New faces in Ireland camp as Stephen Kenny eyes a first victory

Ireland manager Stephen Kenny

Ireland manager Stephen Kenny Credit: Michael P Ryan (ETPhotos)

In his 11 games so far, Stephen Kenny has given 13 players their international debuts. Kenny’s faith in emerging talent and determination to radicalize the way Irish football is viewed as something we have not seen from an Irish manager for some time.

While the Ireland boss is adamant that “it’s the right thing to do”, he also admitted that his side need to ultimately “start winning matches”, with Ireland currently winless in 11 games.

Last week, Kenny spoke about his frustration of the lack of development over the last decade.

“Some might feel it is too much change too quickly, but that change is necessary because we have absolutely no development for about eight or nine years.

“We have a lot of talent, and we want to see it develop, we want to see the team thrive, and we have a clear idea of how we want to do that.”

In last year’s internationals, emerging talent such as Gavin Bazunu, Dara O’Shea, Jason Knight, and Adam Idah were all given Ireland debuts by Kenny, as he began his overhaul of the national side.

While results have been far from ideal, culminating in a painful defeat to Luxembourg last March, Kenny is more determined than ever to create a team that the country can identify with in the next few years.

Daniel Mandroiu (Shamrock Rovers), Chiedozie Ogbene (Rotherham United), Jamie McGrath (St.Mirren), Sam Szmodics (Peterborough United) and Andrew Omabamidele (Norwich City) are the latest players to earn their first call up.

While some call-ups were made on form, some may of came as a result of necessity with many regular starters missing out on this window. Ciaran Clark, Jeff Hendrick, Calum O’Dowda, Kevin Long, Robbie Brady, Darren Randolph, Enda Stevens, Alan Browne, Aaron Connolly, and Calum Robinson are all ruled out through injury/fitness issues.

When asked about the importance of addressing the development issue, Kenny told Extratime.com, “We have an exciting emerging group coming through. Some of them are having spells of doing well followed by a spell of injury, it is not always going to be an upward curve for everyone.



“You see the centre halves emerging like Dara O’Shea and Andrew Omabamidele. Nathan Collins too who has not come in yet. Nathan and Andrew have not played yet but have a very good chance. There are a lot of players.”

Reflecting on recent disappointing results, and fine margins that can so easily flip narratives, Kenny looked to the future and told Extratime.ie, “”We're trying to do our utmost to qualify for the World Cup. We are disappointed with results, and I am not trying to deflect from that, but what I do think is that over the next couple of years there will be a really strong cohort of players coming through.

“By the next European Championships, a lot of them will have ten or fifteen caps. The Irish public will identify with these players, and when they are successful there will be a powerful connection. But we have to start winning matches and take it from there.”

Last year’s COVID-19 chaos that disrupted so much of Ireland’s preparation shows no signs of becoming an issue this year, as this international window is the first time Kenny has had an extended period on the training pitch with his team.

The camp has also provided the opportunity to analyse recent games, with the squad studying March’s defeats to Serbia and Luxembourg. The Ireland squad continue their training camp in Girona this week, before flying to Andorra for Thursday night's friendly.

While a win against the Andorrans will end Ireland’s winless run, it will more importantly aid Kenny in convincing the Irish public that this young, emerging squad are worth sticking by.



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