TWELVE months ago this week, Ireland were preparing to face Portugal in Faro and it seems a different age altogether.
Cristiano Ronaldo was a Juventus player on the verge of becoming the leading international scorer of all time.
From the Irish perspective, Aaron Connolly was Stephen Kenny’s main attacker and Nathan Collins the uncapped bolter in the travelling squad. How the paths of those peers have diverged.
What hasn’t changed is the scrutiny around the Ireland manager.
Kenny’s employers acknowledged it as a constant too at last month’s AGM, introducing a new adjective to characterise what many consider an ongoing referendum on the manager’s future.
“The vacillating nature of results sees media support of the team, and people around it in the FAI, ebb and flow,” chief executive Jonathan Hill informed delegates at the Mansion House.
He’s not wrong there. Last year’s September window reflected the pattern. Sympathy from being victim of Ronaldo’s late wizardry was replaced by seething at failing to beat Azerbaijan at home. Plundering the most bizarre of own-goals to rescue another draw against a dominant Serbia stifled the debate, even if hardly warranting a lap of honour.
Ireland did what they needed to do to salvage third place by finally registering competitive wins against lower seeds in October and November. Completing the March friendlies undefeated, albeit by drawing against a second Belgium string and leaving it until the death for pitiful Lithuania to be seen off, maintained the turnaround. Then came Yerevan in June. If Kenny implored us to disregard his first winless Nations League campaign of 2020 due to various excuses, he could offer none for this embarrassing defeat.
A long build-up to tackling League B’s lowest-ranked side mothballed any mitigation, enlarging the rap sheet of mishaps.
“This is not a one-off performance, it’s standard” decried former defensive rock Richard Dunne. “Against anyone half-decent, we struggle.”
Kenny was again preferring to operate in the currency of chances for the next defeat against Ukraine, even though the visitors had more goal attempts and the “fluke” winner he lamented was nothing on the scale of the freak ricochet his team benefitted from against the Serbs.
Scotland at home is the standout of the chief’s regime. Michael Obafemi’s first senior start created a new dimension to the team that the visitors were unable to cope with and the goals flowed in a resounding victory.
There were signs of improvement too in the Ukrainian rematch despite being defensively exposed for an equaliser that prevented the brilliant Collins solo effort carrying added consequence.
The second half of the quadruple-header compensated to a degree for the first but lest we forget amid the summer afterglow that the window actually worsened the manager’s record. Six wins from 26 games at the helm equates to a 23% win rate. A measly three from his 19 attempts in competitive matches pummels the ratio further.
What has been floated to contextualise the managerial era like none before him — justifying the contract extension granted last November —is the imposition of a newer, contemporary style.
A glut of newcomers have been integrated, although its difficult to argue the likes of Gavin Bazunu, Dara O’Shea, Collins and Jason Knight would have emerged through their club strides regardless of who was picking the squads.
Josh Cullen, Troy Parrott, Mark Travers and Obafemi were previously capped before the hotseat change in April 2020.
Martin O’Neill, the last Ireland manager to secure major tournament qualification, had his say at the weekend, clearly bemused by the allowances made.
“If you want to get time to build and build and build, that’s fine,” he told Premier Sports, perfecting his classic deadpan jest. “Please take that time if that’s the remit of the association. We had a fantastic time in France in 2016. Those are the sort of scenes I believe that fans want to experience again.
“Not to just turn around to say to some fan, ‘Oh, by the way in 2032 we’ll be going somewhere.’ It can’t happen. You want to try and qualify. International football is no different to anything else. It’s all about results. “
Typically, Ireland would be heading to Scotland for their penultimate Nations League qualifier but seldom is anything typical within the orbit of Fifa and so the winter World Cup has distorted the calendar.
The assignment at Hampden Park is instead on September 24 before they host Armenia three days later, likely requiring six points necessary to snaffle the best runner-up spot across four pools that clinches a second seeding in the Euro 2024 draw. Those groupings made in Frankfurt on October 9 will map out the road to Germany, a mission Kenny cannot afford to fail if he’s to survive. So much is riding on that outcome, or the prospect of it in the case of the FAI ending their long search for a marquee sponsor.
“Statistically, it is easier for a team within to qualify for the 24-team Euros than just 13 for a World Cup,” outlined Hill about the expectations being linked to his trawl for a commercial backer. “I am really confident and very bullish in front of brands for that potentially happening. If the U21s qualify and the women as well, then brilliant.
“That overall message is incremental steps of Irish football improving. I genuinely believe there will be a brand who wants to make that investment.”
Transition has been and gone, style indoctrinated and the time for an upturn in results overdue.
Vacillation is an unwelcome nuisance the FAI want rid of and they’ve lathered enough latitude to the manager for it to be reciprocated.
LOI clubs ripe for takeover by owners spreading wings
Last night’s Carabao Cup visit of Everton to Highbury Stadium gave Fleetwood Town their night in the limelight but the owners will swiftly turn their attention to Waterford this week.
Andy Pilley and his delegation departed Waterford Airport last Tuesday on his private jet having conducted press interviews but the contents were embargoed until his takeover was sealed.
It took another six days for the deal to be finalised and the background to the delay will likely only be revealed when an ongoing documentary – Amazon Prime style – goes on air.
Pilley freely admitted the lure of Ireland as a post-Brexit backchannel into the UK for foreign talent piqued his interest. He is understood to be one of 60 figureheads involved in the growing phenomenon of multi-club ownership, trailblazed by Manchester City’s Arab City Group bankrollers.
Waterford is unlikely to be the last League of Ireland club taken over. The First Division is a hive for such activity with Galway United agreeing to cede control to the Comer Group and Cork City’s slow buy-out by Grovemoor Limited still on the boil.
Conor Hoey hasn’t been shy about appealing to suitors for investment to make Drogheda United’s full-time aspiration a reality and at least two other clubs are believed to be amenable to selling. Sourcing foreign backers with like-minded intentions is the crucial part.
Keane's work at Manchester United not done yet
Roy Keane was in his element at his Alma Mater of Old Trafford on Monday night, the prodigal son everyone wanted to greet.
The man who bossed the pitch, captaining Manchester United to four Premier League titles, was back on the turf and still the star attraction for eminent guests.
New €60m recruit Casemiro was the first to make a beeline to the area Keane was fulfilling punditry duties for Sky Sports, the meeting of midfield enforcers old and new.
Another serial Champions League winner, Cristiano Ronaldo, cut off from his warm-up to embrace his former teammates Keane and Gary Neville, notably blanking Jamie Carragher, before rapper Stormzy unwittingly gatecrashed the post-match inquest when he spotted the Corkman.
Now 50, the esteem with which Keane is held at United is undimmed. His criticism of deficiencies at the foundation of the team over the past year have resonated with a fanbase nourished by the standards he demanded in his pomp.
But for his rift with Alex Ferguson, still a club director, his comebacks to the Theatre of Dreams would by now be more meaningful than broadcasting. Louis van Gaal’s interest in enlisting Keane to his backroom staff eight years ago was never a runner given the doyen’s presence in the boardroom but Ferguson won’t be around forever.
Email: john.fallon@examiner.ie
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