When Jurgen Klinsmen drew Ireland into the group of death with European heavyweights France and the Netherlands, Stephen Kenny must have felt like the unluckiest man on earth. After a tumultuous two years riddled by injury and Covid-19 Kenny has finally been given a full qualification campaign to prove his worth, a campaign in which Ireland (ranked 49th in the world) will fight for Euro 2024 qualification against France (4th in the world) and the Netherlands (8th in the world) as well as former Euros winners Greece and group minnows Gibralta. Frankly, it’s not looking good.
With regards to past performances, in his first two years as coach, Kenny’s largest criticism has been inconsistency. Ireland have had some great results against bigger teams, such as the emphatic 3-0 victory over Scotland, as well as the draws with Serbia, Belgium and Portugal. However Ireland have often struggled against teams they were expected to beat, unable to break down the teams compact defences before conceding a cheap goal towards of the end of the game, resulting in embarrassing defeats against the likes of Luxembourg and Armenia. Despite the uneven results, Kenny can confidently say he has given this Irish side a clear and consistent playing style, which is more than most former Irish managers can say about their respective teams. Every match, despite the opponent or the circumstance, Ireland have tried to play an attractive style of football instead of the conservative ‘every man behind the ball’ ways of old. Some of the football played over the last two campaigns has been the best football Ireland have played in over two decades,and the fans recognize this, with choruses of ‘Walking in a Kenny Wonderland’ roared around Landsdown road each game. Ignoring the results, any honest Irish fan can say that the team has improved substantially since Kenny’s tenure began, but if they want to qualify they’ll need to start grinding out results against the big team as well as the weaker ones.
One of the largest arguments in defense of Stephen Kenny is the quality (or lack there of) he has to work with, of the 13 Irish players at Premier League clubs, only four have been playing regular football this season with the rest playing in the championship or the lower leagues. In contrast, theFrance national squad features 3 Ballon D’Or nominees, World Cup and Champion League winners, Premier League regulars such as N’Golo Kante and William Saliba, as well as the youth sensation Kylian Mbappe who is valued at over 200 million in today’s market. Even though the belief in the Irish team is at an all time high, will that be enough to qualify in group that features teams that greatly outclass ours? There is no other manager I would want instead of Stephen Kenny for this job,but I’m afraid even Pep Guardiola would be left stumped by this draw. At least we can say we tried?