IT WAS MARCH 1989. The Berlin Wall was still standing. So, every now and then, was Oliver Reed. You had Maggie Thatcher in Downing Street; George H.W. Bush in the White House; Jack Charlton’s Republic of Ireland in Budapest.
No one was to know it then – and only those of us with too much time on our hands have figured it out now – but Ireland’s draw against Hungary that month was the start of a remarkable sequence of results over a six-year period.
From March ’89 through to June ’95, the Republic of Ireland lost fewer World Cup and European Championship qualification matches than anyone else. Thirty games, one defeat.
To put those figures in context, the Netherlands – in the same time-frame –lost three qualifiers, France five, Spain six.
Football moves so fast, it seems scarcely believable now. Ajax, Red Star Belgrade and Marseille were champions of Europe; Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union were considered two of the world’s best international sides. By 1995, both countries had been torn apart.
It was a time of change. England’s First Division became the Premiership; the European Cup the Champions League. Ireland, meanwhile, became Jackie’s Army, and when the troops sang ‘You’ll never beat the Irish’, it was without a trace of irony.
We heard their voice when Spain lost 1-0 in Dublin and were held to a draw in Seville. The chorus was again audible during a 5-0 win over Turkey, a 1-0 victory over Portugal, two draws with England, two with Denmark; two with Poland. All in, Ireland won 18 of those 30 qualifiers, drew 11, lost just once. Again for context, Germany were beaten in two qualifiers, Italy three, across the same six-year period.
The run came to an end in June ‘95, just weeks after Everton won their last major trophy, just two months before Alan Hansen responded to the sight of Beckham, Neville, Butt and Scholes’ names on a Manchester United team sheet by saying, you will win nothing with kids.
All these years later, Stephen Kenny has a number of critics who strictly adhere to Hansen’s philosophy, believing the Ireland manager’s willingness to drop the old guard is wrong, and that his record is indefensible: 14 games in charge of Ireland, one win.
If the cynics are dogmatic in their point of view, Kenny’s zealous worshipers are just as loud from the other side of the chamber, regularly pointing out that Kenny has lost 15 players to some Covid-related issue and that his team have been frequently cursed not just by refereeing decisions and injuries but also by crossbars and posts.
That being said, a day-tripper to this debate would genuinely struggle to understand why there is even a discussion. Football, after all, is full of stories like this, small to medium sized countries going through cyclical periods of boom and bust.
Even so, Kenny’s problem, like every other Ireland manager since Jack Charlton, is that he is trapped in the shadow of those unforgettable summer days in Stuttgart, Genoa and New Jersey as well as those 30 qualifying nights when a standard was set that everything is now measured against.
Plenty before him have paid a heavy price. Mick McCarthy was booed at Lansdowne Road just months after he had taken Ireland to the last 16 of the 2002 World Cup. Brian Kerr was next out the door despite three productive years.
Steve Staunton arrived with bold talk about a four-year plan but lost his job when his team failed to execute a 90-minute one. Giovanni Trapattoni overstayed his welcome. So did Martin O’Neill while the FAI packed their board with elderly men but not always with sporting maturity.
What was the long term plan? Was there even one at all? After losing 5-2 to Cyprus in 2006, it was clear Irish football needed a structure. Good old John Delaney agreed. That structure was to be the Aviva Stadium, its corporate boxes to ‘become a toll and a pension for Irish football’.
We all know how that worked out.
Had his board overruled him, had they vetoed the rebuilding of a stadium the FAI could not afford and invested instead in underage coaching with the €20m surplus they had in the bank then there’s little doubt things would be better now.
Instead they chased big-name managers, paying way over the odds not just for Trapattoni and O’Neill but also for their coaching entourage.
Short-term solutions became the norm. If there was a positional problem, manager after manager opted for journeymen over prospects. A habit, established by Jack Charlton, continued whereby good, solid pros got ignored until the summer, sometimes autumn of their careers. Mark Kinsella was 26 before he made his debut, Matt Holland 25. Wes Hoolahan didn’t get his first competitive cap until after his 30th birthday; David McGoldrick didn’t become a regular until he was 31.
Jon Walters, John Egan, Glenn Whelan, Keith Andrews, Keith Fahey, Matt Doherty have similar backstories.
Even Seamus Coleman wasn’t included in the squad that went to Poland for Euro 2012. Paul Green, a good pro but nonetheless a journeyman, did travel to Poznan and in that little snapshot you get a glimpse of the short-term thinking that has prevailed throughout much of this century.
Tasked with the immediate goal of getting the team to the next tournament, a succession of Ireland managers either didn’t feel they had the leeway to experiment, or else they just weren’t bothered. Declan Rice and Jack Grealish each spent years in the FAI system before being thieved away. A manager with Kenny’s mindset to promote youth would have resolved that issue long before it became one.
As it is, he has his own pressing matters to sort out this weekend. Three straight defeats in this World Cup campaign, one harrowing, two unfortunate, have left Ireland out of the running for a qualification spot and have opened up the motion about whether he deserves a new contract.
Results say he doesn’t. One win in 14 is shockingly poor. You can’t hide from that fact.
Yet amid the poor results there have enough good performances and the implementation of a defined plan to justify the discussion about whether he should be kept on.
After years of drab football, it’s been heartening to see Irish sides pass the ball for a change. After years of packing the team with washed-up journeymen, it’s been joyous to see new blood. Five of the players who featured in Portugal are aged between 19 and 22. Add in Troy Parrott’s name as well as Jason Knight’s to that list. You can see some light ahead.
It’s still currently dark, though. This sequence of results – three wins in 24 competitive games dating back to November 2017, is Ireland’s worst run in 50 years. The events of Wednesday evening suggest things will get better, that if we stick with this policy of promoting youth then it could come good.
Kenny, too, has restored some credit to his account after his stock plummeted post Luxembourg. But he needs to back Wednesday up with results against Azerbaijan and Serbia over the next few days.
If he does so then yes, he has a strong argument to make about getting a second term. But whatever way the FAI go, by now it’s clear, if they don’t keep Kenny, at the very least they need to hold onto his plan.
