euro 2012 and 2016, the Covid handouts from Uefa.

The reason they don't is they pissed it away. It didn't go to the LOI, it didn't go to women's football. It went to buying junior football votes and paying for JD's lifestyle. Paying off the Aviva when the FAI got greedy selling off season tickets because they thought they could do it better than the professionals who offered a fixed sum to do it. All this while Denis O'Brien was paying the manager's salary.

I know JD's no longer there but this is the bill for JD's dictatorship. Where Irish football is right now has nothing to do with the manager and everything to do with the football people who have to pick up the pieces after the executives used the coffers as their own slush fund.

Its all there in your post: Delaney bankrupted the FAI. They couldn't even get Covid support from UEFA because they already owed UEFA money. There was prize money for qualifying for two Euros. There was an offer from a private company to handle the Aviva season tickets which would have plugged a massive hole in the finances but they thought they knew better and that's now another massive weight around the FAI's necks.

No teams were playing home games at that time, it wasn't a unique situation for the FAI. Have other FAs gotten into the same mess?

Now, proper financial governance is supposedly in place and that seems to suggest, with the levels of revenue coming in and the outstanding debt, SK is the only affordable option (if rumours are to be believed).

The source of the problem is the same: FAI incompetence. People can complain about the quality of players and the results and the LOI and the manager, etc., but it all comes back to Delaney pissing away the money when the FAI had it. If SK's contract is renewed because he is the cheapest option, its another consequence of Delaney. If the FAI managed finances properly, there might have been better infrastructure, more money in the bank for a bigger name now, etc. but there isn't.

So if SK gets a new contract and results don't improve, will people accept that the FAI is a joke or will they continue to whinge about the only available, affordable manager?

There wouldn't be a national team if it weren't for the rest of Irish football but I'll agree to disagree 'cause we both seem stubborn and sure that we're right.

SK is on more than Gus Poyet and numerous other international managers who’ve actually qualified for Euro 2024.

How could they even consider a new contract for someone so incompetent???

“but was there a single discussion had at government level about how 10 years on from the bailout that Irish football could become an industry like it is in most countries?”

What’s the government got to do with it ? Should football not make its own plans and stand on it’s own two feet without being spoonfed by the government?

If you think a business model where the men’s senior international team is going to bring in enough revenue to finance everything else in Irish football then unless we start qualifying for major championships every 2-4 years, this will be a doomed business model.

the new fai has better corporate governance than the last fai. But that’s all it has really. It has the same massive financial burdens and is working in a failed business model that we are trying again to see it fail again.

100%.

And to add to that we cant stick with this man. The man who cant win games even against poor opposition.

We need someone who will make us tough to beat. Stephen isnt the man. The players have accepted the apathy and lack of expectation which stephen has instilled. They are comfortable under him not happy. Thats a worry. Ive been around enough teams to see it.

I’d hate to go back to hoofing the ball forward and conceding possession instantly with 10 players defending for their life at the 18 yard box.

I’ve no interest in scraping into playoffs that way, besides it stopped working at the end of MON reign.

Hopefully whoever replaces Kenny finds some middle ground.

What do we do instead? 10,000 passes among the back four going nowhere and as soon as the ball goes into the midfield possession is conceded. Unfortunately Kenny hasn't got good enough players to play the style of play I think he wants to play. So we end up in a scenario where losing to a Portugal, France or Netherlands is considered a good result because somewhere in the 90+ minutes there was a passage of play that looked good but went nowhere.

But Long's goal wasn't even a hoof. Randolph saw that Long was 1 v 1 and played a direct ball in over the defence and pace did the rest. It's a far cry from lumping it forward to a 6ft + man hoping for the best.