Stephen Kenny

I thought it was a rubbish article.

Keane showed pioneering reformist zeal? He had his tongue up JD's arse when he was getting paid by him.

Keane would probably change his abrasive ways if he was manager. On what basis can anyone assume that?

Kenny hasn't got the confidence of the players but Keane would? Objection, speculative your honour.

And Carsley has less managerial experience than Kenny.

Paul also says Michael O'Neill would like the job at some unspecified point in the future. Well, in that case he's not a candidate for the job now, is he?

Agree with all that, Stutts. The O'Neill point was funny though. He'd want to have a fairly good source for that assertion. Michael was fairly clear in his passion for NI. Why would he fancy the Ireland job too?

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Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

I thought it was a rubbish article.

Keane showed pioneering reformist zeal? He had his tongue up JD's arse when he was getting paid by him.

Keane would probably change his abrasive ways if he was manager. On what basis can anyone assume that?

Kenny hasn't got the confidence of the players but Keane would? Objection, speculative your honour.

And Carsley has less managerial experience than Kenny.

Paul also says Michael O'Neill would like the job at some unspecified point in the future. Well, in that case he's not a candidate for the job now, is he?

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Don’t think Keane had his tongue up JD’s hoop. He just got on with the job.

Keane is not the man for the Ireland job though.
I’m hoping Kenny will come good.

A nonsense article, even Ken Early's effort was better.

This piece in The42 had a greater sense of realism and balance, I think:

https://www.the42.ie/the-challenges-...97148-Apr2021/

I enjoyed that, thanks. Doolin's take was particularly interesting.

Hello lads,

I'm not Irish, but I'm a fan of Big Jack and have always admired the fans.

Greece, my country of origin, has been poor for a few years now. We lost twice to Faroe Islands, once to Luxembourg in a friendly, and in 2019 we drew Liechtenstein. The results were as bad as they could get at times.

Greece now has a Dutch manager by the name of van't Schip. As a player, he won Euro 88, won trophies with Ajax, and even enjoyed a spell with Genoa in Italy during the 90s. He was an assistant to van Basten when Holland played incredible football at Euro 2008, but has been something of a journeyman since becoming a manager in his own right. At the time of his hiring, we were all a bit baffled. Greece is blighted by corruption and we can be a bit backwards in our dealings unfortunately, but I must say he is an exceptional coach. The level of play has improved a lot under him in matches to Finland and Bosnia, countries more or less at Greece's level. It was good to see players giving their all and actually playing passes forward for a change!

In the past two matches the performances have been poor again. A number of players have been out of form and some key players have been missing. The issues seem quite similar to the ones Ireland have had lately. The only difference is we had luck, something I think Ireland have not had.

The draw to Spain was a fluke. Spain too often tried to play through the defense with short passes. They took almost no shots outside the area. There was no desire to take men on, to have a dribble. All they did was pass the ball. Greece couldn't string more than maybe 1 or 2 passes into Spain's half. The penalty was the result of a Spanish defender losing momentary control of the ball and then tackling studs up into a Greek attacker who didn't even get hold of the ball. The penalty came literally out of nowhere. We had no business being on the scoresheet.

Against Georgia, who had given Sweden and Spain a tough time despite losses in both matches, we again showed the same ineptitude on the ball. They outplayed us. A lucky own goal saw us take the lead (I'm still at a loss to explain how it happened), but the opposition clearly identified our weakness at right-back and scored soon after to get a result they frankly deserved.

I think our two countries share a lot of similarities in football. We've overachieved at major finals (Ireland had 30 years ago and in our case a little under 20 years ago). We tend to hire managers of similar repute (Trapattoni, Rehhagel). We have recently hired managers who intend to play better quality football, but who lack experience. The quality of the players now available isn't as strong as it once was. Ireland had players at Liverpool and United in the 80s and early 90s. Greece had players at some big clubs or in big leagues in the early 2000s.

I have the impression Kenny is not the right man for the Ireland job, but the direction Ireland is taking makes sense to me. Even when Greece was successful, our football was painfully one dimensional. It isn't enough to sit back and defend well. We lacked a balance in our play that was absolutely needed to be a more successful side. It's a mistake to believe Ireland should stick to a negative approach.

Malachy Clerkin summarises SK and Ireland's current plight well here - https://www.irishtimes.com/malachy-c...they-1.4579173

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Originally Posted by DeLorean

Malachy Clerkin summarises SK and Ireland's current plight well here - https://www.irishtimes.com/malachy-c...they-1.4579173

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That really does sum the whole situation up very well (at least for any of us that are still clinging to some hope and support for Kenny). It really is the belief that he's trying to do things for the better and that we were heading into a terrible spell regardless of manager or style, versus the fact that can't be proven and there's an increasing nagging suspicion that maybe just putting 11 behind the ball and hoping for the best would be producing better results still.

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Originally Posted by DeLorean

Malachy Clerkin summarises SK and Ireland's current plight well here - https://www.irishtimes.com/malachy-c...they-1.4579173

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Behind a paywall.

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Originally Posted by seanfhear

Behind a paywall.

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Oh right, it wasn't for me, and I'm not a subscriber. I think you get a handful of free articles per month if you register maybe.

Me either, I was able to read it without a subscription

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Originally Posted by tetsujin1979

Me either, I was able to read it without a subscription

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Same here

Obviously ~ Ye do not drop in every now and again to keep an eye on them ~ I must have used up my Freebies.

Good article, although it does come dangerously close to falling into the trap of suggesting that the only alternative style of play to Kenny's approach is to hoof it long and abandon all sense of a passing game, when the reality is far more complex than that.

I enjoyed that piece too. I love the opening- really gets to the core of the issue. Have a look at YBIG.ie or the a lot of the more sensationalist media outlets. Thinks are very binary. Black and white. We are going well. Or our football team is an utter disgrace to the nation. Like we deserve so much better.

There's a large gap between Luxembourg and Andorra. Luxembourg are ranked 96 in the FIFA rankings. Andorra 158. Luxembourg have players in a few decent European club leagues. Andorra's squad comprises mostly of lads in the regional Spanish divisions. And I think we beat Luxembourg on another day.

But there are plenty that won't let a bit of context create grey areas.

I wouldn't be as 100% sure that we will beat Andorra under Kenny like Clerkin has said. All they need to do is put everyone behind the ball and it will frustrate the life out of us. If we win, it will not be a convincing display IMO.

In any case, Kenny has already been given too much time because he is a LOI darling even though it's beyond obvious he is not up to it. The main reason he was appointed by the FAI was that he was cheap and that he was supposed get us playing some sort of good football but instead we are as septic as we ever were. Let him go back to the U21s where he was doing a good job and get a proper manager in to manage the national side.

Too right.
We should get a manager in who preferably has an english accent, has worked in the lower league in England, and can identify english born lads who have no chance of wearing the 3 lions so are happy to play for air-ah to further their careers. Where's big Sam when you need em eh!

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Originally Posted by TrapAPony

I wouldn't be as 100% sure that we will beat Andorra under Kenny like Clerkin has said. All they need to do is put everyone behind the ball and it will frustrate the life out of us. If we win, it will not be a convincing display IMO.

In any case, Kenny has already been given too much time because he is a LOI darling even though it's beyond obvious he is not up to it. The main reason he was appointed by the FAI was that he was cheap and that he was supposed get us playing some sort of good football but instead we are as septic as we ever were. Let him go back to the U21s where he was doing a good job and get a proper manager in to manage the national side.

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Clerkin didn't say that he was "100% sure" and he implied that at the end of the article too:

"This week, first and foremost, it is to dismiss out of hand any suggestion that Ireland won’t beat Andorra on Thursday. They will. Of course they will. They absolutely will.

Won’t they?"

Yeah, the whole thrust of the article is that it's not 100% sure, I thought

I think Trap is agreeing with Clerkin not being 100% sure!