91 time capped former Ireland international, Glenn Whelan, has given his experienced insight into what her perceives as some of the faults of Stephen Kenny's reign as Ireland manager.
During Kenny's time in charge, Ireland dropped from 34th to 58th in the world rankings, while fans had to suffer through two doomed qualification campaigns.
Glenn Whelan Has Interesting Stephen Kenny Take
Whelan was often maligned and used as a scapegoat under Martin O'Neill and Mick McCarthy, but was a difficult man not to pick due to his ever presence in a Stoke side that often had Premier League status.
In his column for the Irish Independent, Whelan has accused players these days of resting on their laurels, and argued that under Kenny there were 'too many' players being picked who were not playing regularly for their clubs.
Under some Ireland managers, but especially under Stephen Kenny, I felt there were too many lads who were not playing for their clubs but were still getting picked to play for their nation and that needs to change.
I felt I had to be playing well for my club before I could think about playing for Ireland, but certain players with certain reputations felt they had a divine right to play for their country – but were not fighting to play for their club.
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18 November 2019; Glenn Whelan of Republic of Ireland and Pierre-Emile Højbjerg of Denmark during the UEFA EURO2020 Qualifier - Group D match between Republic of Ireland and Denmark at Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Photo by Ben McShane/Sportsfile
“He had a tough time with the turnover of players, he said he would give young players a chance but I’m not sure that some of them deserved to be winning senior caps.
"If you look at the results, it was disappointing as we had some draws and defeats which were disappointing and under another manager they might have been wins. It’s about getting points and Ireland under Stephen didn’t do enough of that – it needed to change.”
What Whelan says is not untrue, with the likes of Shane Duffy and Matt Doherty being constants in the side despite struggling at club level, as well as younger players such as Troy Parrot.
However, the depth of talent and options at Kenny's disposal was the weakest under any Ireland manager in recent memory, and his record of handing out 21 debuts will hopefully bear fruit in the coming years.
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