STEPHEN KENNY'S TIME AS IRELAND boss has become a contentious discussion in Irish football circles since he the tooks the Ireland job in 2020.
The 50-year-old's time in Ireland has heralded a mix bag of results. Three wins in 20 games, mixed with up and down performances have left certain people questioning if the Dubliner is the right man to lead the Boys in Green for future international campaigns.
Ireland beat Armenia 3-2 last night in the final Nations League game. They were cruising with a 2-0 lead before Armenia hit a quickfire brace to level things up. Ireland's blushes were sparred with a late Robbie Brady penalty.
Social media last night offered the obvious takes of #Kennyout and other hot takes after the shaky performance.
One of his harshest critics throughout Kenny's tenure has come from Damien Delaney, the former Irish defender.
4⃣1⃣, 7⃣1⃣8⃣ in attendance for our final UEFA Nations League game
Thank you to the Irish fans for their fantastic support throughout the campaign 👏
Class as per usual 💚#COYBIG | #WeAreOne | #IRLARM pic.twitter.com/gCZy4MlXxH— FAIreland ⚽️🇮🇪 (@FAIreland) September 27, 2022
Speaking on Virgin media the former Ireland defender said: " "When you look at his track record for the last two years, there's been several of those things. You can say quite easily lessons learned but when are they going to start learning them? When are we going to start winning games that we should win? I know we won tonight but I'm talking about the Scotland game.
"Tonight, (Ireland) should have just seen that out comfortably 2-0, 3-0. We had a whole package of clips of good Ireland play but Stephen saying it's a good performance... a performance is over 95 minutes when you take in injury-time. You can't just chop it off at 70 and restart it again at 80 and say well it was a good performance. Ten minutes is in the game. You don't just get to forget about that. That's part of the performance," said Delaney
“This is a team that have three wins in 20 competitive games.
“They were in the box-seat, but their discipline and concentration went out the window.
The former Palace defender also wanted to quash the notion that getting rid of Kenny wouldn't be as detrimental as it's made out to be.
"I mean. Stephen Kenny doesn’t hold a patent on an Irish team playing football. There seems to be a theory out there that if we get rid of Stephen Kenny we will end up with a Sam Allardyce and think ‘we had a go at this and we can’t go any further’, added the pundit.
“There are other managers that can come in and get Ireland playing football. Nothing is to be celebrated after that tonight. That is the biggest get out of jail free card we have ever got.
“That was shambolic, how we gave up a position of superiority with the ease that we gave it up. I’m flabbergasted that was even a discussion.
“We are talking about progress and getting results, but we got one tonight by the skin of our teeth against a team ranked 92nd in the world. Seriously worrying times.”
Ireland's next international friendly's will be in November. Kenny's side will play Malta and Norway. It will be interesting to see Kenny can wade away the detractors once more.
🗣 "Stephen Kenny doesn't hold a patent on an Irish team playing football!"
🗣 "Seems to be a theory that if we get rid of Kenny, we're going to get someone like Sam Allardyce. There are other managers who could get Ireland playing football!"
- Damien Delaney#IRLARM | #COYBIG pic.twitter.com/9TkVTGnXjt— Virgin Media Sport (@VMSportIE) September 27, 2022
