John Fallon: Kenny's Ireland reign moves along the spectrum from dismal to delusional
Stephen Kenny isn’t alone in the FAI in being delusional, because his employers believed the lowest point in 50 years an opportune moment to raise the price of tickets.
Ireland’s current trajectory, losing every game in the Euro campaign bar to lowly Gibraltar, counts as the worst series of qualifiers since the 1972 campaign.
Should - as the FAI seem intent on facilitating - the slow death of this manager’s reign stumble on for next month’s concluding fixture against Netherlands, expect Kenny to talk up Ireland’s prospects of winning in Amsterdam.
He’s incapable of confronting the reality of the malaise he’s overseen, still hyping up missed chances against Greece on Friday when Gus Poyet’s were content to remain in first gear and protect their 2-0 lead interval lead.
After three years of future promises, he’s leaned heavily of late on what he inherited. The stagnation of budding talent over a period we know all about but if that was eradicated by a generation emerging in recent years, why has he failed to fuse them into a winning team?
Five wins from 27 competitive games, all but one against minnows, summarises the chasm between self-delusion and points. Whereas the performance was there in some earlier losses, notably away to Portugal, not even they can compensate for the recent reverses. Both the Dutch and Greeks scored twice at the Aviva and saw out the game comfortably.
Even the late sieges of old were absent, mirroring the waning enthusiasm for this regime. Next year is a fallow one for the international team, given the backdoor playoff aspirations are basically sunk. Notions of a 1988 influx of Irish into Germany have been dashed, rendering Ireland’s role as statuettes to qualifiers seeking pre-tournament
Read on irishexaminer.com
