You can’t spell failure without FAI

An almost symbolic end to the ‘Kenny Era’ occurred after the October friendly with New Zealand. Boos rang around the stadium after the 1-1 draw, the Aviva was half empty, and it felt like legendary Irish football servant James McClean wasn’t the only person whose Ireland career had come to an end.

Stephen Kenny has been the most polarising manager of my short time as a Republic of Ireland fan. While after the most recent set of fixtures it seemed like many had made up their mind whether the Dubliner should stay or go, for most of his tenure people could not decide whether or not his ambitious style was the way forward or whether he was going to drag us into a footballing dark-age. Whatever your opinion, there were a few certainties surrounding his time as Ireland manager.

Kenny was changing the entire footballing culture of the nation while simultaneously blooding through the most youth of any manager before. 27 different players were given their international debut in the Kenny years, and some of those players will go on to have long and hopefully successful careers in the green jersey.

It is also one of the weaker Irish squads in recent memory, compared to our valiant squad of Euro 2016, where fourteen players were in the Premier League and a further eight in the championship, from where the likes of David Meyler had won promotion that season. In Kenny’s most recent squad, being generous you could say we had nine Premier League players, but that includes goalkeeper Mark Travers who is on loan at Championship side Stoke City, Caoimhin Kelleher who plays little or no Premier League football for Liverpool and Omobamidele who struggles to play for Nottingham Forest. Even Matt Doherty has made most of his six appearances for Wolves from the bench, with just one full 90 minutes.

So in reality, Kenny had only five players experiencing regular Premier League game-time: Cullen, Collins, Ferguson, Ogbene and O’Shea. Ebosele is the only player who can join that crew by playing in an international top flight, Italy’s Serie A. Although, despite a promising start to his fledgling career at Udinese, the Wexford man may not be considered a regular.

So, shifting the entire groundwork of football in Ireland while having inherited a squad on a downward trajectory was always going to be an ask, and unfortunately despite Stephen Kenny’s tireless work and endless ambition, the results reflected the task at hand. After failing to beat New Zealand, a nation outside the top 100 footballing countries, Kenny was not going to be renewing his contract.

Indeed, could he have been more pragmatic tactically? Perhaps there were issues with his squad selection, substitutions and even formations (playing five at the back against Gibraltar isn’t exactly inspiring). The man wasn’t perfect, and there are more then a few gripes you can have with his managerial style, but everyone is kidding themselves if we think we have any right to expect qualification to the big tournaments from any Irish side now, and to think we are entitled to beat any nation not regularly associated with the phrase ‘European Powerhouse’. Countries like Luxembourg, Azerbaijan, Greece and so on are all in a much better position then us. There is investment into not only top-level football, but youth academies, facilities, coaching and so many more facets of the beautiful game that needs to be done at a grassroots level.

Those countries are now reaping rewards of a system of investment which has seen continuously improving youth players cement themselves as national team regulars. In Ireland, our youth development has been mostly funded through Premier League clubs buying our most talented youngsters and nurturing the talent themselves. Now, with complications from Brexit, it is more often down to struggling Irish clubs to do what they can with hardworking, often volunteer youth coaches to bring through the next generation.

Now, there are some incredible talents in Ireland’s youth teams who are in the careful hands of League of Ireland clubs. Sam Curtis springs to mind as the cream of the crop, although fellow St Pat’s man Mason Melia is similarly exciting. But the lack of investment in our grassroots and youth game is a hindrance which will hamstring all future managers of our national team. Luton Town have more full-time coaches then the entire academy system in Ireland where we average one or less full-time coaches per club’s academy. In the four-year span of Shamrock Rovers continuously winning our top national division, they will still earn less than the CEO of the FAI, Jonathan Hill, in his two years at the helm of the disastrous footballing association.

FAI government funding has been suspended until Hill has repaid a €20,000 overpayment, adding another mismanagement issue to the mangled association that is the FAI. The legacy of our footballing association is piggybacking off the success of English academies with Irish players and managers who have overachieved during their time with the Boys in Green.

While a new manager may come in and get better results short-term, is there going to be any real change? Will there be any true progress made like the definite step forwards we took under Stephen Kenny, despite his pretty abysmal results record? I highly doubt it, unless the association that puts the FAI in failure gets their act together – and in a timely fashion.

We need to put foundations in place for our own success, not to ride the coattails of the clubs across the water who end up developing our prospects in the process. Temper our expectations for the near future and embrace that unless our own governance choose to put our footballing future first, many good men like Stephen Kenny will come in with brave ideas and new grounds to break, just to fall under the weight of their own ambition and the lack of stability provided by the FAI.