YOU NEED to go back over 50 years to find a worse Republic of Ireland qualifying campaign results-wise than that which Stephen Kenny has just presided over.
Even the much-maligned Steve Staunton oversaw four wins, four draws and three defeats during his sole campaign in charge, albeit with better players at his disposal.
Last night’s 1-0 defeat to the Netherlands meant the Boys in Green have finished their latest qualification attempt with six losses and two wins.
The sole victories came against Gibraltar — undoubtedly one of the worst teams in the world as last night’s embarrassing 14-0 loss to France emphasised.
Things have been slightly worse, however. Mick Meagan was the manager for the majority of the Euro ’72 campaign when Ireland lost five and drew one in a group that also featured then-World Cup runners-up Italy, Austria and Sweden, with no opportunity for easy victories against minnows back then.
Saturday’s game in Amsterdam may have been close in theory, but the contrast in quality was more stark than the final score suggested.
1-0 flattered the Irish, who had just three attempts on goal compared to 19 for the Dutch.
The visitors invariably played like a naive young team, frequently giving the ball away in dangerous areas, offering little in attack and regularly relying on man-of-the-match Gavin Bazunu to get them out of jail.
The Dutch, though, were also inexperienced in certain positions — the central midfield of Tijjani Reijnders and Jerdy Schouten have just a handful of caps between them.
Yet elsewhere there was plenty of nous in the hosts’ side. The central defensive trio of Daley Blind, Virgil van Dijk and Stefan de Vrij alone have well over 200 caps combined.
By contrast, earning his 40th cap, Matt Doherty was Ireland’s most experienced player and the only individual to feature for the visitors over the age of 30.
One passage in Stephen Kenny’s post-match interview with RTÉ stood out.
“We have rebuilt a team over the last couple of years because it was needed,” he said. “The alternatives were players who moved down the divisions. There is no one that we’re overlooking. There is a massive deficit in Irish football. All of these players have been fast-tracked through.”
This quote is perhaps a rebuttal to the frequent criticism aimed at Kenny that he has been too quick to promote promising young players at the expense of elder statesmen and Ireland’s form has supposedly deteriorated as a result.
Yet this complaint is misguided.
The likes of Doherty, Shane Duffy, John Egan and James McClean — all veterans at this point — have been among the most-used players during the Kenny era.
Moreover, consider, for example, the marked change that has taken place since Mick McCarthy’s last competitive game in charge almost four years ago to the day.
Of the players involved that night during the 1-1 draw with Denmark who are no longer regular squad members, their subsequent omission was unavoidable in almost every instance.
The players in question no longer regularly involved have either retired (Glenn Whelan, David McGoldrick) or had a torrid time with injuries/seen their careers regress significantly since then (Darren Randolph, Enda Stevens, Jeff Hendrick, Conor Hourihane, Ciaran Clark, Sean Maguire).
The idea that Kenny was too reliant on young players presupposes that he had a choice in the first place. In reality, though, it was very hard to justify staying loyal for most if not all of the aforementioned experienced players based on their dire fortunes at club level.
None of which is to suggest Kenny should be immune from criticism. There have been times during his tenure where the manager has fallen short tactically and made some contentious selection calls — most notably, the crucial 2-1 loss to Greece away last June — a game that was always going to set the tone for how Ireland’s make-or-break campaign was perceived.
The last few months have consequently gone so badly that even Kenny’s most ardent admirers now find it difficult to make a case for him to stay in the job after two forgettable Nations League campaigns and three failures to reach major tournaments (albeit Euro 2020 comes with the considerable caveat that he was thrust immediately into a win-or-bust playoff encounter with Slovakia).
Yet while Kenny has been partially responsible for the debacle that has unfolded, he is far from the root of the problem and those expecting a quick fix following his expected departure at the end of this month are likely to be sorely disappointed.
Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of his tenure is the inescapable sense that the promising young team has regressed to a dramatic degree.
By the end of the last campaign, despite failing to reach the World Cup by a wide margin, there was a pervasive feeling that the new contract eventually awarded to Kenny was deserved.
After a rocky beginning, there were signs of progress, with draws against high-calibre sides like Portugal and Serbia.
Yet this campaign, and to a large extent, the Nations League results that preceded it, have felt like a series of demoralising backward steps.
Young players are supposed to get better, but in Ireland’s case, they have seemingly grown exponentially worse.
On the other hand, it’s worth remembering just how young the squad still is, literally as well as figuratively, and the inevitable inconsistency that will endure as a result.
Liam Scales at 25 was the oldest of the three centre-backs selected on Saturday and he was winning just his third cap. There were three other players elsewhere aged 22 or under — Jason Knight, Gavin Bazunu and Evan Ferguson. The likes of Troy Parrott (21), Adam Idah (22), Mikey Johnston (24) and Jayson Molumby (24) were introduced off the bench. Even two of the 27-year-olds were young in terms of playing time at international level, with Ryan Manning and Jamie McGrath winning their 10th and 11th caps respectively.
The absence of older players has less to do with Kenny’s progressive ideals and is more a reflection of the dire state that Irish football had been in and the lack of high-quality players being developed at grassroots level for a substantial period.
For Kenny, it was never really a choice to blood so many young players, it was a necessity. This issue, more than any other, has been the primary reason for the series of disappointing results and why he will almost certainly be out of a job in a few weeks.
Though he may have been wrong to apply it to a Man United squad featuring Peter Schmeichel, Roy Keane, Eric Cantona and Steve Bruce among others, legendary BBC pundit Alan Hansen was right in theory when he famously quipped: “You’ll never win anything with kids”.
