Kenny's results got us into this mess, so he needs to own it now and cut the excuses. He was given a great chance to get us to Euro 2020 via a handy playoff draw and blew it, two really decent Nations League draws and made a mess of those too and all that combined landed us where we find ourselves now.
I'd lean the other way actually. Is there any point even keeping him on for the Euros now, as we clearly don't have a chance of qualifying from the group? Surely it would be worthwhile to get someone better in now who would get a free pass for this campaign and hopefully we can actually start to take advantage of the talent we have coming through for next time around, rather than seeing it all being wasted campaign after campaign by Kenny?
Can only see that happening if we beat Greece home and away with performances against France and Holland.
There's about as much chance of him staying on post Euro 2024 without qualifying as the FAI doing what Scotland did and replacing him before the qualifiers are even over with any new potential manager getting a few games before any potential Euro 2024 play off.
I'd say it's about 80/20, go/stay, with that draw. There's less expectation with two very hard top seeds, but if the fixtures are not great and it starts with a heavy loss away to one of the top two and a home draw with Greece I think that might be it, don't think he even sees out the group. Middling early results but struggling to finish ahead.of Greecw will probably get him to the end of the group but that will be that. 80% chance one of above is the case in my book.
Alternatively, could still finish third but put in good displays against the big two, pick up a couple of credible results, see off Greece and Gibraltar with no fuss and then he's still in a reasonable position to stay on. And obviously direct qualification will mean he's going nowhere (other than maybe being poached by a high level club somewhere!).
Well, for starters, he made the same mistake he made last week against Armenia in that he somehow thought it was a good idea to have Conor Hourihane on the park. But ultimately these things come down to wider issues, we weren't set up correctly that night against a poor Slovakia team missing players, the formation, style of play, everything was wrong. And we missed a great chance to qualify for the Euros as a result.
Back to the present day and I could see a few bad results bringing an early end for him in this campaign. He could well be gone by the summer, as we're unlikely to have any real say in this group by then. And on that basis what is the point in him still being there at that stage?
The negative side of it is that, with this draw, no result will be bad enough to justify his sacking for some of the pro Kenny crowd. But, for any objective viewer, I think enough will be enough before too long.
Time for Kenny to go. His terrible nations league campaigns have gotten us to this point. Let a proper manager have the Euro campaign to bed in and get his ideas across. Kenny can head off to Bohs or something.
It would be a good time to get rid of Kenny. Give a new, competent manager time to set in their ideas in the friendlies and then give it a good go in March. These players coming through are our best batch in a long time. The introduction to their Ireland careers hasn't been good. They've joined a set up with an awful record. Suffering more defeats and humiliation may set in a losers mentality that could last long term.
Everyone wants the best for him! But also everyone wants the best for our players. Clearly he isn't capable of managing at this level and he's doing serious damage. What's best for everyone is that Kenny takes up a roll with the underage teams or in a development roll and our current players get a new manager and set up that can get the best out of them.
I might have bought that if the knives hadn?t been drawn so early.
Sometimes it's obvious when someone is out of their depth. For example, Steve Staunton. A legend as a player. Who didn't want him to do well? But he only had 17 games in charge. Why was that? The results were horrendous. He had to go. Obviously this was nothing personal against Steve, he just wasn't capable. It's the same with the current Steve. It's not personal, he just has to go.
I'd suggest that SK is secretly delighted by this draw. No expectations now so he can focus on trying to finish third in the group. That in itself won't be easy but I'm quite certain he would consider that success.
I think you're right. The excuses are ready made for this group. It started out with covid being used as an excuse, then after losing to Luxembourg it was all about building for 2024, when we came nowhere in the recent nations league it was because the players aren't any good. It just goes on.
A bit presumptuous saying he's looking forward to France, Netherlands and Greece home and away, no? Little to suggest at this point that he'll be sticking around for all of those games.
The Greece draw has kind of blown that for him. France, Netherlands and a rubbish fourth seed would have given merit to that argument, but I've seen little to suggest he will even manage to get us ahead of Greece in this group. Though I suppose he can always pull out the "we knew it didn't matter, it's all about the playoffs/World Cup/Euro 2032" card at that point...
By the way, had to laugh at the FAI guy spouting on about the upward curve of the team or whatever he said - he must have been asleep during the Armenia game last week!
i wouldn't be too surprised if we don't take 6 points off Gibraltar, if Kenny remains in charge. surely even the most ardent kennyite would give up the ghost at that point.
no?
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