It's the Stephen Kenny Thread

The worry though is the pressure from the media will be to pump for Big Sam or Neil Lennon (or even Roy Keane) as a replacement for Kenny, and that's going to do nothing for us either. We'll be back to 10 behind the ball and trying  to knick the odd result here and there (I don't think we'd even achieve that with the current squad). It might get us to a Euros via the playoffs at a push if we're lucky,  but a World Cup in the next 10 years at least is a pipe dream.

We need to be realistic about A) How attractive the senior international Irish job is & B) Finances that would attract a half way decent alternative are not available to us. 

I'm still of the opinion that we should stick with Kenny for the next Euro campaign. I think the Covid factor, the massive turn over of players in a short space of time and the level most of our players are at (if they're getting any game time at all), is not being factored in here by most. There is no quick fix to our problems.

In saying all that, I fully expect him to be sacked in the Autumn. One more bad result and the weight of pressure from the media on the FAI to sack him will be too much for them to ignore.

One thing that could very well happen, is that Kenny will bring through all these players but the results will go against him. He won't get his contract renewed and another manager will take over and reap the benefit of this 2 year bedding in period. 

A lot of these players will have 2/3 years international experience and will be the better for it.

To be fair I think everyone knows at this stage that the team is sh*t. The problem is that Kenny is setting them up to try and play like they're Manchester City or PSG. Which is crazy because we obviously do not have the players to play that way.

You only have to look at the Nordies in recent years to see that, when your team is sh*t, you have to set up to be solid at the back first and foremost and then play in a way that allows some chances to be created at the other end. That doesn't have to be constant Route 1, there is a middle ground that can be found in terms of style of play, but setting the team up like City or PSG or whoever isn't going to achieve anything with the players we have and it needs to stop.

If that setup is all he has to offer he'd be as well to go now because things aren't going to get any better playing that way with the players we have. We're sh*t, but we're still good enough to beat Luxembourg if we're set up properly. From what I've seen Kenny isn't able to adapt to that and should therefore be moved on, no later than the end of this campaign (and ideally sooner).

It seems to be completely forgotten that the end of the O'Neil tenure ireland looked brutal, mccarthy came in and tried his best to get something out of the ageing players but performances and results were still brutal.

Had Kenny inherited an OK squad I'd say the results so far would have gotten him sacked. But the state of the team is not of kennys doing, its years in the making.

The team needed drastic change and Kenny is making those changes. 12 months ago people would argue the Glenn Whelan was our best performer. Now he's been released by Fleetwood.

Reality check - the team is s#1t 

Well said