Ahead of Ireland's EURO 2024 qualifier against the Netherlands in Amsterdam, RTÉ pundit Didi Hamann ripped into Stephen Kenny for his decision to offer a late call-up to Andrew Moran to the senior squad.
Moran left the U21s camp earlier this week to join the senior panel as injury cover after several players were ruled out of the senior squad's clash with the Dutch.
The 20-year-old Brighton midfielder - currently on loan at Blackburn - is one of Ireland's brightest young talents, and has played a crucial role for Jim Crawford's U21s as they push to qualify for EURO 2025 from a tough group featuring Italy, Turkey, and Norway.
Ireland stood on three wins from three going into Friday's qualifier against Norway in Drammen, with vice-captain Moran expected to once again be pivotal in a game where victory would have set Ireland up perfectly for a tilt at EURO 2025 qualification.
Moran's absence was keenly felt, however, as Ireland conceded two goals in the last 20 minutes to fall to a 3-2 defeat.
On Saturday evening, Stephen Kenny - in what will surely be his last competitive game as Ireland manager - chose not to include Moran in the starting XI, leaving him on the bench in Amsterdam.
Appearing as part of RTÉ's pre-match punditry team, Didi Hamann slated the decision to take Moran away from the U21s group for such a pivotal fixture when he was not in Kenny's plans from the start against the Netherlands.
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Netherlands v Ireland: Didi Hamann questions "inexcusable" Andrew Moran call-up
17 November 2023; Andrew Moran during a Republic of Ireland training session at Johan Cruijff ArenA in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
With Ireland's chances of qualifying for EURO 2024 officially over, Saturday night's final game of the campaign is the definition of a dead rubber for Ireland, with no chance even of improving from their lowly position of fourth in the group.
Even with a few injury concerns, and even with Andrew Moran in lightning form for Blackburn, the decision to give the Rovers man his first senior call-up this weekend of all weekends baffled some - including Hamann.
Hamann called the decision from Kenny "inexcusable," and even went so far as to say that officials within the FAI should have prevented him from making that call:
The U21s had a very important game against Norway last night. They beat Turkey last month and Moran was outstanding in that game. If you win yesterday, you win four out of four, and you're in a very strong position and talking about winning the group.
Now, you lose to Norway, Italy on the way, you also have to go to Turkey...I feel that Stephen Kenny with his addition of Andrew Moran took away the chance for Jim Crawford and his squad and the coaching staff...he took away the chance to play in the EUROs.
Stephen Kenny is employed by the FAI, he has to do what's best for the FAI, every decision he's got to make in the best interests of the FAI and for Irish football - not for his personal interests.
This is why it's inexcusable to call up the vice-captain of the team, who's a main player, the heart of the team...to call him up for a dead rubber against Holland, where he's on the bench! He might get 10-15 minutes...
Richie Sadlier and Shay Given on punditry duty both took issue with Hamann's suggestion that someone among the directors of the FAI should have stepped in, though both agreed that Moran should not have been pulled away from the U21s group.
An intense debate between Sadlier and Hamann would play out, with former Liverpool midfielder Hamann adamant that Kenny's decision to call up the midfielder was unforgivable, while Sadlier could not accept that an FAI official should be involved in team selection.
"It was inexcusable" - @DietmarHamann disagrees with the decision to call Andrew Moran into the senior squad
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The sting of losing to Norway without their vice captain will only have been compounded for the Ireland U21s by the fact that Andrew Moran was not even named in the starting XI for the senior squad's game, and it seems as though this is a major call where Stephen Kenny failed to see the bigger picture.
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