End game for Stephen Kenny or survival Sunday
Survival Sunday for Stephen Kenny is upon us and failure to beat Netherlands will likely trigger a Manic Monday.
This parting, barring an unlikely crushing of the l’Oranje, will be swift in its execution unlike the drawn-out three-week dismissal of Vera Pauw.
Results had no bearing on the decision of the FAI to change women’s manager, whereas they’ve been the commodity Kenny simply hasn’t delivered over his 35 matches.
Of his 25 competitive games, only five have resulted in wins and they’ve failed to build on the noteworthy ones, at home to Scotland 15 months ago, for example. Six of the last 10 competitive matches ended in defeat.
Nobody should be surprised at Kenny waving the home crowd card within minutes of the latest reverse in Paris on Thursday night.
“When we beat Scotland 3-0, that was the highest-ranked team that Ireland had won against since Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Aviva in the Euro 2016 playoff.
“We went up a level to beat a seeded team but now we are going to have to go up a level again because Holland are ranked higher.”
If this was Kenny’s attempt at a rallying call to the sold-out stadium, then it conveniently forgot that Ireland recorded wins over Italy, Austria and Wales in the next two years.
Chairman Roy Barrett had spoken of tolerating bumps on the road during the era of a manager leaning heavily on blooding players, but there’s been too much talk and little action following his various crashes at the wheel. It doesn't require stating, never mind repeating, that players give everything of themselves.
Setbacks against lower seeds Luxembourg, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Greece were dealt with by promising better days ahead.
Excuses have been tiresome, lives used up, and the Dutch will be the
Read on irishexaminer.com
