NO PLACE TO HIDE
England at Wembley will put Stephen Kenny’s Ireland project under intense scrutiny and it doesn’t get a whole lot easier after that…
THE PAST is Irish soccer’s golden age. The good times are over the shoulder, not out in front. The manager that can change that will have an effect on the Irish game to match the achievements of Jack Charlton. That is the scale of the job. A significant part of the challenge that has confronted every successor to Charlton is what happened in the six sunlit years between 1988 and 1994.
Expectations were radically readjusted by Euro 88 and Italia 90 in particular, and by that generation’s last roar at USA 94.
No matter how often t he difference in playing resources between then and the eras since is noted, the Charlton years remains the standard.
They have been impossible to reach for his successors, and even those occasions when Ireland have qualified for major tournaments have had the feel of lottery wins.
It’s why the reigns of a succession of managers have ended i n disappointment, or acrimony, or often both. And it’s also why the past is such an engaging refuge for supporters.
With a match against England four days away, the memories of what happened on a day i n Stuttgart in June 1988 are easily stirred.
Stephen Kenny was 16 at the time and watching in his native Dublin.
He speaks with some enthusiasm about the memory, but also with detachment.
He was a supporter before he became the national team’s manager, which hasn’t been the case with some who have done the job in the past.
But he is also the latest individual expected to try and draw our focus away from the past and towards a future worth getting excited about.
His efforts to do so thus far have brought some encouraging signs of tactical and technical development, but also only one goal and no wins.
The changes he is trying to introduce will take time, and the players are said to be enthusiastic about his plans.
Sport, though, is an unfeeling business, and the three matches coming up in the next 10 days could extend the wait for victory.
A friendly against an England side with a fast, predatory attack at Wembley on Thursday night could be particularly challenging, for instance.
There were signs in the last window that Ireland’s efforts to play with a higher defensive line are becoming smoother, but players like Raheem Sterling, Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford will ruthlessly examine it.
More important is the match in Cardiff a week today, before Bulgaria come to Dublin on Wednesday week.
Winning one of those matches would validate Kenny’s work so far. He seemed tense in a press briefing given over Zoom on Thursday afternoon, admonishing one reporter for his manner before letting him ask his question.
Kenny seems a man consumed by what is to be done, not what has happened before. That would explain his polite response to a question about where he watched the England game in 1988.
‘I was 16, and I was doing my Leaving Cert English the next day,’ he smiled.
‘I remember it well. I was in a friend’s house watching it, and while I had the exam the next day, football took precedence.’
He went on to praise Ray Houghton and Packie Bonner as if the match had just ended and he was sitting in a post-match press conference.
Choosing to work in this era rather than wallow in an earlier one should be welcomed in the manager of the national team.
Kenny’s plans were left in a heap by Covid-19 chaos last month, between false positives, close contacts and mass absences.
That should qualify too intense an analysis of how his team fared, but there will come a time when performances have to materialise into results.
That’s the point of competitive sport, after all. It’s difficult to see that time arriving in London on Thursday, given England’s quality and Ireland’s transitional state.
England’s strengths may be routinely overstated by their domestic press, but they are clearly a level or two ahead of Ireland. Kenny must trust that his players will not be overawed by that.
Their manager insists the venue, one of the great names in world sport, will not unduly affect him.
‘I’ve never been one about the glamour games. I’m interested in winning and performing, and being the best you can be.
‘It’s a good game for the players and they are excited by it,’ he said.
‘I didn’t dream about going to Wembley and all that stuff. For me, it’s about going to the Aviva Stadium with a full house. It would be great to be in Wembley with a massive Irish support.
‘That would be great. That isn’t the case, but it’s still a great game, and with the history, we’ve only won twice (against England), it’s still a good game. ‘Wales is an important game, they have a very strong squad, and Bulgaria is one we want to do well in.’
Empty stadia is a variable with which teams now have to contend. There has been a good deal of discussion, in England in particular, about the effects of this, and how it might be affecting how teams play.
The opening weeks of the Premier League have featured some astonishing scorelines, while old assumptions about the importance of home advantage are also being challenged, given there are not thousands of partisan fans trying to intimidate visiting sides and match officials.
‘When you become manager of Ireland, you envisage that moment of coming out in front of a full crowd and that hasn’t happened.
‘We’ve missed that, but I can’t use that as an excuse,’ stressed Kenny.
‘I suppose if you’re in a league and you have it every week you become used to i t , but in international football it’s not like that.
‘You have a couple of games and then you don’t do anything for a long period of time again. It’s probably something everyone is coming to terms with and I hope it’s something we don’t have to get used to, that everything improves.
‘There’s no doubt it’s not the same without support.
‘Supporters are the lifeblood of the game, and the connection between players and supporters is what makes the game special.’
Patrick Bamford is a player who has long been linked with Ireland. He was a highly-rated youngster at Chelsea, but before this season he had not matched the expectations around him.
He has been outstanding for Leeds on their return to the Premier League, though, and that had fed talk of him winning an England call-up.
Gareth Southgate has not selected him for this window, however, while Bamford has never shown much effusiveness about taking up the option of representing Ireland.
He said last year that Mick McCarthy had approached him but he had declined a call-up to concentrate on his fitness.
‘I have not said yes, I have not said no,’ he said then about playing for Ireland, but only last month said an England call-up would be his dream.
Kenny was again polite on this topic, sounding like someone taking care not to shut down possibilities – or seem desperate.
‘Patrick Bamford, it’s been indicated that he has a desire to play for England.
‘I have an open mind (on selecting players available through ancestry rules).
‘It was recently said that I had picked a team, and they were all born in Ireland, but that was only because Callum O’Dowda and Callum Robinson weren’t available because of Covid, and David McGoldrick and James McCarthy had pulled out through injury.’
‘I’M NOT ONE FOR GLAMOUR GAMES, I’M INTERESTED IN WINNING’
‘IT WOULD BE GREAT TO BE AT WEMBLEY WITH A HUGE SUPPORT’