FAI...June 2024 Friendlies v Hungary and Portugal

[AustinPowers]

I was all for Kenny getting his chance but its time to move on now.  At the same time he has conducted himself well in difficult circumstances.  He gave it his best and it wasn't good enough.  Good luck to him in the future

Might have agreed with you at one point Watcher but the stroke he pulled with Moran and screwing up the u21's! And from a supposed grassroots man and someone who done very well for himself through the underage competitions. F**k him. His interviews are an embarrassment at this stage, constant meandering incomprehensible gibberish where the interviewer has to constantly try interrupt and steer to reduce the absolute car crash on show.
 He's a Walter Mitty of the highest order. My only nagging worry is that he fits into the FAI MO perfectly and wouldn't surprise me if he keeps his job, especially if we beat NZ.

I honestly stopped  listening to him long ago.  It was excruciating  to listen to him , even for a few  seconds .

[Look-Up!]

Kenny is a genuinely good guy in a sport full of shitheads. That's why the players continue to speak highly of him even though they must know he is toast. There's no point kicking him when he's down and when he has a foot out the door anyway.

But it has to said that he was probably never the man to lead efforts in such a transformative change to the way Ireland try to play football. He needed more charisma, and to be able to spin a more convincing narrative about what he was trying to do. The diehards bought into it, and there was always good support in the stands, but he never really seemed to bring the masses onboard.

To be fair to him, he seems to have had his share of misfortune. The pandemic restricted access to players in his early days, making it difficult to bed in his philosophies. Results had been poor from before he took over, and then continued to get worse. He never got those 3 or 4 good results on the bounce that may have kickstarted some momentum. The difficulty of the draw for the latest qualifying campaign was a final kick in the balls.

But I feel like Kenny's biggest problem was always that the promising group of players that he tried to bring through over the last few years have almost to a man failed to live up to their potential.

Kelleher, Omobamidele, Knight, Molumby, Parrott, Idah, Connolly, Smallbone, Obefemi, and probably others. All of these lads looked like they had the world at their feet at one point or another, yet they've all been disappointments. Either happy to waste careers on sub benches, or not mentally equipped to get into the head space of being a top tier footballer. These are the men who were due to lead Kenny's revolution.

And these are also the men that the next guy in the hotseat will need to turn to. I wouldn't hold hope for much improvement.

Stan is a good guy too but got absolutely slaughtered. Get your point though, at least Stan had some credibility so was seen as fair game.

And I understand we have a very average squad and we're not going to be challenging the top teams anytime soon but with an average squad the scale of achievement for a manager is anywhere between well below average to well above average. Where is Kenny in this scale? Lowest of the low end for me. We need shot of him immediately.

[Armagh18]

Where do we go next? Would any relatively big name want it?

[lurganblue]

How about Dean Smith

[Itchy]

There is a particular type of manager that will take a country team. Southgate for example. When you consider that you probably can see that the candidates will be limited. Gus Poyet has said he is interested, he totally outfoxed Kenny and was very close to automatic qualification with Greece. He knows the UK leagues you'd imagine. Roy Keane is another that could be in with a shout.

[seafoid]

There is a particular type of manager that will take a country team. Southgate for example. When you consider that you probably can see that the candidates will be limited. Gus Poyet has said he is interested, he totally outfoxed Kenny and was very close to automatic qualification with Greece. He knows the UK leagues you'd imagine. Roy Keane is another that could be in with a shout.

Poyet would be an improvement but would he be interested at the right price ?

[seafoid]

GDP per head in Greece is about a quarter of the level in Ireland so an Irish salary could be very attractive for Poyet.

[blasmere]

GDP per head in Greece is about a quarter of the level in Ireland so an Irish salary could be very attractive for Poyet.

Football salaries and GDP have very little correlation I'd imagine.

[Captain Obvious]

Where do we go next? Would any relatively big name want it?

Anyone experienced that's not past his best would be upgrade on Kenny who proved to be out of his depth and kept on longer than he should have been.

A return to a Irish team that others don't like playing against should be the starting point for the next manager.

[Armagh18]

Where do we go next? Would any relatively big name want it?

Anyone experienced that's not past his best would be upgrade on Kenny who proved to be out of his depth and kept on longer than he should have been.

A return to a Irish team that others don't like playing against should be the starting point for the next manager.

100%. Can't see Keane coming back into the fold. Players abit too snowflakey these days for him. Plus he's got it handy with what he's at as a pundit

[weareros]

With the IFA association team leading Denmark 2-0, if this were the qualifying for Euro 28, we'd have actually finished 5th of the 5 host associations, only getting points off Gibraltar. Unless drastic improvement, we won't have a dog in that fight.

[Armagh18]

Sure could be a 32 county team by then!

 How many automatic spots are there for host teams? Be some embarrassment if we didnt get

[weareros]

Sure could be a 32 county team by then!

 How many automatic spots are there for host teams? Be some embarrassment if we didnt get

Likely 2 for the top two that don't qualify. If it were on this campaign, England and Scotland would have qualified via groups, and Wales and NI would have got the two automatic spots.

[Armagh18]

Sure could be a 32 county team by then!

 How many automatic spots are there for host teams? Be some embarrassment if we didnt get

Likely 2 for the top two that don't qualify. If it were on this campaign, England and Scotland would have qualified via groups, and Wales and NI would have got the two automatic spots.

Feck sake. Improvement needed so.

[Hound]

Sure could be a 32 county team by then!

 How many automatic spots are there for host teams? Be some embarrassment if we didnt get

Likely 2 for the top two that don't qualify. If it were on this campaign, England and Scotland would have qualified via groups, and Wales and NI would have got the two automatic spots.

Feck sake. Improvement needed so.

Not that it really matters at this stage as to who had the least worst record, but if this had been the Euro '28 qualifying, ROI would have qualified and NI would not (NI's 4-0 defeat v Finland would have clinched qualification for ROI!).

As NI were in a 6 team group, their results against 6th seeds San Marino would not have counted in comparing records in the group (while ROI had a really poor draw in terms of 1st, 2nd and 4th seeds, we did get the worst 5th seed in Gibraltar).

NI lost twice against each of Slovenia, Finland and Kazakstan, so would only have 3 points in a 5 team group, whereas ROI had 6 points.