It's the Stephen Kenny Thread

I think Kenny will be given another campaign. It's not a sought after job and the fai are broke.

But I think kenny is doing ok considering all that's been thrown at him from day one. Regardless, you're correct, some manager will benefit greatly with the work kenny has done with the young players.

Hes moved away from the long ball that has been implemented since 1986 and started a more modern passing game with more possession. (The first irish manager to do so)

We are starting to see a mix of goalscorers rather than being reliant on Keane or Duffy in the 85th minute. Players like parrott, knight, mcclean, horgan looking to chip in with goals, albeit only of late.

There was always talk of writing off a campaign to rebuild the team as this may have been necessary. This hasn't been helped with covid causing disruption.

Results have been poor, no question about that but performances are getting better as players are getting more experienced.

Still questionmarks on what kennys first team will be and if he'll go to a 532 or 433 formation but all in all he's done a good job when looking at it objectively 

Brilliant post! Before a ball was kicked, a lot of fans on here were expecting the WC22 campaign to be a write off in a phase of rebuilding the identity of the team and introduction of the next generation. Rome wasn't built in a day, this will take time to shape.

I know we're in a transitional period and results may not be good in the short term but there should still be a minimum requirement of any Irish manager in terms of our overall placings in a qualifying group. 

3rd spot is the minimum requirement when there's only 2 sides on paper better than us. Finishing 4th isn't as damning in a group where we had Germany/Sweden & Austria ahead of us in 2013 but finishing 4th in this group coupled with a defeat at home to Luxembourg is unacceptable imo. Any other manager would be sacked in this case. That said, Kenny will probably still be kept on if we do finish behind Luxembourg. 

I'd be optimistic though that we'll recover and grab 3rd spot. We're going to have a stronger team at home to Serbia than we had in Belgrade and less chance of a blatant penalty decision going against us so it's not totally beyond Ireland to beat them. A draw would still be the most likely result. 

We haven't scored against anyone of note. The 4 goals against Andorra were Knight, Parrot and Horgan scored was hardly earth shattering stuff. Duffy still has presented one of our most dangerous threats. I haven't a clue how you feel he has done a good job. Sure he has put some of the young guys in- fair play to him but he was the under 21 manager. There is an awful lot of delusion on here. Seeing what people want to see not what is actually happening. One win in 13, 9 of those games we were goaless. There have been some green shoots at times but whether Kenny is the man to turn this around I don't know. We are a work in progress I agree but let's not delude ourselves the performances are getting better- it's hard to tell. Not sure I see much change from the game against Slovakia which was one of our better efforts. The next three games are crucial. 3 points at a minimum. 4 points would be reasonable. Anything over 4 would be a brilliant effort. Anything less than 3 he has to go.

I don't get the criticism of Kenny's interview. The only part I felt that he struggled was the part about his health, which is fair enough considering he early died.

He spoke passionately about his aims for the team and also about the players he has given opportunities to and wants to bring through. Listening to him, I'd be surprised if the players don't want to do their utmost for him. He fully believes that they can become big players for us in the future (whether that's misguided or not is up for debate).

Even if he doesn't succeed, we'll look back on his reign positively in the end.

It indicates he's growing into the role he has and developing a greater understanding of it, and I wonder if we'll see a change in how he asks the team to play in the 3 game window coming up in September.

The only part I disagree with is that the Luxembourg result has been in the works. That was an especially poor result, and I would maintain that the manner in which the side was managed and substitutions ingrained in the game was a major factor in turning it from an embarrassing 0-0 into an utterly humiliating defeat. And I think there has been a lot of narrative around that game, which whistles past the graveyard a bit, including picking our a few Luxembourg results to artificially inflate their qualities, or the nonsense about Gerson Rodrigues playing for Kiev, and as such at a high level than any of our players, which seemed to be a way of explaining away the goal. Under previous managers, we had some difficult results against teams like that (Cyprus in 2006, and to a lesser extent Macedonia in 1997), but I never saw them explained away to the extent people have tried with Luxembourg at home.

We are poor, and we are in need of a restructure and a rebuild, and that is not just at a footballing level. But I'm not sure how sensible it is to just assume that this will work if given time, or that the process is fit for purpose to ensure it works. I'm all for giving more time to this and certainly seeing how the rest of the WC Qualification campaign goes. And at that point properly analysing what is taken and what is left behind. Even historical rebuilds would suggest that only aspects are taken forward. So this has to be an iterative process. But, if at the end of the year we finish with no more than a couple of points or less, there has to be questions asked.

I do think we need to get a few results in this campaign to justify keeping him on for the next one as for all I want him to succeed you need to win football matches too. 

However even if it doesn’t work out id essentially be looking to leave him run Irish football in the background after that. As you say he wants Irish football to take on the world it’s infectious his enthusiasm and belief. He’s in it for football as opposed to your Delaneys and his the dross of cronies that enabled him. 

Himself Crawford Mohan and plenty others we don’t hear of some brilliant people in the development ranks now.