‘Bitter’ ex-Republic of Ireland manager Martin O’Neill rips into Irish media, questioning their support for Stephen Kenny

Former Republic of Ireland boss admits he is embittered about the manner of his exit

Former Northern Ireland international Martin O'Neill.

Martin O'Neill believes Stephen Kenny has been propped up by the Irish media during his reign as Republic of Ireland boss, as he admits he is "bitter" about the manner of his own exit from the job.

Kenny is under huge pressure after a disappointing Euro 2024 qualifying campaign continued with a 2-1 home defeat against Holland in Dublin on Sunday night.

Now the last manager who took the Republic of Ireland to a major championships in 2016 believes the Irish media need to shoulder some of the blame for giving Kenny an easy ride despite a long run of poor results.

"Obviously, I managed the side and I lost my job over some of the results at the end and I thought international football was about winning football games, it's about winning," O'Neill told talkSPORT.

"The Irish media have put Stephen in charge and therefore they are still going to pedal this idea that he has changed the course of football. That the Republic of Ireland play a different type of football.

"They (Irish media) put him in charge because they were very strongly in favour of him and the FAI succumbed and went with that, which was fine.

"The whole idea Stephen would change the course of football. We are going to be a possession team, we are going to change it.

"That's very, very difficult to change when you are an international manager. You have players for two or three days.

"You're not going to change a lot of things in that time and it's all very well having possession when your two centre-halves pass the ball to each other on a number of occasions and you get your stats up.

"The bottom line is you have to win