John Fallon: Time for actions to trump self-preservation
On Thursday afternoon, when Stephen Kenny unloads his thoughts into a gaggle of microphones, 73 days will have passed since he delivered what many interpreted as his eulogy.
Ireland’s manager has hardly been seen and certainly not heard over the summer, taking a well-deserved holiday following a June window tainted by a Greek tragedy in Athens.
It threatened to plunge deeper when a chorus of boos accompanied his side’s stroll to the dressing-room at half-time from a scoreless first half at home to Gibraltar. Three second-half goals avoided humiliation but his monologue in the bowels of the stadium provided more entertainment.
Asking the assembled to “step back”, Kenny uttered 700 words of self-assessment, tracing back to his first steps into management.
The majority was devoted to rationalising his abysmal record of five victories in 24 competitive matches, all bar one being dead rubbers against minnows of Europe, expunging his first year at the helm as a farce due to Covid-19.
His soapbox defence was dismissed by centurion Kevin Kilbane as gimmickry, making his blood boil, but the scope for grandstanding and charades is over.
By September 10, we’ll have a strong idea whether consistency decrees that another slow start has removed Ireland from the business end of qualifying.
Both tilts at challenging for promotion to League A of the Nations League also perished prematurely.
All of this is incremental from being consequential. Getting handed the Group of Death against France and Netherlands was a symptom of missing out on a second seeding.
Defeat in Greece means at least one victory in Paris next Thursday or in Dublin four days later against the Dutch is required to avoid another wooden spoon climax.
Either the players
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