Stephen Kenny's timeline as Ireland manager
A timeline of Stephen Kenny’s tumultuous three-and-a-half year reign as Ireland manager. The footnote could be brief.
APRIL 2020
Covid-19 presents the FAI with a managerial dilemma in their succession plan and Kenny prevails following letters issued on his behalf insisting the August handover date from Mick McCarthy isn’t extended by the pandemic.
Choosing Damien Duff over Mick McCarthy’s sidekick Robbie Keane was deemed fair game but Kenny’s decision not to inform the under-contract legend directly due to ‘time constraints’ was an ill-judged early pass.
SEPTEMBER 2020
Shane Duffy’s late header avoids the new reign starting with an embarrassing defeat in Bulgaria. Those would come later.
OCTOBER 2020
Drama unfolds on the eve of the Euro playoff semi-final against Slovakia when it emerges Aaron Connolly and Adam Idad are ruled out. They are adjudged to be close contacts of a person Kenny entitles a ‘non-essential member of staff’ who received what transpired to be a false positive Covid result. But it soon emerges the incident on the charter flight to Bratislava occurred because the pair were allowed to change rows and therefore breach social distance rules. Slovakia, equally impacted by Covid through the loss of Stanislav Lobotka and Milan Škriniar, knock Ireland out on penalties.
NOVEMBER 2020
Kenny is subject to an urgent investigation by his employers following a UK tabloid story revealing an ‘Anti-English’ video was played before a friendly against the Auld Enemy. What became known as ‘Videogate’ should’ve been branded ‘Wembleygate’ for it was the thrust of the manager’s speech, rather than the historical video, that prompted a staff member to relay complaints from players about ‘inappropriate’ content. An
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