Republic of Ireland manager Stephen Kenny has pointed to the relentless nature of the EFL Championship, as a primary reason for failure to make any progress in the past 12 months.
The majority of Kenny’s squad play for clubs in the English second tier, with just seven Irish men featuring in the Premier League this season.
“I have no problem with the standard of the Championship but it is relentless, with games every three days,” said Kenny after the 4-0 defeat of Gibraltar in Faro. “The players are absolutely on their knees and what happens then is you have repeat hamstring injuries.
“Three Irish players had operations on hamstrings over the last year. The last resort for hamstrings is an operation. We’ve had three. And that puts you out for three months.
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“The more players we get in the Premier League and European leagues the better as it’s one game a week. The explosive players like [Chiedozie] Ogbene, we missed him in the summer, Callum Robinson, Callum O’Dowda, Troy Parrott, all had hamstring injuries.
“The Championship is tough and relentless. To have consistency in the squad would be ideal.
“It’s an occupational hazard being in that league. Particularly the explosive players suffer from hamstring injuries. Michael Obafemi, we should be building the team around Michael. He should be integral to our team, he is very talented, but he has not been able to get fit.”
Despite hailing a “professional” win over Gibraltar, Kenny is hoping for a miracle run of results from other groups to make a play-off next March to reach the European Championships in Germany next year.
Kenny has reverted to a back four in this international window that included a 2-0 loss to Greece in Dublin last Friday.
“4-3-3 is the system I have coached for the majority of my life, I know it best,” said Kenny, “but getting the wide players has been a real issue for us. It depends on the availability of players.”
With Ireland being the second youngest squad across all European nations, it was put to the manager that qualification to major tournaments cannot realistically happen until players like Gavin Bazunu, Nathan Collins and Evan Ferguson enter their mid-twenties.
“The answer is I don’t know...I’ve always liked wing play and wingers, there has been an absence of that. Some of my early days, we’ve tried to do it, players that gave everything were mainly playing in League One at the time.
“Chiedozie Ogbene came on the scene and is doing brilliant. Mikey Johnston, he needs games. The tempo of the [Gibraltar] game isn’t like Greece and Holland. He is a talent, he will be a good player for Ireland. We’ve another winger due to declare. I’m not sure the paperwork is done yet. He’s playing in the Championship.”
The Ireland players continue to back Kenny despite mounting expectations that the FAI will not renew his contract when the Euros campaign ends next month.
“It was a big risk for him to have that belief in me and it would be difficult to know whether another manager would have seen what he saw in me,” said Ogbene in the match programme, “but I’m really thankful that he did and that my international career is what it is today.”
On his own future, Kenny added: “It’s out of my control.” Has it crossed your mind that the FAI might look elsewhere in 2024? “Of course it has. I’ll give it everything against Holland and New Zealand [in November] but, you know, there is no doubt that I want to be the manager of Ireland.”
“We are building something but I understand that the Greek results, in a 50/50 game we lost it, and there is a lot of criticism because of that. That’s ok. But there is a lot of really good football that people should not forget.”
