Anybody like a poll on this, to stick with SK or change manager at this point ? YBIG ( yes, I know ) have one running and it is running at almost 80% in favour of sticking with him, which did surprise me as 160+ have now voted in it.
Anyone change their minds on keeping him if we are beaten tomorrow?
Tomorrow is a friendly against a continental champion. I thought we'd lose it before Saturday. If we were absolutely thrashed I might start calling for his head but otherwise I'd be of the cynical viewpoint that there is no point changing things now.
Author of Never Felt Better (History, Film Reviews).
Tomorrow's friendly game won't really have much bearing on my thoughts at this stage.
OK, let’s replace Kenny.
But with whom? Robbie Keane? Don’t make me laugh – that’s like treating the gig as work experience, and we can’t afford to have someone learning on the job. If being on payroll already is a qualification, give it to Vera Pauw - she’s more experienced than Robbie anyway. Chris Hughton? Not a chance – his stock would have to plummet monstrously. Some Premiership has-been whose stock has fallen so low they can’t get anything else? Or someone who can’t get work in the SPL, Championship? Tell me how that’s an improvement.
And what’s the goal anyway? Anybody who genuinely believed we had a snowball’s chance in a Qatari heatwave of getting to Qatar has spent too long in the sun. (Blind optimism and a dollop of faith, I can accept – it’s the affliction of the diehard fan.)
Somebody on another thread said that replacing Kenny now would be like cosmetic surgery on a terminal patient. {Edit: credit where it's due, Comic Book Guy} I’d say it’s more like cutting off a gangrenous limb, slapping on a Band-aid and hoping it’ll grow back better than ever. The problems in the game go far deeper than who the manager is – player development from youth up, domestic senior league versus slave traders and local fiefdoms, potential legal charges against former FAI employees (presumption of innocence noted and all that) a bankrupt association… We’re reaping the consequence of decades of neglect and, if not actual criminal corruption or corporate malfeasance, then certainly unethical or incompetent leadership. We are a decade away from stability. That’s the goal. Every manager we’ve had since Charlton has been tasked with diverting our attention from the administrative 5hitshow of a dysfunctional FAI. We’ve been bought off using our own credit with inflatable hammers and ole ole. Kenny is the first where the 5hit has been laid bare, and the debt’s been called in.
Back to the pitch, it will take a replacement for Kenny six or seven games to get a handle on the players available and formations, and all we’ll be doing in the meantime is kicking the can of potential improvements down the road. So, leave Kenny in situ.
The best case in that scenario is that something clicks tomorrow, and in a year’s time with Parrott, Idah, Connolly, Knight, Molumby, Bazunu, Cullen and O’Shea ripping it up as a golden generation, all into double figures for caps, we’ll feel slightly embarrassed to read back over these threads. Who wouldn’t wish for that?
Worst case, we’re stuck with a manager out of his depth while the FAI gets its house in order, and we go back to the wilderness years of the seventies for a decade.
An in-between scenario is that Kenny’s era limps with a few victories to the end of this campaign at which point he goes, having excised the deadwood senior pros who are currently lingering like a fart in a lift (McClean, Brady, Hendrick, I’m looking at you in particular) and brought through a younger team, with most players in at least a Championship level team (in England or anywhere else) because they’ve been exposed to international football. Not 'mission accomplished', but the core of a rebuilt, reasonably experienced team with ten years’ growth potential for the next manager. A qualified success – but I’d accept that.
Hello, hello? What's going on? What's all this shouting, we'll have no trouble here!
- E Tattsyrup.
The FAI need to work out what their long-term goals are, then work out if they have the right man for the job. TBH, I don't think there is any plan or goal for which we can't find a better option than Stephen Kenny, for half a million a year.
Certainly, a huge amount of our problems stem from underage neglect and a lack of stability, which can't be blamed on Kenny or other senior managers. But those issues can be addressed separately to the issue of whether the senior manager is getting the most out of the players at his disposal, or making progress towards doing so.
I don't think Kenny is doing either of those things.
Paul McGrath said this guy needs to be replaced , he campaigned for Neill Lennon. I like that idea.
Paul Lambert is someone I would like toó he tries to play good grassroots footie in Norwich was tremendous. I like Mark Hughes too! And the Southampton coach if they fire him. What about Bilic? Good coach maybe the balkan-irish streetwise mèlange could be a great cooking. Then theres a new irish coach at St Mirren.
Those are the fellows I like. My biggest candidate will always be El Loco Bielsa or Brendan Rodgers.
I like Cesare Prandelli too. Dont know where he's at
How hard is it to add a link when you make random statements like that?
Link.
The issue isn't that Stephen Kenny won't lead us to the World Cup. It's not even necessarily that we lost to Luxembourg. It's that we deservedly lost to Luxembourg - a team that, player for player are not in even our meagre weight class (even including the suddenly exalted striker with a princely two league goals to his name for Dynamo Kiev this season).
I don't think that the high water mark for this Irish side is likely to drown many people but I just can't see anything to suggest that Kenny is getting the best out of them. And that's an issue worth addressing. If people believe that he's the man to extract the most from these youngsters and turn them all into future legends that's an opinion certainly but I can't see why we wouldn't at least examine the possibility that there's someone else out there who could simultaneously pick Jason Knight, make us appear a little less turgid/harmless AND not get turned over by Luxembourg at home.
I will say though that if Neil Lennon is the solution we should just leave Kenny in situ. There are no words adequate for how far off the pulse you'd have to be to champion a man who spent this season proving conclusively that he possesses zero patience for youth or ability to get a little more out of mediocre players.
Jesus Christ. After seeing how Lennon just handled Celtic he should never get another job in football let alone be linked to us.
I’d rather stick with Kenny and us falling into pot 5 than giving Lennon a shot.
I was wondering if someone would go there.....
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