WELL, THAT WAS…something.
Results-wise, Stephen Kenny’s side endured about as disappointing an international break as there ever has been for the Republic of Ireland — notwithstanding the 1-1 draw with Qatar which, for all of its first-half signs of improvement, would not have occurred in a typical two-match window.
On last week’s Football Family special podcast previewing the three fixtures, football journalist David Sneyd and his The42 colleagues Gavin Cooney and Paul Dollery did warn listeners that Luxembourg were no longer minnows of the San Marino calibre and that they would likely pose a significant challenge to Ireland in Dublin, particularly an Ireland entering the fixture off the back of a defeat.
Of course, such eerie foreshadowing through excellent analysis in no way alleviated fans’ suffering as Luxembourg recorded only their sixth ever victory in World Cup qualifying by way of Gerson Rodrigues’ goal.
This week, Messrs Sneyd, Cooney and Dollery reconvened in another Football Family special for The42 members to perform an autopsy of sorts, albeit one whose horror was tempered by a better Ireland performance on Tuesday night.
One of the areas touched upon was Stephen Kenny’s impassioned response to the criticism he has faced during his six-month tenure, issued both while speaking to RTÉ’s Tony O’Donoghue post-match via video link and, moments later, to the Irish press by the same method.
Defiant response from Stephen Kenny when asked if he is hurt by the criticism of last few days: pic.twitter.com/x8wfvlm8xZ
— Gavin Cooney (@gcooney93) March 30, 2021
In both settings, Kenny mentioned people “coming out of the woodwork” to kick him and his players while they were down, and expressed his confidence that he was the man to lift Ireland out of the dolrums in which they currently find themselves.
Speaking on The Football Family on Wednesday, Gavin — who had asked Kenny during the presser if he was hurt by some of the external criticism — pondered whether or not it was even a good idea for Kenny to acknowledge it so earnestly, particularly considering he is likely to be exposed to more of it than Ireland’s last three managers.
“I just wonder what can be gained by paying that much attention to what is being said,” Gavin began. “He’s living in Ireland, it is different for him to most previous Irish managers in the sense that he lives here and it’s much harder.
“Brian Kerr hasn’t really talked too much about how the criticism affected him. Go back to Eoin Hand.
Eoin Hand in the ’80s was running a sports shop at the same time he was Ireland manager and there were people phoning into the sports shop just abusing him. It’s much more of a goldfish bowl here when you don’t have the chance to escape to the north of Italy or the north of England, as our previous managers have gotten to do. But I’d be kind of a little bit concerned that he might pay too much attention to that stuff, to be honest. I can understand if he wants to defend his players but I just hope that this doesn’t become a fixation for him, that he can filter out the outside noise because there’s a lot of noise now.
“Some of it is still unfair,” Gavin continued. “Calls for him to be sacked, I don’t think that’s fair. I saw Richard Dunne saying that the performance on Saturday night was as if the manager was just kind of reading straight from an academy coach book. I don’t think that’s fair either.
Kenny has had a mad managerial career and it’s been forged in mad situations. Like, in Derry when he went back, the club were effectively bust, no one was getting wages, they went months without getting wages, mortgage payments were missed, weddings had to be cancelled. That’s real ‘life experience’ that I think people are a bit dismissive of because of the way Kenny talks about the game.
'I just hope that this doesn't become a fixation for him, that he can filter out the outside noise.'@gcooney93 and @DavidSneyd joined @PaulDollery for a new episode of The Football Family.
— The42.ie (@The42_ie) March 31, 2021
Access the podcast and lots more benefits by becoming a member: https://t.co/gmmE7i3ndx pic.twitter.com/N6jEiEPCrx
Later in the pod, the lads discussed one of the few green shoots to pierce the sod over the last two games specifically: recently-turned-19-year-old goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu.
The Rochdale ‘keeper, on loan at Brian Barry-Murphy’s League One side from Premier League champions in waiting Manchester City, impressed David Sneyd in his conspicuous comfort both with and without the ball.
David described the youngster as showing “tremendous mental fortitude” to keep passing the ball with attacking intent even amid some more chaotic moments when the ball was coming the other way.
“For his debut [v Luxembourg] he was really impressive,” David said. “Not that he played it safe, but he just looked safe. He looked the part, whereas last night he kind of took a few more chances, he was a bit more proactive, he kind of embraced a bit of the chaos that can come with that.
He made mistakes, but at no point did he lose his head. He could have been sent off twice – the foul after the goal and then when he kind of came out of the box, but he just showed tremendous mental fortitude in the sense of how he was passing. Little things like passing it out in front of the defender to run on to, rather than maybe behind him or just to his feet where he’d have to turn back in on himself or take another touch. He was always positive and it was even funny where he’d make a pass and then he’d be calling for it back. You could hear it on the telly and you could hear him showing. He was wanting to get a pass back after setting it up and he just seemed really confident.
“Even then, doing the more obvious basics of goalkeepers, he made a great reaction save from that header in the first half,” David continued.
“I know it was offside but it was a good save. I was looking at the goal thinking, ‘What happened for the goal,’ but he was maybe a bit out of sight — I think it was Molumby covering for the shot.
“I just thought he was really impressive. We’re talking about that training camp [in June]: obviously, he’s now going to be in and around that first-team squad you would think from now on.
“The first three goalkeepers now, you’re probably talking [Darren] Randolph, [Gavin] Bazunu, [Caoimhín] Kelleher, depending on what happens over the next few months, because by the time September comes around, we don’t know where Bazunu will be.
“Will he still be at Rochdale? It’s going to be a new season, will Man City want him part of their squad or will he want to continue his development somewhere else?”
You can listen to David, Gavin and Paul’s full ‘report card’ for Ireland’s international window by becoming a member of The42 and supporting our independent sports journalism.
The award-winning Football Family is one of a multitude of extra podcasts that make up part of our membership offering along with Rugby Weekly Extra, Behind The Lines, How to Win at Dominoes and, indeed, Stephen Kenny origin-story series Rise of Kenny.
To join, or to find out more, visit members.the42.ie.
