Stephen Kenny

[passinginterest]

Good to see most of the striking options actually scoring this week anyway. Obafemi, Connolly, Robinson and Keane all on the scoresheet. Would imagine they’ll likely all be in the squad along with Parrott seeing as he’s broken his duck too. Nice to have options in some form this time around at least.

[Demesne Lad]

There's no unwritten rules about having to earn your dues by playing for tbe 21s first.
A stint for what in the U21s?

He is our best senior striker on current form.

Kenny needs to win football matches and to do that he should pick the players on current form thst will give us the best chance to do that.

Granted, L1 is not the Championship, but Keane's 18 goals in 34 games must count for something. Consistency is a useful attribute in a striker.

[elatedscum]

Any idea when the squad announcement is? Pretty much always around 1pm on the Thursday… maybe a delay due to Patrick’s day but with another bank holiday Friday, who knows…

[Kingdom]

Given how isolated Crawford has left his strikers with his team setups this campaign, I wouldn't be tripping over myself for a call up to that team if I was him either.

That is a really important to point.

Evan Ferguson looked so out of his depth in Luxembourg - due to the fact he was so isolated - at a time when he was lighting up PL2.

[Kingdom]

Obafemi is our form senior striker at the moment and deserves a call up.

Kenny needs to get over whatever he didn't like about him and give him a chance.

He's way past our u21 level. He's right to tell them to f**k off!

Did you see him with the 21s in his last appearance? "Sh!te" would do a total disservice to previous Sh!te performances.

[ontheotherhand]

The fact that he was called up to the U21’s indicates that he wasn’t in Kenny’s mind for a call-up to the senior squad. That’s worrying. If he’d accepted the call he’d have missed the chance to play for the seniors, by refusing it he gives Kenny the excuse for not calling him up. I’ll be very pleasantly surprised if he is in the squad.This is no way to treat a player who merits selection and provides us with a better striking option than what’s otherwise available.

I'm still unclear as to what happened to be honest but I don't know how you can say he's been treated poorly. Sure the squad hasn't been announced. This lad has only just found a bit of form after a few years of struggles. A game or two with the 21s would have done him no harm but he's opted to force the managers hand. It's risky at best.

Hopefully they can get the agent out of the frame and have a chat about how to get the lad into the seniors. I also want him there if he's the best option. But if the plan was to start him with the 21s and then move him up and he has refused to get on board with that then I'd question his attitude again. We know Kenny wants to have the 21s more integrated and make it a genuine platform. The likes of Ebosele and Smallone had no issue with the call up. As Kingdom mentioned he hasn't exactly lit it up at that level previously. I'd agree he is, on paper, the form striker, but he keeps playing the big time charlie and as much as I like confidence in a player I think he'd be better advised to take any international call up he gets. He's at the start of his career.

Makes the squad announcement a bit spicier anyway!

[zero]

I'm still unclear as to what happened to be honest but I don't know how you can say he's been treated poorly. Sure the squad hasn't been announced. This lad has only just found a bit of form after a few years of struggles. A game or two with the 21s would have done him no harm but he's opted to force the managers hand. It's risky at best.

Hopefully they can get the agent out of the frame and have a chat about how to get the lad into the seniors. I also want him there if he's the best option. But if the plan was to start him with the 21s and then move him up and he has refused to get on board with that then I'd question his attitude again. We know Kenny wants to have the 21s more integrated and make it a genuine platform. The likes of Ebosele and Smallone had no issue with the call up. As Kingdom mentioned he hasn't exactly lit it up at that level previously. I'd agree he is, on paper, the form striker, but he keeps playing the big time charlie and as much as I like confidence in a player I think he'd be better advised to take any international call up he gets. He's at the start of his career.

Makes the squad announcement a bit spicier anyway!

Agree with all this - think he will get the nod through lack of better alternatives but not a fan of the way he's going about it or at least how I perceive how he's going about it based on what I've read.

It just wouldn't make sense to have the likes of Hogan or someone in the LOI in ahead of him at the moment.

[Stuttgart88]

Did you see him with the 21s in his last appearance? "Sh!te" would do a total disservice to previous Sh!te performances.

I did and you're right. And I was never too impressed by him even after he had scored in the PL at Chelsea and United. But what can't be denied is that he has recently found his feet at a level we can't scoff at. Scoring "striker's goals" isn't something many of our guys can do. Does he fit the system or desired way of playing? Debatable, but let's see. I think it'd be mad not to call him up. Idah has a vacated a space. I'd call up Keane too.

[Eirambler]

Did you see him with the 21s in his last appearance? "Sh!te" would do a total disservice to previous Sh!te performances.

I'm not sure we should be picking squads in 2022 based on performances from 2020 though. Especially in terms of younger, developing players. I do think an over-reliance of judgement based on how players played for him at Under 21 level is a potential weakness in Kenny. Players make significant jumps of improvement in relatively short periods of time at that age, others look good but then don't kick on to the next level.

Bringing in Lee O'Connor to the senior squad over McNamara last summer was a blatant example of this, leaving out Obafemi would be another.

[Stuttgart88]

I'm not sure we should be picking squads in 2022 based on performances from 2020 though.

Did he not play in 2021 under Crawford though? I think that's what Kingdom was referring to. I can't remember any more!

[Eirambler]

I believe his last appearance for Ireland was back in 2020.

[pineapple stu]

Yeah, November 2020, as a late sub away to Luxembourg.

[tetsujin1979]

Any idea when the squad announcement is? Pretty much always around 1pm on the Thursday… maybe a delay due to Patrick’s day but with another bank holiday Friday, who knows…

It's definitely tomorrow, don't know what time though

[Diggs246]

Kenny is on the late late tonight

[tetsujin1979]

Kenny didn't say much, was interesting to see Yassine en-Neyah in the audience though