STEPHEN KENNY HAS revealed that he welcomed Heimir Hallgrímsson to a St Patrick’s Athletic training session earlier this week.

The Dubliner was succeeded as Republic of Ireland manager by Hallgrímsson but had no hesitation when the current international boss requested to watch his League of Ireland side prepare for their Premier Division clash with Shamrock Rovers tonight.

The pair bumped into each other because St Pat’s train at the Sport Ireland Campus where the FAI headquarters are also located.

Hallgrímsson is eager to meet League of Ireland bosses amid criticism that there is a disconnect with the national team. A face to face with Rovers head coach Stephen Bradley is also on the cards in the near future.

Kenny explained how he met Hallgrímsson once before at least season’s FAI Cup final, but a chance encounter this time around led to the Icelander asking if he could attend a training session.

“We just had a conversation, he was in the building, so I said, ‘No problem, come and watch training’. It was only organised a couple of days before, happy to do that. I am a big supporter of the Irish team, I’m behind the Irish team and I wish the team only good things. I know the players well and I wish Heimir all the best,” Kenny said.

“I’m the previous manager and there was a long interim period where John O’Shea was in there, and now he is appointed a long time now. We only had a conversation. I’m behind the team and I wish them well and want them to go on and be successful. They all have my full support.”

Kenny said that he had challenged 26-year-old midfielder Jamie Lennon to perform to a level that “puts him in the conversation” for Hallgrímsson’s squad after Rovers defender Josh Honohan was recently included in the provisional set-up for the Nations League play-off last month.

“It’s obviously the area. There is a lack of depth – that’s what I found as manager – is there is a lack of strength in depth in that area. You know we’ve a lot of centre backs. Joe Redmond – excellent, a really top player but I understand there is a lot of centre backs so it is not easy.

“Certainly, yeah, we’ll see how we go. There are other players as well, but a lot of teams have players as well. We want the players to put themselves in the conversation by having good performances.

“I’m not telling anyone who they should pick. I just asked Jamie at the start of the year to put himself in the conversation by putting in strong performances. His performances in Europe were a very high level, a very high level. He is incredibly important to us.

“We have so many other creative players and his passing has come on so much. He makes an insane amount of blocks and tackles and get through a phenomenal amount of work. He’s one you certainly appreciate from the inside. That wasn’t what meeting Heimir the other day was about. He wanted to come in and say hello and he watched training.

“The standard is high obviously in terms of where the international players are playing at the moment, there are 13 in the Premier League. But our players in the league that will continue to emerge, like Mason [Melia] for example, he was brilliant last season and is finding his form now.

“I am not telling anyone who to pick,” Kenny said. “I am not urging him to pick any player in particular, I will answer questions and provide information on anyone that needs it, we have a lot of good players but we need to prove it again this year, we finished the season strongly last season, we have a big week against Shamrock Rovers, a big game in Drogheda on Monday and Bohemians on Friday, a big week.

“So we’re not getting ahead of ourselves thinking we should have a load of players in the international team, it’s only right for the players to aspire to that and to push themselves and their careers forward, it’s only right to do that.”