Stephen Kenny allowed a stay of execution but little hope of changing FAI minds
A slow death – the antithesis of Stephen Kenny’s style of football can now be applied to the twilight of his reign as Ireland manager.
Following the team’s virtual elimination from the Euro qualifiers, a slip-up by Netherlands against Gibraltar among the permutations required for a miracle, the FAI faced a dilemma.
First existed the option of acting quickly and decisively, invoking the early maximum severance clause contained in his contract to relieve Kenny of his duties with immediate effect.
Alternatively, there’s the holding pattern approach.
Leave the manager at the helm for the final three qualifiers and decline an extension after the final game of the year, a friendly against New Zealand on November 21.
Either way, his fate was decided once the collective target of qualification was missed.
This was Kenny’s fourth campaign over a three-and-a-half-year tenure, the Euros coming after two Nations League tilts and a World Cup series that back-to-back defeats put paid to just 180 minutes in.
The plan, as it stands, is to mirror the winding down of Vera Pauw’s era by letting Kenny’s contract expire. No sacking on the new FAI’s watch. Neither would they be on the hook for a payoff, an important element given their debt position.
A stay of execution usually brings with it a reprieve to change minds but the board’s position was cemented once a discussion was held in the aftermath of June’s crushing defeat in Greece.
Points against France and Netherlands over the past week were imperative for the needle to change. The blank means now it’s just a case of when to stop the music.
In contrast to the previous administration, the damaged goods manager will be cast as the lame duck, allowed to talk up a future he won’t be part
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