Everyone is entitled to an opinion..it’s part of it

KENNY ACCEPTS CRITICISM BUT DENIES ‘VANITY’

STEPHEN KENNY insists that Garry Breen is wrong to describe his Ireland set-up as a vanity project - but admits he erred in describing the victory against Armenia as “exceptional”.

Breen (right), an ex-ireland defender turned pundit, expressed his concerns about the way Kenny’s team is playing after the 3-2 Nations League win at the Aviva Stadium on Tuesday.

Ireland surrendered a comfortable 2-0 lead by conceding twice in 90 seconds and it took Robbie Brady’s 91st minute spot kick to secure safety in Group B. Breen wrote in his newspaper column that “rather than giving instructions from the sideline to raise the tempo, Kenny is lauding the fact we can make 20 to 30 passes, even though it was almost unopposed. That, to me, sounds like a vanity project rearing its ugly head again”.

However, Kenny believes it was “inaccurate” to pick out that long passage of Irish possession in isolation.

“Gary’s entitled to his opinion, as anyone is. You’re always going to get strong opinions in this arena and that’s part of it,” he commented. “I did say in the TV interview afterwards it was an exceptional performance which was too strong a word – it wasn’t exceptional.

“I accept that. But there were a lot of very good aspects to the performance that I was pleased with. One of the plusses in the first half was that we showed great accuracy and speed in our passing.

“And we talked about that before the game, that is what you need to inject tempo and I was pleased with that.”

Less than six months from the start of the Euro 2024 qualifiers, Kenny is adamant he is happy with Ireland’s readiness for the campaign.

Friendlies against Norway and Malta next month will cement his selection thinking.

But while Kenny will look at bringing in some of the U21s, there won’t be wholesale changes at this stage.

“We have to consider a couple of players showing good form,” he said. “We don’t want too many changes – it has to be based on merit or on players who will improve us.”