STEPHEN KENNY SAYS James McClean’s autobiography is “a complete misrepresentation” of his time as Republic of Ireland manager.

The St Patrick’s Athletic boss insists he will provide a more considered right of reply in time but took a moment after his side’s final game of the League of Ireland season to address some of the descriptions and recollections in the Derry native’s new book.

McClean criticised Kenny’s motivation, tactical and personal skills during his spell in charge of the men’s international team, taking particular issue with the amount of changes he made to the squad by introducing young players.

McClean also detailed how some players had a derogatory nickname for Kenny behind his back, but the Dubliner revealed he remains in contact with other senior members of the squad from that time.

He offered Seamus Coleman the chance to train with St Pat’s during the summer in a bid to maintain fitness with a view to being included in Heimir Hallgrímsson’s plans for the start of the Nations League campaign.

“Yes, I will have a right of reply, just not here and now. I will have a right of reply for definite.

“I will have a right of reply because it was a complete misrepresentation. I am in regular contact with quite a lot of players from that period.

“Seamus (Coleman) was on wishing us well for the end of the league in recent weeks. Different people like that. John Egan as well.

“I actually invited Seamus in to train with us for that period when we thought he might be in the [summer] squad. He was in Ireland. He didn’t need it as he went back to England.

“He was wishing us well at St Pat’s for the league. John Egan, people like that and other people.

“So, I think….yes, I will be speaking on that for sure. You couldn’t let anyone say things like that about you which were … and not reply. Absolutely a complete misrepresentation. So inaccurate on so many fronts.

“So, I will address that. It was a really, really poor representation. No balance. So I will address that.”

Reflecting on the Premier Division season for St Pat’s, which finished with a 3-2 defeat at home to Bohemians and picking up just one point from their final four fixtures as their title challenge crumbled, Kenny says retaining the core of his squad is of more importance than trying to add to it.

“I would take that. I would take keeping our better players. I think that continuity can be important for your rate of improvement. That is going to be important for us. That’s the reality. Regardless of which, we’ll be strong anyway.”

Stalwart Chris Forrester is understood to be under contract until the end of 2028 but his reduced playing time this term is set to bring forward his departure.

Kian Leavy is out of contract and the subject of interest from Hibernian, Doncaster Rovers and a club in Sweden, while goalkeeper Joey Anang is also weighing up different options in England’s League One.

“I don’t know, I think it’s a great club here, he came through the academy here, he loves it here and hopefully we hope he wants to stay here and we’d like him to stay here,” Kenny said of Leavy, before addressing Forrester’s situation.

“That’s between the club and Chris, I’m not really going to comment on that at the moment. There’s been a lot of talk about that, but I’ll let Ger O’Brien (director of football) deal with it.

“I understand that, and he’s great, he’s super. He’s been an incredible player for St. Patrick’s Athletic.

“He’s been a super player and obviously passed a record last week which we were thrilled about, nothing’s been sorted out in that regard.”

Kenny said one of the club’s goals for the season was to qualify for Europe and achieving that is “massive for us” and something “we’ll build on what we need to build on and try and get better.”