How the League of Ireland and St Pat's rehabilitated Stephen Kenny after pain of Ireland job loss
Stephen Kenny was left at a career crossroads a year ago after the FAI sacked him as Ireland boss but he has bounced back quickly with St Patrick's Athletic
This time last year Stephen Kenny was on the brink. Losing to Greece meant losing his job.
The question then was where would his next one be. And at the time there was no one, including Kenny, who thought it’d be in Inchicore. Yet here he is, revitalising St Pat’s and rehabilitating his own reputation at the same time, after putting together a run of results that have taken St Pat’s from the relegation zone to the verge of the European spots.
They are the only team consistently winning right now. Shels, the leaders, have won once in nine; second-place Derry once in seven; defending champs, Shamrock Rovers, three times in eight; fourth place Galway three in seven. Then there is St Pat’s who have won six and drawn one of their last seven matches to close the gap on Shels to just five points. With four games remaining, Kenny has stated he feels their charge has come too late. Yet considering the turmoil he endured during his final days as Ireland boss, on a personal level the timing of their run could not be better.
Kenny said: “I was enthusiastic about managing Ireland; it was a tremendous honour and a privilege, the best feeling in the world. I never lost that enthusiasm for the job.
“But listen, at the moment, really it’s about the players, it's not really about me, a lot of the players are showing how good they are, andI think it’s great to see that, to see guys making a contribution, to see it being a squad effort. We’ve a lot to do and have some tough games left.”
Publicly he is dismissing any concept of St Pat’s challenging for the League, downplaying even their chances of qualifying for Europe, even though they are just two points off third place.
And not just that, but the momentum is all with them after picking up six points in four days at the home of their Dublin rivals, Shamrock Rovers and Shels.
Kenny said: “We’re not in the driving seat, we’ve tough games to come; Bohs being a derby in the next game and then Galway and Derry at home before we finish in Sligo so we’re not getting ahead of ourselves.
“I’m finding a rhythm myself. There is a lot of fine excellent young coaches in the league now, very enthused by their work, John Russell in Sligo, Ruaidhrí (Higgins) in Derry, Stephen Bradley of course at Rovers, and Damien (Duff) of course and it’s exciting to be amongst that.
“I’m at home on the training ground. I like that aspect of preparing a team, I like the challenges that a lot of the young coaches are coming in and you know every week the tactical challenge is different. I feel I’m improving myself and feel I’ve gained valuable experience that has helped me, and I want to get better. And I think you’re always looking to improve and that’s the way I feel about that. So there are different tactical challenges, the league is quite tactical now, everyone plays a different way. So it is interesting.”
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