Cult of Stephen Kenny

ladibai

This is non Soccer related as I want to find out why a Cult like Following has surrounded Stephen Kenny. It seems like no matter what he does his "cult" will defend him to the death. Which part of Society are these people from ? Is this a Ireland version of QAnon ?

EmmetSpiceland

I really do hope we start winning soon, if we don’t we’ll just end up with another “long ball” merchant manager grinding out 1-1 draws against weaker opposition.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119162629#Comment_119162629

thats a very roundabout way of saying kennys not doing his job isnt it

EmmetSpiceland

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119162635#Comment_119162635

The result wasn’t great yesterday but he’s had the side playing football again. That’s nice to see.

If he had a decent creative midfielder and a striker on form there wouldn’t be any questions hanging over the guy.

Certainly wouldn’t be in a hurry to replace him with Steve Bruce or Chris Hughton.

ladibai

Much like the QAnon cult in America these people are in denial of reality and get very angry when their leader is questioned. I was thinking if these people are some how related by social standing ? Are they excluded people and this bring them together for a purpose ?

Dempo1

Honestly he bores me to death, I feel he's chosen the wrong career, could have been an excellent artist with an astonishing ability to Draw.

I laugh when I hear people defending him saying the FAI is Broke as if that makes hiring him acceptable , Kenny is earning half a Million Euro a year and for what, supervising Training Sessions essentially.

I'll admit to not knowing much about Soccer but I know BS went I see and hear it.

Wombatman

Woeful record. No real evidence of progress. Can't understand the support he is getting. Boggles the mind. Get Chris Hughton ASAP.

pjmn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119162629#Comment_119162629

... as distinct from losing 0-1 to weaker opposition

Strumms

problem with Kenny is that he’s a bit of a one trick pony…give him good players he’ll do well..

when I used to go watch his Bohemians side, a very successful side…he had the knack of identifying and acquiring by league standards two excellent players in every position..one guy got injured a player of similar level and ability stepped in and stepped up…. especially in the attacking midfield, forwards…he seemed to have an in-depth understanding of the good players in other clubs… and not shy about recruiting them…saying that he did inherit Roddy Collins double winning side.

now he’s in charge of a bunch of also rans, and it being international.. he can’t get on the phone to X club and wrangle a deal or two.

he just has to work with what he’s given… which given the competition, isn’t much so….

one thing getting the best out of and results out of quality players in the LOI but simply at international level and not having talent comparative to the higher echelons of opposition…

that said his Ireland record is shambolic…

Games : 24

Won : 6

Draw : 10

Lost : 8

win % : 25%

On the back of a record of winning once every four games he’s just been given a new contract…

his style of playing is outdated as are his views on the game.

The LOI cultists have for years been championing LOI players in the international squad, LOI managers been given a chance too… and here we are.

pgj2015

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119162855#Comment_119162855

How do you explain how he did so well in Europe with Dundalk?

He is working in a “results business”, and his team’s results have been appalling. He is extremely lucky to still be there.

Dempo1

Did I hear Kenny said, Ireland didn't deserve to loose against Armenia 😳 mother of God, is that an excuse or justification for such an appalling performance 🤔

How anyone has tolerated this continuous spoofing is beggars belief.

As someone with only a passing interest in it,the results are terrible....

but at least its somewhat watchable,only on odd time,unlike rugby,which is awlful and perplexing in level its forced on people

Allinall

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119164199#Comment_119164199

I haven’t watched rugby in months.

You need to work on your self-control.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119164199#Comment_119164199

You don’t understand the interest in a sport where Ireland are one of the best teams in the world, as recently as 2019 were ranked as the top team, where the National stadium for that sport is sold out for most games against good teams, where one of our club teams have just contested the continental final?

Are you trolling or just an eejit?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119164226#Comment_119164226

In portion to its playing numbers,its saturation levels of coverage imo

Dunno why they dont let it off to sky and stop forcing it on people on free to air

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119164239#Comment_119164239

So you have to play it to be interested in it? You are not required to watch it when it is on TV.

I never boxed, but I’m very proud of the achievements of our boxers and watch their fights, especially Katie Taylor.

Furze99

Kenny is still trading on his past successes. But what's left in the bank is getting thin. Next few results may be telling.

Fr Tod Umptious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119162651#Comment_119162651

The result wasn’t great yesterday but he’s had the side playing football again. That’s nice to see.

There you go, that's an example of the cult right there.

The public prefer results, otherwise they become disinterested

sydthebeat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119164199#Comment_119164199

Showing a huge sense of inferiority there.

Ireland are very competitive in rugby at both club and international level.

Ireland test games are continously among the most watched on FTA year on year.... So not exactly "forced on" people now is it

In Soccer we have a derisory club league and haven't been a force internationally for 30 years.

Which sport do you think the average sports fan / ban wagon jumper likes to watch?

On the Stephen Kenny issue, which is of course the topic here (NOT RUGBY) he had the team playing half decent watchable football (his philosophy) but alas the players he has to work with aren't exactly cream of the crop. What he would give to have a creative player in midfield a la holohan or Reid who could unlock a defense. The guys he has are game but just not at the required level.

erlichbachman

A Phoenix park Sunday league manager, would be out of his depth in English third division, gets handed Ireland manager job in a last ditch attempt by Delaney to hold onto his job, we have now regressed to the standard of Latvia and Lithuania.

Montage of Feck

Bring back Brian Kerr, he never got a proper go the first time round.😀

completedit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119164306#Comment_119164306

Ireland has never been a force in world football. Ever. We had a bit of successl like some countries get every now and then(Iceland in 2016, Czech Republic mid 1990/2000's, Wales now) but a force we were not. We got to a World Cup Quarter final as have Ghana, USA, Ukraine over the years, can happen.

sonofenoch

I'm reminded of a comment I read elsewhere by someone without a vested interest

'That Irish manager looks like a dodgy Catholic priest'

😆

Bobblehats

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119164316#Comment_119164316

There’s still a couple tiers to plummet. They may well get there, in the meantime with regards the “match last night” best claim you didn’t see it. No sir *whistles* not meee I had more pressing matters to attend 🥴 honestly. At my age? Best not get too invested it’s some time now since we’ve been squeezed out of prominent positions in England by the foreign invasion and just like junior will struggle keep up with the absolute factory belt of African lads at the track and field we can’t get a shoe-in there anymore either

As for the gold (leaf?) crested rugger lads with the backing of Bank of Ireland I see they were back to running in ten or so tries! Mere days after failing to ever threaten one where there was a trophy on the line! Hyup… finals not a word Irish rugby takes too kindly to.

erlichbachman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119164306#Comment_119164306

In rugby we play a bunch of hyped up meaningless friendlies, do half decent in 6 nations, and are found out during world cups every few years, an absolute masterclass in marketing means it becomes the most watched sport in this country.

Grass roots football in Ireland has failed to produce even half decent International footballers, and the LOI should carry a large portion of the blame. And yet what do we do? Hand the International job to a manager who wouldnt even be considered for a position as manager of Accrington Stanley.

Before kenny took over we were regularly challenging for Euro & World cup qualifications, now where are we? The bottom of the barrel, struggling to get results against teams we would usually have beaten 4 or 5 nil.

How anybody can get behind this man is delusional

Fred Astaire

He's mainly gotten the job off the back of intense frustration regarding our approach against the Georgias of the world under previous managers, where we would toil for 90 minutes and get a narrow win, or at worst, a draw.

It was decided that these players needed the freedom to express themselves, that they were being held back by our previous managers. A point which Kenny himself continually reinforced on his press junkets upon being appointed.

It was decided that if the players were allowed to express themselves that we would be beating these teams all the time and beating them well. What a crock of sh*t that turned out to be.

What has transpired since, is that Kenny has introduced a style of football that largely amounts to sterile possession. Whatever his philosophy is supposed to be is a complete failure at this point given he has 2 competitve wins in 16. He has also robbed us of being hard to beat - we now are getting beaten regularly by teams ranked below us. Virtually unheard of before.

He has capped a few players, some of whom would clearly have broken through anyway - like obviously Nathan Collins and Dara O'Shea were going to break into the National Team. One or two probably wouldn't have gotten picked without him, like Jamie McGrath - but he isn't in squads anymore anyway.

At this point the Irish supporters need to decide whether passing the ball around the back more, is more important than being competitive in qualification groups. I know which one matters more to me.

Get him out.

PokeHerKing

I vote for possession football and building an ethos of playing football the way it should be played. If and when standout players appear they will be much better utilised in this kind of team. Kenny may not be in charge but we need to move onto a similar thinking manager not regress.

I for one could care less about scraping qualification once a decade over not qualifying in that decade. Especially when qualifying is followed by nil poi in the group and the only highlights are of "the best fans in the world" changing tires or singing lullabies to infants.

Gusser09

His team selection is wrong. Lack of ideas, no instensity and excuses. Will keane? Kelleher hasnt played this year and he installs him as number 1? Just to much to mention to be honest

People can deride bruce, hughton etc all they want. But those lads have operated at the highest level. Kenny was a failure at Dunfermline.

Its going to be a long road until kenny goes.

completedit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119164545#Comment_119164545

Best summation of the situation. Sterile possession hits the nail on the head perfectly. It's slow and drab and when it matters we resort to just punting the ball into the box aimlessly. TBH, Kenny is his own worst enemy, never sell yourself on your ideology because you become too wedded t, just come in and do what you have to do. Let the performances speak for themselves, Kenny speaks about football like some punter calling in to Talk Sport demanding that Steve Bruce get the sack so we can get back to playing the (insert football team) way on the deck. It seems like such a British obsession as well. Other countries just play a certain way because well that's how you play football but 'passing football' seems to have taken on this sort of mystique in British, and by extension, Irish football culture.

The team is incredibly bad right now though. The midfield is appalling.

Fred Astaire

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119164577#Comment_119164577

The last time we qualified for an international tournament we qualified from the group. Infact 4 out of the last 5 times we have qualified for an international tournament we qualified from the group.

The tournament you are waffling about, Euro 2016 - considering your reference to singing lullabies, was a tournament where we qualified from the group with 4 points, and were narrowly beaten by eventual finalists and home nation France, in a match where we were massively outnumbered in the stadium, about 95 percent French to 5 percent Irish (I know because I was there). We more than acquited ourselves well. Such utter, utter nonsense you've talked.

PokeHerKing

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119164602#Comment_119164602

The tournament before our last tournament we got zero points and 1 goal. A truly embarrassing showing.

Fred Astaire

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119164651#Comment_119164651

Yeah, one of the last 5. In the other 4 not only did we do better than zero points, we actually qualified from the group.

What you've said is not the reality of how Irish teams perform in tournaments. It was a complete outlier. And in defense of that team, the group involved both teams who would go on to contest the final of the whole competition. We were in one of the hardest groups in the history of an international tournament.

completedit

That Croatian team I remember seemed to be a team in decline(in hindsight they weren't) but mad that they ended up in a World Cup Final 6 years later.

PokeHerKing

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119164658#Comment_119164658

Your stats are harping back to our golden era of football. It's not comparable to the last 15 years of Irish football.

2012 featured at the heart of that era. That's what I'm judging Kenny against. Not an era were the whole squad were playing for top tier PL teams.

hynesie08

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119164602#Comment_119164602

We scraped through the group because Italy had already qualified and couldn't be arsed to play their starters, then ran out of steam after 10 minutes against France.

I don't know if Stephen Kenny is the right man for the job, but I'll watch these lads try over the absolute hoofball we've played for the 15 years previous.

We're a low level European team who've qualified for 3 world cups and 3 Euros, why are we pretending otherwise.

Fred Astaire

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119164674#Comment_119164674

You spoke about our performance at international tournaments as if getting 0 points was the norm. It isn't and you were completely disingenuous in your original comment.

You've arbitrarily plucked 15 years as it suits your goalpost shifting.

completedit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119164681#Comment_119164681

We're a low tier country which is pretty much the crux of it. We've rarely had good teams, produced a few good players over the years and very few in recent times. The late 80', 90's were an anomaly in Irish football's history. Even then we missed out on a lot of tournaments(92,96, 98, 2000).

PokeHerKing

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119164692#Comment_119164692

I mean the last 15 years is pretty long and a relevant period I'd have thought. Going back to the 80s and intimating that that's how we perform is more than disingenuous imo.

Fred Astaire

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119164681#Comment_119164681

Italy played a number of their starters, and the people that came in off the bench to start that game included Immobile and Bernadeschi, who have featured regularly for Italy since and during Euro 2020, which they won.

We are a mid level European team - given we are in Nations League 2nd tier. But if we were a low level european team - we should play to our strengths and not get in a fella way out of his depth to have the players pass it around the back five for 75 minutes, before hoofing it for 15 when the other thing invevitably hasn't worked.

Some of the best performances in the history of Irish football have come in the last 15 years. Utterly f*cking hilarious that you would try to reduce those performances to hoofball, you absolute armchair bluffer.

Fred Astaire

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119164719#Comment_119164719

I haven't gone into the 80's.

Our last international tournament we qualified from the group and gave a great showing in a cauldron in Lyon against the home nation, who qualified for the final of that tournament and won the world cup after.

Disregarding that, to focus on the tournament prior, when we were in a group against the two finalists and a very strong Croatia - a group that only two teams qualified from, not three, and thus would easily be one of the most difficult groups in international tournament football history - is nonsense.

BailMeOut

For once here in Ireland we are thinking of a longer-term development of the international team. That's why I like Stephen Kenny and even when they lose this team plays way more interesting than any Irish team for a very long time. You get the sense that it will click for this bunch and I for one am happy to be patient with them.

Wompa1

People were up in arms about the style of play under Martin O'Neil. They took joy when he'd get annoyed with Tony O'Donoghue asking him blunt questions after a bad result. It was ugly BUT O'Neil got results. Chris Hughton would probably be the same. So, what do we want? Ugly frustrating play and sometimes get results or to re-build and start a more positive style of play?

Our best players at the moment were playing in League One in England this season. We have an under supported domestic league. We can no longer rely on English clubs to develop our players for us. We reap what we sow. Can sack Kenny but be careful what you wish for.

PokeHerKing

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119164763#Comment_119164763

Yeah and we can use the same excuses for our WC qualifying campaign just gone. Only 2 teams and top teams at that qualified.

So ya know, its almost like depending on one's bias they can state stats to back up that pov.

Wompa1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119164733#Comment_119164733

People seem to be reaching that conclusion now but there was a very loud vocal majority complaining about the style of play under O'Neil. We're a fickle bunch.

completedit

See this is where there's a divide; the people who are just happy to pass it and pass it until we get to areas where a pass would be required and we hoof it into the box. That seems like the Kenny philosophy as it plays out on the pitch. I don't actually mind losing but we still lose in the same bland Irish way. I remember Belgium(much more promising players than we have so not a great example perhaps) but back in like 2010-2013 when their golden era was emerging, they'd lose games 4-3, be 3 up and end up drawing 3-3 and they missed out on all those tournaments until 2014 but that to me seemed an interesting time to be a fan. That's what I thought a revolution would look like. Our problem is that we are still a cautious unimaginative team with zero goal threat. We still play like your typical Irish team.

erlichbachman

In all my years of watching international football I’ve never once minded a high ball played into Quinn or cascarino and headed down to Aldridge or Keane.

Man city, Liverpool and Barcelona start playing football from the back, but they have the luxury of hand picking the appropriate players for that task.

Play to your strengths, wales had a big lad up front yesterday and weren’t too proud to lump it if needed, not an eyelid batted.

stephen kenny has an “idea” on how the game should be played, and what we really need is a pragmatic manager

lalababa

The hoofball was very difficult to watch and we couldn't string 3 passes together. We might just about qualify for something and then get decimated.

The hoofball was pure groan to watch, almost unbearable.

But now ...eventhough the results are worse...there's entertainment in the way we play, there's excitement. There's pleasure! You're egging on every pass, you don't quiet know what will happen next.

We weren't good v Armenia. Eventhough I thought we were better and created more chances . We lack goal scoring formulas. And we were loose on their breaks.

That said I look forward to the next game..in anticipation of what kind of passing and rewards the team might conjure up. I really can't say that about the previous set ups of hoofball...save for MacCarty s rein...he seemed to almost find a happy medium...

supermans ghost

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119164809#Comment_119164809

Is that you Stephen?

Fred Astaire

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119164788#Comment_119164788

Serbia weren't even in the Euros and Portugal were eliminated in the 2nd round. There is absolutely no comparison between those teams and the sides we had in our group in 2012. None.

Bobblehats

I’d be even wearier of the next match, hopefully Ireland don’t roll over too handy then Scotland who effectively did so against same opposition midweek despite it being an absolute crunch match. In a WC playoff format someone decided should now be once-off matches; with a distinct home advantage at that. And yet still the Ukraine were robbed