'We want to be successful in changing how Irish football is viewed worldwide'

Republic of Ireland manager Stephen Kenny during a press conference over the weekend. Picture: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

The hope is that Stephen Kenny will usher in a new era for Irish football and the Republic of Ireland manager has embraced that expectation by declaring his intention to shake off the team's image as a physical, long-ball side shackled to its British roots.

His Dundalk team played some exceptional football in reaching the group stages of the Europa League, and his Ireland U21 outfit followed a similar step in rising to the top of their qualifying group, but the Boys In Green are another task entirely.

Long is the line of opposing managers and players who have referenced the side's agricultural approach. Some have done it with a type of grudging respect, others with open disdain. It's a project that will require a new mindset among the players. A cultural revolution.

“Yeah, it’s one of my main motivations actually. It’s sort of what drives me. I’m very motivated to do that. Not just me, the whole coaching team. That’s a huge motivation. But that is sort of ... that’s number one probably for me.”

He could have left it at that but there was more.

“We don't want to just be successful, we want to be successful in changing the way football is viewed worldwide, the way Irish football is viewed worldwide. It's a big lofty goal, I can't believe I actually said it. Only joking. That's a private thing that I have shared.”

The first public viewing will come on Thursday when Ireland play Bulgaria in Sofia in a Nations League opener. Finland come to Dublin three days later and the games come thick and fast thereafter. Kenny's crusade will not be short of battlegrounds.

Damian Duff and Keith Andrews were out on the training pitch days before the players reported for duty yesterday, the two assistants measuring cone placements and rehearsing every session with the detail of men who know they have little time this week in which to get ideas across.

That window is narrowed again by the fact that players, James McClean, Alan Browne and Robbie Brady among them, flew in on the back of club games the day before. All those minutes have monitored and noted. Nothing is being left to chance.

Kenny knows they can't cover everything but they will cover everything possible. The big picture was presented to the squad last night but there was no gimmick or rallying cry prepared by way of first impressions. This isn't some magic potion so much as a slowly cooking stew.

Niall Quinn hinted at the backing this has higher up the FAI food chain when he pointed out that Bulgaria was simply the first leg in a journey that is seeking to “create a new identity for Irish football”. That's comforting but it's not a firewall against criticism. Or worse.

Many is the manager who has taken on a job in football with a multi-annual contract only to be ushered back out the door. David Moyes was given a six-year deal by Manchester United in 2013 but four managers filled the same chair before that contract was due to run out.

The future is now in football.

“For the Irish team to really capture the imagination of the nation in a major way it is linked to being successful and going to major tournaments, that's what really captures the full imagination,” said Kenny. “So I do understand that, by speaking like this I know I am setting myself up for criticism if we don't play to a high level.

“That's probably why Niall Quinn has said... These things take time. For the style to evolve it takes time but I am impatient. I haven't got a long time and I'm not looking for that sort of crutch, saying it takes two years or whatever. We are impatient, we want to be successful in a hurry and to try and achieve both is what you want.”

He starts off in unusual circumstances.

His side will play behind closed doors for the foreseeable, players and staff cocooned in a bubble which prevented chief scout Ruaidhri Higgins from travelling to Helsinki to watch Finland play while performance analyst Ger Dunne won't see the baby his wife delivered Saturday until this day week.

There is the possibility too that someone in the party could test positive for Covid-19 and threaten the whole operation. Kenny doesn't like to think that way. His take on that mirrors his approach to the game itself and his grand ambition.

“Fear can engulf you,” he explained, “so you have got to have a situation where you are optimistic in how you plan.”