On Virgin Media after Ireland's dire 2-0 defeat to Greece on Friday night, Richard Dunne led the postmortem into the time Stephen Kenny has spent as manager of the team.
Kenny took over in March 2020 and, through two qualifying campaigns and two Nations League campaigns, has struggled for consistency bar a brief period in late 2021 when the tide appeared to be turning.
The Republic of Ireland manger now seems almost certain to be out of that job before 2023 is out, and the inquest into the farcical manner of defeat to Greece will no doubt continue no matter the result against Gibraltar on Monday.
But the manner of criticism from Richard Dunne on Virgin Media on Friday night left much to be desired, and did a disservice to the good work Kenny has done, despite the ultimate failures of his reign.
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Richard Dunne's criticism of Stephen Kenny is wide of the mark
🗣 "He's given it a good a go. He's tried his best. He's tried to reinvent Irish football when it didn't need reinventing, it just needed taking care of."
🗣 "We've gone so far backwards now that we need to restart."
🗣 "Results have been diabolical."
- Richard Dunne.#COYBIG pic.twitter.com/rC5eXf7pcK— Virgin Media Sport (@VMSportIE) October 13, 2023
Speaking after the game on Virgin Media, Richard Dunne laid out what he saw as the reason to be unimpressed with Stephen Kenny's tenure as manager.
The former Ireland centre back said that he did not understand Kenny's desire to "reinvent" Irish football, saying that he believed the team were now in a worse state than they were when Kenny took charge three years ago:
It's not working. He's given it a good go, he's tried his best. He's tried to reinvent Irish football, at times, when it didn't need reinventing. It just needed taking care of.
We've gone so far backwards now that we need to restart.
When he took over, we were in a play-off. People weren't happy with the style of football, but we were in a play-off. We were a team that was competing for qualification. Since then, it's just been absolutely diabolical.
In the last three-and-a-half years, how far we've fallen is unbelievable. The performance tonight wasn't any good but it's not been good for a long, long time.
I was an advocate for Stephen to get the job in the first place. I thought, 'he deserves an opportunity, he's done well in the League of Ireland, he's done really well in European football.'
But over the period of the last three-and-a-half years, the team has got worse and worse. The performances have been really, really poor. Tonight was the icing on the cake.
Dunne was not the only one to criticise Kenny, but his take on where the manager found this Irish team and where he will likely leave it needs some examination.
It is only right to question the Irish manager after what Dunne correctly referred to as a "diabolical" performance on Friday night, and the sad truth of the matter is that this was not the first such defeat under Stephen Kenny.
When the book is written on Kenny's reign, the double defeat to Greece this year will loom large over it, along with Armenia 2022 and Luxembourg 2021.
27 March 2021; The scorboard showing the scoreline of Republic of Ireland 0 Luxembourg 1 during the closing stages of the FIFA World Cup 2022 qualifying group A match between Republic of Ireland and Luxembourg at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
But credit must be given where credit is due.
Stephen Kenny's time as Ireland manager will almost certainly end after November's international window - if not between now and then - and he will step aside having overseen the most tumultuous period of Irish international football in recent memory, during which the early months of his reign were defined by COVID-enforced absences and rapidly changing squad dynamics.
But, throughout all of this, and managing a squad which is lower on quality than many of those which have come before it, Kenny has persevered with trying to get Ireland playing a more attractive brand of football than any of his predecessors.
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The attacking style of play showed glimpses of coming to fruition in the winter of 2021, and perhaps the highlight was the 3-0 win over Scotland at the Aviva Stadium in June of last year.
Ultimately, the signs have not been positive enough on a consistent basis and that will likely be what costs Kenny his job, but he should be applauded for his push to change the footballing culture at the top level in Ireland, and one can only hope that his successor will be another to push for an attacking, bright style of football to make use of the exciting new talent coming through.
13 October 2023; Republic of Ireland manager Stephen Kenny reacts after the UEFA EURO 2024 Championship qualifying group B match between Republic of Ireland and Greece at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
And that is another point that Kenny should be applauded for. The debut of Liam Scales on Friday night was the 21st under Kenny, an extraordinary record of trusting in youth that, again, may be a part of what will ultimately see him lose his job.
It has perhaps been too much too soon, but Kenny has averaged seven new debutants per year in charge, a remarkable testament to him standing by his mission to build a new generation of Irish footballers and bring them to play football in an expressive, expansive manner.
Nobody is in denial now - Kenny will not be Ireland manager for the next qualifying campaign, and most will likely agree that the time has come for a change.
But Ireland have been given a glimpse of the potential in this squad to play in a brighter manner and, in three to four years, there is no doubt that the likes of Nathan Collins and Evan Ferguson, and the 19 other young players trusted with a first Ireland cap under Kenny, will be at the centre of a far brighter time for the Irish national team.
The final point here is a trivial one, but one worth remembering - that EURO 2020 play-off referenced by Richard Dunne is one which Ireland only reached due to a mid-campaign format change, having finished bottom of their UEFA Nations League group with two points from four games under Martin O'Neill.
16 October 2018; Republic of Ireland manager Martin O'Neill and assistant manager Roy Keane following the UEFA Nations League B group four match between Republic of Ireland and Wales at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
It does Kenny a disservice to suggest that he has done poorly to 'replicate' that performance, when the play-off place only came about by a fortuitous twist of fate after a dire campaign had been played out by the Irish team.
A fairer point may be to suggest that the current Irish squad could have done more in the two Nations League campaigns they have played out under Kenny thus far in order to win themselves a play-off place - but to compare him unfavourably to a fortuitous failure of his predecessors is unfair.
Make no mistake - Stephen Kenny deserves questioning for the abject performances against middling opposition, and has eventually been exposed as being the wrong man to bring this Irish team to the next level. But one can make those criticisms without tearing down what will be undeniable positive legacies left behind by his reign.
To say that Kenny leaves behind a squad in a worse state than that which he first took over in 2020 is both unfair and untrue. He has trusted in youth, and changed the modus operandi.
Things look bleak now, and there is a sneaky feeling that Ireland fans will have to endure yet more frustration in the months ahead. But, hopefully, the long-lasting legacy left behind by Stephen Kenny will be a positive one that leaves this Irish team in a better place in years to come.
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