In addition to bringing through 20 or so players to the squad and team, I'll throw in the faith he shows in our players ability to play a better brand of football than we have under the last three managers as something that he should be proud of and that hopefully will endure when he goes. We have had a succession of managers tell us that we dont have the players to string more than two passes together which totally undermined our players and sucked the life out of the fan base (apart from the showing in 2016 and to be fair to MON his brand was direct but not dour). I'll never forgive Trappatoni for some of his comments and our showing in 2012 was nothing short of a disgrace. Instilling a bit of confidence in the squad and the fanbase that we actually can and should expect more is something that i think is a legacy for Kenny. Hopefully something that will be reflected in the decision that will be made about our next manager.
I think even the hardcore Kennyites are struggling to come up with many. None that can be easily disproven anyway.Originally Posted by tetsujin1979
2 of the regular Kenny myths here in this post. Some of the dourest, dullest performances in our history have been under Kenny, especially when he didn't have a coach doing tactics for him. Kenny has stated that we shouldn't expect to compete with teams like Serbia and Portugal, basically throwing out players under a bus to try to defend his own miserable failings. Has he ever taken any personal responsibility for the rubbish served up under his reign?
I love how reasonable and balanced you are. The forum needs more of this and less of the hyperbole and antics that we get from some.
I suppose your failure to engage with any points raised or answer any questions is to be expected at this stage.
Mod warning: if ye can't disagree politely, disagree in private.
No, its just a lesson learned from before. It is absolutely pointless and a complete waste of the internet and everyone's time.
Totally fair. I plan to leave it at the above.
The warm embrace of failure.
Sorry about that. I know I shouldn't have responded to a post like that. I'm just going to put that poster on ignore for everyone's benefit.
Only a month to the Latvia game with France soon after. Exciting times!!
BOOMSHAKALAKA!!!!
In one month, the Euro ’24 qualifiers begin for Ireland – eight games that will define Stephen Kenny’s reign
https://www.independent.ie/sport/soc...-42360985.html
Let's hope he somehow turns things around and we come close to qualification at least.
I know it's just a newspaper headline, but these eight games won't define Kenny's regime. One way or another, there's too many games like Luxembourg (H), Azerbaijan (H), Lithuania (H), Malta (A), Armenia (H and A) to be over-ridden by the upcoming campaign.
Yeah, that's better alright, although I can still see a situation where we get nine points (two wins v Gibraltar and one v Greece, and we lose the rest) and things are still up in the air.
I hope it doesn't come to that; we need to see some progress this campaign for another contract renewal.
I think we need to qualify for him to stay I think he has used up alot of the goodwill that only qualification however it is achieved will get back. Obviously that is going to be difficult but you have to qualify at some stage to keep your job
Exactly the problem i see too with this campaign and his ongoing viability.
Something else I saw over the weekend was Graham Potter's comments after Chelsea's defeat yesterday. He talked about something of the effect that he cant keep relying on support (from the club) to keep himself in a job, basically that he has got to find a way for the team to perform to the level they're accustomed to. I thought it was admirable and, in some ways, brave but there is such a fine line between bravery and foolishness. There's an honesty to it that i think some would like to see more of from SK. While we obviously hope we wont need to, I think this is the campaign that we'd need to hear the self-reflection more resoundingly than we have to date.
If that's all we get he'll be gone. In fact, he won't see out the eight games. The Gibraltar points are worthless, so that's basically a return of three points from a possible 18. That will definitely mean goodbye to Stephen.
Keane O'Shea Given Best Smallbone
I think it all depends how it goes within the campaign.
Imagine we beat France and Netherlands at home, beat Greece and Gibraltar home and away. All three sides end up on 18 points and we come third on goal difference. Then, we win our playoff semi final against Sweden and get to the playoff final where we face either England or Italy and lose to them on penalties.
We don't qualify. Can't imagine many sane people would be calling for the sack in those circumstances. It does illustrate how ridiculously difficult the draw was and how near impossible the draw was. We're gonna have to get a lot of points off two of the five best teams in the world (probably 6 or 7 points in 4 games) - Northern Ireland as 5th seeds got (Denmark, Finland, Slovakia, Kazakstan, NI, San Marino). And there's probably a 50/50 chance that we face one elite team in playoffs like England, if we do make the playoffs.
Alternatively, we could lose home and away against everyone except Gibraltar and luck into a handy playoff draw where we beat Albania in the semi and Montenegro in the final. In that scenario, we'd satisfy the qualification criteria but I'd have far more doubts over Kenny and the team
If the extreme case you outlined on.optoon A happens then I agree he will keep his job . I think though failure to qualify will require something very close to what you outlined for him to survive. His difficulty is as I said he has used up so much goodwill and has not taken advantage of reasonably winnable opposition and better prospects of qualification than awaits us now.
Could we have got a better draw if results were better over the last two years? We mightn't even get a playoff, isn't that down to recent results also?
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