Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
STEPHEN KENNY SAYS he expects to be in charge for the rest of Ireland’s Euro 2024 qualifying campaign, with Friday’s defeat in Greece intensifying speculation about his future once again.
The 2-1 defeat in Athens means Ireland’s campaign is hanging by a thread, as they remain on zero points after two games, with a trip to Paris ahead along with both games against the Netherlands.
Asked whether he expected to be in charge for the rest of the qualifying campaign – including any potential play-off next March – Kenny said, “Yeah, I definitely do. My contract is up till the end of the campaign and whether it’s renewed will depend on how people feel the campaign went overall but certainly I fully expect to be.”
Speculation about his future has sat alongside fierce criticism since the Greece game, but Kenny has dismissed these critiques as irrelevant.
“It’s irrelevant, to be honest it’s irrelevant, I just really focus on developing the team and preparing the team for tomorrow. There is a lot of criticism, some of it justified, and I have to accept that. Likewise some of it is inaccurate, that’s the nature of it. From my point of view, I’m not fixated with it. I’m just firmly focused on what we have to do and just focused on the task at hand which is managing this group of players.
“We’re not perfect but I really believe in the players. I believe in the players, I know people have other viewpoints but I believe in the players. It’s not perfect that a lot of them are not playing at their clubs, that’s been really tough for them. Some of our better players are not playing for their clubs and that’s been difficult.
“That’s not an excuse, we wanted to win against Greece, we didn’t win but that is the reality. Other players that should be in the team but they haven’t been playing in so long and they are amongst our most talented, is a sense of frustration but that’s the reality. It’s very hard to come out of not playing for months and months and then play at international level, particularly a game of the intensity of the other night. That’s the reality.
“But I believe in the players that we’ve got, we’ve got a really talented group coming through, we’re really disappointed the other night, if we had won the other night against Greece everything would have been on track, we’d have been going into the Gibraltar game with everything great.
“Now, because we didn’t it’s a catastrophe, and I do get that, but we’ve got to focus on tomorrow and Gibraltar, make sure we are ready, I know the games were tight previously so we have to just get ourselves ready and make sure we get a home victory.”
Asked if anything other than a win against Gibraltar would be unthinkable, Kenny steered away from contextualising anything with regard to his future in the job.
“In terms of European Championship qualification, yeah, it is.”
Kenny still believes Ireland can finish in the group’s top two, which is Ireland’s only guaranteed route to qualification with a play-off not yet guaranteed.
“It’d have been a lot easier if we had won on Friday, we made life difficult for ourselves and we are just going to have to get some exceptional results between now and the end of the season. France I think will win the group, that’s pretty clear, Greece have to play Holland twice, we have to play Holland twice, play Greece in Dublin so there’s still a lot of football to be played
Reflecting on the game in Athens, Kenny said, “Greece performed better than us on the night so we can’t have any complaints but, obviously, the goals were just turning points at critical times for us, at the start of each half, and obviously disappointed with the two goals we conceded. That changes the ebb and flow of the game, we did well to get back into the game straight away.
“We nearly scored within a minute of the first goal we conceded, then we got back in and got the goal after that. And then we nearly scored within a minute of the (second) goal we conceded again. We responded well at times but there’s no doubt we could have played better than we did, and we’re disappointed to lose.
“Greece played well on the night, I think, two teams are probably ranked along similar lines. I think they had more experience, I feel we’ve more potential. It’s a narrow defeat, a very, very narrow defeat, we lost by a goal. We just have to make sure we respond well and win on Monday and in the games coming up. We’ve got to respond well. They’ve still got to come to Dublin so that will be a different situation.”
Kenny said there would be changes to the team for tomorrow night’s game, although the suspended Matt Doherty is the only absentee with everybody else fit.
James McClean will start as captain, on what will be the occasion of his 100th cap.
“To hopefully get a 100 caps and join the illustrious names on that list will be pretty special”, said McClean. “Not just for everyone but my family and everyone who helped me to make that happen. If it happens, it’s certainly one I’ll enjoy.
“Being able to do that just once was special. I’ve never hidden the fact of how proud I am to be Irish. To be given the opportunity to step on the pitch and effect games for your country. That’s what I’m proudest of.”
Written by Gavin Cooney and posted on the42.ie
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
He meant to say he fully expects to see Ireland OUT of the Euro 2024 qualifying campaign
Brian kerr destroyed him last night and he was right other managers with better results got left go quicker. 4 competitive wins across 3 campaigns is dreadful and wouldn’t get you out of one campaign let alone 3. Better to leave him go, use the summer to find his replacement and then give them the remaining games to bed in and find a style of play and start fresh for the world cup qualifying campaign. If Kenny stays then the next two years are a write off as it’s more of the same. If he goes at least we will feel like we are building towards something.
@Paddy Up: Not his fault he does not have the players Paddy,
@Mac Dara Powell: we’ll never know unless the manager changes. Lad has only delivered at League of Ireland level, so am unsurprised he’s struggling at this….
@Mac Dara Powell: He will have fewer going forward as 2nd and 3rd generation players will opt for country of birth if the FAI doesn’t appoint A Top Class Manager who will earn the respect the players
Wake up FAI
Why is Kenny not getting the criticism from the Dublin Media that is warranted
@Joe Tone: Because he’s not from Cork or anywhere else outside the pale, you should know that by now.
@Joe Tone: maybe because it’s futile ….what’s to be gained by ramping up critism , stirring the crowd to call for his head , sack the manager , bring in …….., Rinse and repeat …this might surprise you but there’s plenty of critism doing the rounds , but there’s also just a tiny piece of more intelligent analysis in some quarters , the reality of this teams level , the attempt to being through new blood , nobody is saying results are what we would like , but constantly calling for sacking Ireland managers is shallow populist nonsense , let’s get pitch forks that should do the trick !
“If we had won against Greece everything would be great ”
If my grandmother had wheels she would have been a bike .
He needs to go .
@Fergus Jones: yes gino,this is true
The show is over,simply not good enough
Starting to feel a bit sorry for him, seems like an honest bloke.
And lets be honest, when he goes, I doubt there will be a rush of high level clubs after him. It will be back to League of Ireland, earning about a fifth of what he is on now.
They are out at this early stage but let’s call a spade a spade. But Stephen still has a wage to draw from the FAI (tax payers money) and just like the politicians are good at lining their pockets
Brian kerr was shafted as ireland manager, barely missed out in qualifying, kenny making a jokestop of ireland results in last 3yrs but wont be sacked as fai cant afford it, delaney has a lot to ask for
@burrito girl: Not qualifying with the talent he had at his disposal was criminal.
He’s Shïté
“Stephen Kenny – I fully expect to see out all of Euro 2024 qualifying campaign”.
On his salary, of course that is what he would like. But that performance against Greece seemed to be tactically inept.
A lack of competence is surely grounds for ending a contract!
@Nestor: Whether he sees out the campaign or not he still gets the full contract amount.
We’ve no midfield ,only for the Keeper we’d have been hit for 5 ,not a Kenny fan but the team are poor at best
Show me the money
He is starting to sound a bit like Mehole now. Totally delusional.
Am I wrong but did I hear our manager say we still have a good chance of finishing 2nd in our group. Is he delusional or just stupid. What is he watching. The players are poor over all. We all can see that. But sat night was a total disgrace. There was nothing there in the whole 90 min. Kenny was not watching the same game I was. We play Gibraltar. And we are all excited we could beat them. Our schoolboy team would give them a game. 200 places below us. France only beat them 3 nil. I wonder. Glad Stephen thinks he is staying till end of euros. Does it make any difference really. Shambolic all of it. .
A contract is a contract let’s give Kenny and the team, Honesty at least
Even Somalia wouldn’t sign him as second manager.
I expect to win the euro millions, any day now and maybe Vera could do the job?
Fitting celebrities into systems is the challenge for modern, elite managers. The attitude of players, in turn, seems to have changed. It’s hard to quantify, of course, but when Darragh Lenihan, on joining Middlesbrough in 2022, spoke less of hoping to win the league or the Champions League than the Ballon d’Or, it felt like a key moment. Players now ask at least as much what a club can do for them as what they can do for the club –
Kenny to run fr FF in the next GE , his got all the right qualities
Do people think we should be beating Greece away from home? This is the worst crop of players we’ve ever had. We could get someone in to make us play hoofball, hardly ever qualify, and if we do be the laughing stock of Europe again I suppose.
Fair play to him for getting the job as the Irish Coach, mega leap from League of Ireland coaching, but Internationals are a Totally different level. It’s a doomsday scenario for both Kenny and the Team.
All the boo boys can cry all they like, but fact is you could bring in Pep and we would still be terrible, put simply we just don’t have good players, due to lack of investment from both the FAI and government, we are about 20 years behind everyone else.
I might be mad, but see if Big Sam wants the poisoned chalice. We need a manager that knows how to fight their way through a game. Even see if Graham Potter would be up for it.
@Rafa C: I agree. I’ve mentioned Big Sam before and got lambasted for it. I think he’d be a great fit and he’s managed here before so would have some affinity with the place.
Oh no ya won’t !
“We nearly scored” just after each of Greece’s goals? What game was he watching?
I don’t buy into this vicious criticism of Kenny. Dundalk proved that Kenny has motivational skills but he can’t play the match for his players and as usual the players walk away free of all blame. Silly mistakes, lack of concentration, passing, closing down etc etc etc.In general, there is no leadership on the pitch. We can get rid of a manager but what about the prima donnas. Journalists talk about bad performances but run clear of criticism of so called professional players. Club wise, they are good players but most of them have dubious pride in the Irish Jersey. Are Journalists incapable of proper analysis? We can all see the tactics but it’s all about how they are carried out. Kenny does have a system but players don’t play for each other, unlike Jack’s teams or ‘minnows’ like Luxembourg, and they suffer no accountability, like Dave O’Leary or Liam Brady. Maybe if that means replacing some players with LoI players, so be it but leave Kenny to sort it out, We will never be world beaters but we still can perform like Jack’s teams, if the pride comes back.
Nothing wrong with the manager. What we need are players who care more about winning than whether their hair looks good. Ideally you need players who know what to do with the ball when they get it, and players who try to score. Sadly we don’t have any of these. What we have are players who run from the ball and even hide from it or look the other way incase someone passes it to them. It’s not the Managers fault that the players don’t give a s***.
I fully expect to see a blue moon sometime soon.
is he still here
Disappointing coverage by The Journal on these matches. Comon Ireland
have your say