KENNY IN NEED OF A GOLDEN OCTOBER
ACHILL wind whipped the flags at Abbotstown yesterday, a reminder that autumn is very much upon us. As for Stephen Kenny, no doubt he appreciated the warmth of a timely poll from Off The Ball which revealed that 80 per cent of 1,000 respondents are supportive of him as Republic of Ireland manager.
The public poll followed a rare media appearance this week, also on the Newstalk show, by Ireland assistant manager Keith Andrews, in which he hailed Kenny as ‘a visionary’.
That Andrews should choose a station sympathetic to Kenny, and against a backdrop of speculation regarding the manager’s future, was no coincidence.
It appeared a choreographed PR strategy by Kenny and his handlers to gain sympathy and understanding from the public.
Given the plight of the Ireland boss, the tactics made sense. Will it earn him a new deal? We’ll see.
It hinges on what happens in the four remaining internationals of 2021, three of which are World Cup qualifiers.
For all his ‘vision’, Kenny hasn’t won any of his 12 competitive games in charge, the worst run by any Irish side.
The team has tumbled down the world rankings and was out of the World Cup equation before the campaign ever got going.
This followed a disastrous Nations League campaign and a heart-breaking Euro 2020 playoff semi-final loss.
With sponsors shunning the men’s national team, the FAI are hawking adult tickets for €20 in an attempt to top the 20,000 attendance mark for the Qatar friendly at Aviva Stadium on Tuesday week.
Against this backdrop, the FAI directors, who will review Kenny’s performance in consultation with CEO Jonathan Hill later next month, are getting restless.
Not all of them, it must be said — chairman Roy Barrett has been a rock of support for former Dundalk boss — but there are a number with concerns about the direction the Kenny project is going.
Some of these directors were foursquare behind his appointment as manager-elect three years ago and have since reviewed their stance.
While Kenny is under contract until next summer, a decision on a new deal will be made when the World Cup smoke clears.
To be fair, Kenny isn’t giving the impression of a manager entering the last chance saloon. He is tethered to his dream for Irish football.
‘It’s great to have support from the Irish public for the team. I’ve felt that going around the country. When we travel anywhere, even going on staff runs, people are pulling cars over,’ he said. ‘There is just that general feeling around that people are excited about the possibilities of the team doing well. I am not fixated on anything. I’m just focused on these matches against Azerbaijan and Qatar.’
He has not had any conversations with Hill about his future. ‘My contract is not up until July. It is not something I am very focused on. I am focused on the privileged job I have as international manager on doing the job and making sure we perform well.’
To buy himself time, and convince the doubters, Kenny must win in Azerbaijan tomorrow week, by hook or by crook, and follow up with another win in Luxembourg, the fourth seeds in Group A.
The manager is aware of this, yet he deflected ‘must-win’ questions yesterday.
Instead, he spoke of how difficult Azerbaijan are to beat, stressing their 3-0 home loss to Portugal was the first time they’d conceded more than two goals ‘in a few years’ as if this made them dangerous. They’re 117th in the world for a reason.
Kenny’s press briefings tend to follow a familiar path. He rattles out arguments to suit his case while glossing over the shortcomings.
For instance, he spoke positively about how Ireland went ahead against Portugal and Serbia — they lost both games — and said it was ‘on the plus side... to equalise late (against Azerbaijan and Serbia) and we haven’t had that.’
‘The ability to keep going, that level of persistence and the capacity to score late goals is an important trait. And we’ve seen that in countries such as Wales, for example, who have scored a lot of late goals over the last few years.’
We’ve also seen it with Ireland, Stephen.
Mick McCarthy’s team of 2019 scored five goals in the 84th minute or later in five games, four of them in Euro qualifiers.
Think too of late, late goals in Georgia and Germany in the Euro 2016 qualifiers under Martin O’Neill.
Irish teams always keep plugging away to the final whistle and have often been rewarded for it. Why reference what Wales do?
As for that elusive first competitive win, according to Andrews, Ireland should have won games by now based on data around KPI
(Key Performance Indicators). ‘In certain results, we should have won,’ said Andrews.
Asked to elaborate, Kenny sensibly batted it away.
‘The main statistic we’re looking for against Azerbaijan is to win. We need to turn our draws into wins. We all want results to improve,’ he said.
A golden October for Kenny would be two wins. If not, he will have one final hurrah to convince FAI chiefs of his managerial worth as the nights draw in further and the international year closes at home to Portugal and away to Luxembourg.
The late Martha Gellhorn, wife of Ernest Hemingway, wrote: ‘In November you begin to know how long winter can be.’
It could become very long for Kenny unless Ireland’s results take an overdue turn for the better.