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Kenny suggests he will be staying on as Irish boss as he looks to 2024

Republic of Ireland manager Stephen Kenny has suggested he will be given a new contract by the FAI....
98FM
98FM

11:00 PM - 6 Sep 2021



Kenny suggests he will be stay...

Sport

Kenny suggests he will be staying on as Irish boss as he looks to 2024

98FM
98FM

11:00 PM - 6 Sep 2021



Republic of Ireland manager Stephen Kenny has suggested he will be given a new contract by the FAI.

Pressure has been mounting upon Kenny over the last week after losing away to Portugal and drawing with Azerbaijan at the Aviva Stadium.

His side sit second from bottom in their FIFA World Cup Qualifying group as they prepare to face Serbia in Dublin on Tuesday night.

They still have also not won a competitive game since he took over as manager in April 2020.

Kenny’s current contract concludes at the end of the 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign.

Speaking ahead of the Serbia game, Kenny was asked about building towards Euro 2024 and appeared to suggest he will be staying in the job.

"I think the FAI knew when I was appointed that they had good players coming through the system.

"They knew that we hadn't qualified for the World Cup for over 20 years.

"With the difficulty qualifying now [for a World Cup], with just one group winner qualifying, they knew that it would be difficult.

"I've discussed it but I'm not really going to go into internal discussions between myself and the FAI."

There has been much debate in relation to the national side and whether or not the manager is getting the backing he deserves.

Some have eluded to positive performances in recent games with Kenny playing what many consider a more positive attacking game.

Others though have pointed to the stats with Kenny registering just one win in 15 games.

Kenny has urged supporters to be patient, saying transition periods can be difficult and the margins between success and failure are fine.

"We would have expected to beat Luxembourg and Azerbaijan. We would have expected to beat them at home.

"We would have wanted the results to be better for sure.

"Does that mean if we had won 2-1 the other night and got a 1-0 before that that everything was great or everything was ok because we won?

"Because we didn't, it's a catastrophe.

"Irish teams haven't played with that level of confidence, in terms of Portugal or Serbia, in many, many years, away from home like that.

"We've got to be better in the home games. We've got to score goals against teams at home.

"I think there is a lot of progress being made, I know you can point to statistics and that's fair enough, but that's the way I see it."



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FAI Republic Of Ireland Stephen Kenny

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