OPINION: No end in sight to ongoing Stephen Kenny debate

BY DYLAN MANGAN

HOW do you solve a problem like Stephen Kenny’s Ireland? 

In a world of culture wars, the Irish manager has repeatedly found himself subject to arguments about whether he is the right man to take this young team forward – especially now with continuing inconsistency and a Euro 2024 qualifying group from hell.

Drawing old foes France and older ones Holland was unlucky. Good news for season ticket sales, bad news for Kenny. The saving grace might be that both have a taste for in-fighting and dressing room disasters.

It means qualification already looks unlikely – but the question remains: what should we expect from Ireland? 

Horrendous mismanagement during the Delaney era, an overreliance on the English youth academy system and a dearth of top-quality players in the past decade has led to a period of existentialism in Irish football.

The team isn’t of the same quality on paper as five or ten years ago. The most recent squad is definitively Championship-level, with 16 of the latest 24-man squad plying their trade in England’s second division. 

Football is cyclical. Teams come and go, especially on the international stage as players come through and mature. Top teams of the past 10 years like Belgium and even Spain are now having to rebuild their squads as players grow past their peak and are replaced by younger ones.

Ireland are in the same situation. Only Wales and Ukraine fielded a starting eleven with an average age younger than Ireland’s throughout the Nations League campaign.

Nathan Collins and Gavin Bazunu are 21 and 20 respectively. Michael Obafemi – potentially the answer to the long-time goalscoring problem – is still only 22. These are players who will surely improve with time and have been given the space to do so

Ireland’s star man has arguably been Chidoze Ogbene, whose best performances for the country came during his spell in League One last season with Rotherham. It’s hard to see a situation in which previous management teams would’ve given so much responsibility to the Cork man.

It’s not unrealistic to expect most of the Irish team in five years’ time to be playing Premier League football. A handful look like they could perform at Champions League level.

While the future looks bright, it is still clear that Kenny needs to improve in certain areas.

His in-game management has been questionable – especially in relation to substitutions, where he can be too slow to react. Taking off Michael Obafemi against Scotland seemed wrong at the time and worse upon reflection.

Midfield continues to be a huge issue. The first choice three of Cullen, Molumby and Knight have great energy and have looked confident and assured in recent fixtures.

However, lose any of those and the drop off is noticeable. 

Cullen missed out against Armenia and a team which were purposeful against Scotland were suddenly ponderous. Molumby had to go off after escaping a second yellow card and ponderous became aimless.

Bandon soccer star Conor Hourihane in action for the Republic of Ireland.

Jeff Hendrick and Conor Hourihane have both given good performances in an Irish shirt, but the Armenia game showed that they can’t necessarily be relied on to execute the current gameplan.

Teams consistently run through the midfield unopposed – it’s another problem Kenny will have to solve.

And they will have to be solved during qualification for Euro 2024. It looks like at least one huge win is needed along with 12 points from games against Greece and Gibraltar – not guaranteed on current form by any means.

Either way, qualification will depend on Kenny overcoming the limitations in his squad.

But to suggest that the problems faced by this Irish team are unsurmountable or unexpected is naïve, and to lay them squarely at the feet of the quality of the manager is wrong.

Look across Europe at teams at a similar level and you won’t see an ‘elite’ coach.

The winners of each of the Nations League’s B Groups were led by coaches without any serious managerial pedigree.

Israel’s manager has never coached outside of his home country. Ivaylo Petev at Bosnia’s most notable achievement is two league titles in Bulgaria ten years ago, while Serbia’s coach spent the last five years in China. 

Steve Clarke is currently doing a good job at Scotland, but serious questions were raised during the summer after a 3-0 loss to…oh yes, Ireland.

Moods change quickly in football. Gareth Southgate at England was a hero last summer and a ‘fraud’ this autumn. Mancini’s Italy won Euro 2020 and were hailed as game changers. They won’t even be at the World Cup in Qatar.

Changing the manager could absolutely be the right thing to do. It could lead to a new era of success. It could end in qualification for Euro 2024 and for the World Cup after that. 

But it would also derail the whole idea of appointing someone like Kenny in the first place.