I WANT MY TEAM TO BE LIKE... BRENTFORD!
Stephen Kenny reveals his vision for a new Ireland
STEPHEN KENNY has revealed how he has visited Championship side Brentford for research purposes and is interested in replicating their methods with the national side.
‘I went into Brentford for quite a few days, looking at the way they play. Some of the characteristics are interesting with the players that we’ve got. They have similarities as to how I think we could play,’ said the Ireland boss.
OUT for a run the other morning, Stephen Kenny was thinking of the former players who had texted their best wishes since the news broke of his early elevation to the post of Republic of Ireland manager. It crossed his mind there would be no messages from two he worked with as close as any in his 22-year career – Mark Farren and Ryan McBride.
Both were stolen away far too young and their loss still hurts Kenny, who harnessed their talents during his time at Derry City.
On Friday, Kenny’s voice faltered for once over the course of an 80minute conference call. ‘I got a lot of texts from former players, I’d have got two texts from them as well,’ he said before pausing to gather himself.
‘I’ve been asked to be a patron of the Ryan McBride Foundation, and I’m delighted to do that,’ he said quietly. You know he’ll do whatever is asked of him.
As an Irish manager’s coronation, it’s been like no other.
Giovanni Trapattoni filled the RDS, Martin O’Neill the Gibson Hotel, while Mick McCarthy was rolled out at the Aviva Stadium.
In contrast, the new man appeared via conference call in a blue shirt in a room at his home in Blackrock, County Louth, where he spoke to the media for several hours over the course of two days.
No question was off limits but anything Kenny didn’t like, he declined politely to answer.
Such as the question from Sportsmail as to whether he’d have taken the Ireland job with a manager waiting in the wings to succeed him.
He replied it was ‘hypothetical and very difficult to answer.’ So he didn’t answer it.
As to what he made of John Delaney’s demise, he swiftly took the pin out of the grenade. ‘What else can I say that hasn’t been written already?’
In contrast, when it came to elaborating on the characteristics he sought in midfielders, Kenny didn’t draw breath for all of 1,100 words.
He’s the first Ireland manager in for the long haul since O’Neill was appointed in November 2013. At that inauguration, the former Leicester and Celtic boss sipped tea and buttered toast for hacks eager for crumbs from his table.
Most of us never got any closer in the next five years although members of the written press from England were warmly welcomed by the former Northern Ireland captain for cosy chats in the team hotel.
Clearly, he was more concerned with what was written about him on the other side of the Irish Sea than here, where it should have mattered most.
Like Trap, O’Neill’s brief was to qualify the senior team for major finals, nothing more, nothing less. Mick McCarthy had a similar remit from the FAI, albeit over a shorter time frame.
Those three managers shared other things in common. None of them lived in Ireland, and none had the time or the inclination to peer under the bonnet of Irish football and see what made the engine tick.
Trap thought so little of the Irish club scene that when he attended the FAI Cup final one year, it was headline news. He spent every weekend holed up in Milan in front of a bank of TVs.
O’Neill and McCarthy made more of an effort to engage with Irish football – but at arm’s length – from Beaconsfield and Bromley respectively.
Kenny is different. For more than two decades, through Longford Town, Bohemians, Derry City, Shamrock Rovers, Dundalk and then as Ireland Under 21 manager, he has seen what works in Irish football and what should be tweaked. He knows the nuts and bolts of the Irish football engine, how it has been spluttering for some time – certainly at senior level since 2017 – and needs greasing.
The 48-year-old Dubliner is more than a senior international manager, he’s akin to the Godfather of the Irish football family. In a way, the underage managers, from the 21s down to the 15s, are nephews jostling for their favourite uncle’s affections.
He knows them, and knows their players, not just the guy with the sweet left peg, but the one with a
‘WE NEED TO ASCERTAIN WHO OUR BEST PLAYERS ARE AND WHAT CHARACTER THEY HAVE’
tricky family background, and the introverted chap who needs a pat on the shoulder.
Just as Northern Ireland’s Michael O’Neill has had a close handle on all IFA under-age managers, so Kenny will constantly dial into Jim Crawford (U21s), Tom Mohan (U19s), Andy Reid (U18s), Colin O’Brien (U17s), Paul Osam (U16s) and Jason Donohue (U15s).
There will be monthly meetings, presentations, updates and challenges to each other around the table in ‘Team Ireland’.
The dots will be joined like never before.
‘It’s all about a coordinated approach,’ said Kenny.
‘I want to know every player from U15s up in terms of all the players we speak about. We must know who the players with the highest potential are. It’s not always those players at 15 and 16 who end up making it to the senior team.
‘We need to ascertain who our best players are, and ascertain their characteristics as people as we’ve seen a lot of players go to England and lose their way a bit.
‘It’s also about the 15s, 16s, 17s, 18s, and 19s, and having that link with the 21s and first team and all being aware of it, having a similar style of play, patterns of play, and good values.
‘How can we help manage all of that and do everything we can to help young players fulfil their potential? Who can we fast-track up?
‘Each manager has to take responsibility and work together as a collective unit, to get players into
U21s as soon as they’re ready. If they do well at that level then the next step is the senior team.’
At some point down the road, Kenny will get a tap on the shoulder and a whisper in his ear about a meeting with a senior FAI figure.
When that moment comes, he will know he’s been betrayed and his time as Ireland manager is up. It happened to the most successful of them all, Jack Charlton, who led Ireland to three major finals out of five qualifications.
Could Kenny do something similar? If he came close, his appointment would be hailed as a triumph. He knows he has plenty rooting for him, including Farren and McBride, whom he made better players, and the late Christy Campbell too, his first assistant manager at Longford Town where it started in 1998, another former acquaintance he name-checked on Friday. ‘Christy is gone now but he was a brilliant man, who was very important to me. He always carried himself well.’
Kenny carries himself well too. He’s a man of dignity and decency.
In any job, that’s always half a start.