IN A BETTER PLACE
Kenny confident about challenges ahead
FROM Tullamore to Tallaght, and from Dundalk to Tottenham yesterday to see Gavin Bazunu’s Premier League debut with Southamption, it’s been a busy week for Republic of Ireland manager Stephen Kenny.
By next summer, there will be greater clarity on the Kenny project as the Republic of Ireland will be knee deep in the Euro 2024 qualifiers, a competition which will ultimately define Kenny’s reign.
So far, Kenny has overseen three competitive campaigns, kicking off with the 2020 Nations League and Euro 2020 playoff, followed by the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, and now the 2022 Nations League.
Of his 19 competitive games, Ireland have won three, away to Azerbaijan and Luxembourg, and home to Scotland. It’s an undistinguished record no matter how it’s spun. Yet, Kenny is adamant his management and his methods are headed in the right direction. FAI chiefs feel that way too, and in March they backed Kenny to deliver with a new deal.
The 50-year-old Dubliner believes he has identified a sense of purpose, and also a pathway to what he is striving to achieve – namely, Ireland’s qualification for Germany in 2024.
Asked on Tuesday if he wanted his reign to be defined by qualification for those finals, Kenny didn’t flinch.
‘I do, yeah, there’s no doubt about that. They (Euro finals) are important, not just for me but for everyone. It’s our big dream, our big ambition,’ he said.
Ireland will be third seeds in the
Euro draw in Frankfurt on October 9 and could, for example, face Portugal and Serbia again, as was the case in the World Cup.
As Ireland, almost certainly, will miss out on a Euro 2024 play-off berth via the Nations League, a toptwo finish in the qualification will be needed to secure a return to Germany, 36 years after Joxer and Big Jack went to Stuttgart.
What gives Kenny confidence the team will be ready to challenge for such a position when the qualifiers kick off in March?
‘We’d a tough [World Cup] group with Portugal and Serbia. I think we’ll definitely be in a better place, coming into that [Euro qualifiers], for sure,’ he said.
‘I’m excited about the group and the possibilities that exist.
‘I think some of the players coming through are really of international calibre. I’m looking forward to the draw in October and seeing what it brings.
‘I feel we’ve gone against the top teams and shown we can compete.
‘We haven’t been perfect and obviously the defeat against Armenia was disappointing but I feel that some of the performances over the last year have been really excellent. We can see the development of a lot of the individual players coming to the fore. We know about all of the players coming through. By the time March comes, a lot of players will have a lot of caps under their belt and will be better for it again. We will benefit from that,’ he insisted.
‘The crowd is really connecting with the team.
‘Even on the back of two defeats, an hour before the Scotland game they were really behind the team.
‘The atmosphere in the stadium was amazing.’
Kenny had declared his intention to win promotion from the Nations League but four points out of 12 in June fell below expectations.
‘Going into the last camp, we’d only one defeat in 12 and we’d scored 23 goals between March (2021) and March (2022) and lost only one game, the Portuguese game. Obviously, we lost two in the last window, to Armenia, which was a disappointing defeat, and Ukraine. We didn’t get everything right,’ he said.
‘The two games against Ukraine were very marginal. I still maintain we were very unlucky to lose that first game (to Ukraine) in the Aviva.
‘Having watched it back, we had more chances than they did. We certainly played well away.
‘It’s still three defeats in 16 so there’s a lot of good form and you’ve seen a lot of good performances against top teams, Portugal, Serbia, Belgium and to beat Scotland 3-0 was a convincing win.
‘Some of the other wins were convincing as well, Azerbaijan by three (goals) and Luxembourg by three away.
‘In our first eight games, we hadn’t scored many goals, and then we’d scored 23 goals March to March and lost only one game, the Portuguese game.’
The return of the English football season means an end to the free weekends for Kenny.
Between now and the return of the Nations League, against Scotland on September 24 and Armenia on September 27, the Irish manager will be in travel mode.
The signing by Burnley of Josh Cullen means most of Kenny’s front-liners are operating across the Irish Sea.
As a plus, Jamie McGrath and Shane Duffy got fixed up this week with loan moves to Dundee United and Fulham respectively, while Aaron Connolly is seeking a fresh start at Venezia.
That’s four of the starting XI away to Portugal 11 months ago, arguably Ireland’s finest performance on his watch.
Of those four, little has been seen of Connolly since but Kenny certainly hasn’t given up on the 22year-old striker.
‘He wasn’t available for selection because he had this issue at the end of last season with his heel where he couldn’t train with Middlesbrough and was getting injections on and off.
‘‘I’m not saying he would have been selected, I’m just saying he wasn’t available.
‘I’ve not had a real proper sitdown with him about his career or life at this stage because he had been in Middlesbrough and then he was away.’
As it stands, Kenny’s key props are all where he would want them to be, wanted by their clubs and set to play. It’s seconds out and the start of round three under Kenny, who is aching to deliver success and follow Jack Charlton, Mick McCarthy, Giovanni Trappatoni and Martin O’Neill by leading Ireland to a major tournament.
We were very unlucky to lose that first game against Ukraine in the Aviva