Central defensive questions linger for Kenny
AFTER a season to forget for the Irishman, banners and chants mocking Shane Duffy were a feature of Rangers’ title winning celebrations.
Duffy also managed to wind up Celtic fans with what was perhaps an ill-timed social media post describing a clip from his stint at Brighton as the “good old days”.
The question for the Derryman now is if his return to the Irish set-up brings back welcome feelings.
He hasn’t played for Celtic since February 14 and interim boss John Kennedy left him benched again for the scoreless draw with Dundee United.
If the 29-year-old defender doesn’t figure in the next fortnight then concerns over match fitness will be added to worries around his form ahead of the Serbia date on March 24.
Shone
By contrast, alternative options Dara O’Shea and Ciarán Clark both shone in West Brom’s scoreless draw with Newcastle. Clark has been in good form for several months and is surely a sound bet to replace John Egan as the left-sided centre-half.
But a return to centre-half and an upturn in performance levels since a ropey patch in Sam Allardyce’s opening month have put the Dubliner firmly in the shake-up.
Stephen Kenny will be waiting on team news tonight ahead of West Ham’s clash with Leeds United. Darren Randolph’s comeback last week brought short-lived joy and he’s a concern with a hip problem.
Randolph has struggled with niggling issues in recent months and this is a concern with the forthcoming break in mind. West Ham have something to play for in the run-in and their number one Łukasz Fabiański is short of 100 per cent fitness at the moment so they won’t be encouraging unnecessary risks from Randolph.
If Caoimhín Kelleher was injury free, Kenny could maybe afford to be more relaxed about this situation but the promising Cork youngster is out of action at the moment with a shortterm issue.
As expected, James McCarthy was absent from Crystal Palace’s game with Spurs after Roy Hodgson described the prospects of the Glaswegian figuring in Kenny’s plans as “pie in the sky”.
It hasn’t all been plain sailing for Kenny’s opposite number Dragan Stojkovic in his first weekend in the job. McCarthy’s club-mate Luka Milivojevic has retired from international football after being left out of the squad, while promising U-21 star Slobodan Tedic has signalled an intention to declare for Montenegro.