It's the Stephen Kenny Thread

I wouldn't say I am but I was never in favour of MON's appointment as at the time the call from alll the pundits and many fans  was that we played an outdated form of football and we should go in a new modern direction.  Then when MON/Keane were appointed I wasn't pleased as MON was not going to play a good brand of football.  We were signing up for more of the same if not worse football.  So I never turned on him, I just never liked his appointment.

Mick I was pleased got another crack at it because I liked his first spell in charge after a shaky start.  I liked Mick in his first spell.  He was young, blooded many young players and played good exciting football from 1998 on certainly.  But I could see after a few games this was not the same cavalier Mick but an old conservative, Mick, a MON 2.0.  I thought and still think we can get similar respectable results playing better style of football.  Still like Mick as a person.

Kenny I was all for his appointment.  He had Dundalk punching above their weight in Europe and played good football although it didnt quite get the results in the Europa League.  I thought giving him better players that he could maybe have Ireland playing a good modern attractive style while still getting the results Mick got.  In had my reservations that the players wouldn;t respect him or that he was now stepping up to much higher level but felt he deserved a crack at it.  I was fully on board until around the time of the England game.  We played awful in that and showed very little fight against a big rival (for us).  The fact that McGoldrick packed it in didn't fill me with confidence.  Duff and Kelly leaving also was a bit of a red flag for me.  Duff let him down badly for whatever reason.  I certainly dont buy this Duff couldn't work for the FAI spiel and the video story. 

Anyway since England performances have slipped while results have continued to deteriorate.  I was willing to overlook a  few iffy results early doors but as this continued and especially against minnows alarm bells were ringing loud and clear for me that he is not up to it at this level.  I don't care what sort of rebuild is going on not being able to turn over two piss poor sides at home is unacceptable.   I think his use of substitutions is very poor and doesn't seem very good at changing the tactics mid game when things are going tits up.  1 win in 16 games is frankly pathetic.  We have played some poor and very poor sides in these games too.  Bulgaria, Qatar, Luxembourg, Andorra, Azerbaijan, Finland...etc. 

I think he is full of excuses in every interview.  ''We deserved more, I can't believe we lost the game...''  IMO Kenny is simply not able to get results.

I think he has some good ideas but just isn't up to this level.  The next manager will benefit from some of the good things he has done like blooding youngsters so give him credit there.   If he doesn't finish 3rd in this group he should be sacked.  I actually hope he turns it around and proves me wrong. I don't care about losing face on here and would be delighted to have an Irishman and a LOI man in charge of a good attacking entertaining international team.