Stephen Kenny Poll - In or Out

The difficulty is, its a convenient example, which is close to home, and relatively comparable in terms of managerial record. MON also prepared, Irish fans, mentally, for the employment of a manger whose experience came from the LOI. MON basically achieved as much (on paper) as Martin O'Neill (you could debate the detail) with an ostensibly weaker group of players, and this can create a mentality that replication is possible. 

My question is, when do you call time on an experiment that is clearly failing, and blindly following the mantra that it worked for Northern Ireland means it will work for us. Like I said on the match thread, if there are political matters at issue in the camp, this will weaken the relationship between players and management, which wasn't a problem with Michael O'Neill. And these could range from an arrogance amongst some players towards a manager who earned his stripes outside of England, the issues related to Robbie Keane, and indeed any fall out which has continued in the aftermath of the Wembley debacle. If these are actual issues in the camp, that will make SK's task a lot more difficult, as its no longer just about finding the right formation and the right players. I think its a complex enough situation, with multiple factors that to just point to NI's success after a rocky start (results wise) could be to whistle past the graveyard.

I very strongly believe in keeping Kenny. But I also agree that his position is less robust than it was prior to the England game.

I read a few papers yesterday and was surprised at the even handed nature of the articles.  In the Examiner there were four different opinion pieces on Kenny and all essentially suggested he should be kept on.  So all in all I think the press are being very fair on SK.

The "should we give up football" thread touches on a number of key points. The fact that we are heavily reliant on players who aren't ready, aren't up to the job, or past their sell-by date means that none of the organs of the football production are functioning at the level or rate they need to be. 

It will be interesting to see the condition of Welsh football once it evolves beyond Bale, Ramsey, Allen, and in a longer term sense James, Williams, Rodon Brooks and Ampadu. Either they will leverage this (it has also helped I'm sure in the last decade that Cardiff and Swansea are now solid Championship clubs with PL experience under their belt), or rest on their laurels and return to how they performed between 1995 and 2010.