The man with feet firmly planted
EVERYTHING is going to change for Stephen Kenny. Not immediately, but over the course of the next two years, as his start date as senior Republic of Ireland manager nears, the scrutiny and spotlight will intensify.
‘I might have to go back up and live in Inishowen and walk them empty beaches for a while,’ he joked. ‘I understand the question you’re asking. I suppose I have a lot to learn in that regard, try and live your life as best you can. I understand it won’t be the same, I do understand that.’
Even a harmless, nostalgic tweet from the first club he took charge of in the League of Ireland takes on far more significance, as it all helps paint a broader picture of the man who will lead the country in the next World Cup qualifying campaign.
Yesterday, not long after Kenny was unveiled as Ireland Under 21 boss and set out his intentions in terms of preparation for what John Delaney described on Sunday as the ‘A Team’ role, Longford Town dug through their archives and found a brief Q&A their former boss took part in 18 years ago.
Kenny would have been just shy of his 30th birthday at the time and it would be impossible not to relate to him.
His first job was working as a lounge boy in Brigit Burke’s pub in Tallaght for £5 a night. He drove a 1997 Fiat Marea, lamented the cost of his insurance and felt house prices were one of the biggest rip-offs in the country.
He admitted that his dream job would be to manage Ireland, but put more importance on social issues. ‘I’d love to be in a position to eradicate homelessness,’ he said.
Two decades on, his feelings on the matter remain steadfast. With homelessness worse than ever before in this country, Kenny spoke eloquently and passionately only a couple of weeks ago about the need for action from this Government to tackle the crisis.
He used the stage at the Marker Hotel as he received his manager of the year award from the Professional Footballers’ Association of Ireland, and that sense of social responsibility is something that will not be dulled in his role with the FAI.
Kenny has been accessible for the last 20 years and, naturally, elements of that will change over time. Indeed, the first point that was made to him when he sat down with newspaper journalists away from the cameras yesterday was how there would be no need to get a new mobile number.
It was made in jest but, unlike Martin O’Neill, Giovanni Trapattoni, Steve Staunton, Jack Charlton and even Mick McCarthy, Kenny will live in this country when he takes over on August 1, 2020.
Eoin Hand experienced the rough side of that when things didn’t go well during the 1980s while Brian Kerr, another former senior boss, gave Kenny his only previous experience of being involved with an underage international set-up with a trip to Israel 15 years ago.
‘Brian has always been very supportive of me but I didn’t speak to him [before taking this job]. I don’t have that many friends,’ he added with a smile. ‘I have a very close group that I speak to, my family and that, but, no, I didn’t get a chance to speak to Brian about it.’
Having that tight-knit circle will be important, but Kenny has already overcome tough times professionally — he was sacked by Dunfermline and Shamrock Rovers — and persevered to reach the pinnacle for a manager in this country.
‘I never doubted myself in that regard. I had always had the conviction that what I was doing was right,’ he explained.
‘Managing Ireland wasn’t always that realistic a goal. It’s not like I had a strategy to get there to manage Ireland.
‘What I wanted to do was get a team to qualify for the group stages of European competition. That was a big ambition and a big part of the driver for me to try and compete at that level.
‘I do look at the big picture all the time, I don’t just go step by step, but it wasn’t that with the Ireland job, it wasn’t something I was firmly focused on,’ he added, before pinpointing the exact moment thoughts of getting the job finally crystalised.
‘I was here for the Denmark play-off game, as I am at all the games. But I remember meeting my eldest daughter and my youngest son. I came from Donegal, my daughter travelled in from college on the train early that day.
‘And I remember being all around South Lotts, Ringsend, walking that way through Ballsbridge, having some food around the area, and getting the incredible sense of anticipation.
‘The atmosphere for that game was better than I’d experienced since they’d changed the stadium. I thought it was incredible. Obviously the result didn’t go well but the atmosphere for that day was just incredible. And that hasn’t left me. And I knew then that that’s what I wanted and that I would want that for the future.’
It will soon be upon him.
‘I always had the conviction that what I was doing was right’