Damien Delaney says Stephen Kenny is “out of his depth” after Greece defeat

Rory Fleming

“It’s nowhere near good enough… he’s been found out now”.

Former Ireland and Crystal Palace defender Damien Delaney has offered up a scathing assessment of Ireland’s dire 2-1 defeat away to Greece on Friday night.

With the result leaving the Boys in Green rooted firmly to the bottom of their European Championship qualification group alongside lowly Gibraltar, Delaney believes that it is time for change.

Stephen Kenny has now won just four of his 23 competitive fixtures as Ireland boss. (Credit: Sportsfile)

Speaking on Virgin Media in the aftermath of the defeat, Delaney spoke to his opinion that for this Ireland side to stand any hope of what would now be a miraculous qualification for their first major tournament since 2016, manager Stephen Kenny must go.

“Ultimately, he’s (Stephen Kenny) out of his depth. Four competitive wins in 23 games is nowhere near good enough and the manager over the last three years has cherrypicked statistics, and framed time and results to have them in his favour”.

Going on to diminish the argument that Kenny needs to be afforded more time to implement his tactical and stylistic ideas with this young Irish squad, Delaney doubled down, calling for Kenny’s sacking.

“But he’s been found out now. He’s had enough time in the job and now unfortunately I think we need to start looking at other options”.

🗨️ "Kenny has been found out."

🗨️ "It's a far, far stretch of the imagination that'd we'd even get third."

🗨️ "He's out of his depth. Four competitive wins in 23 is nowhere near good enough."

Keith and Damien pull no punches on where this Ireland team are.#EURO2024 pic.twitter.com/76j4TTuCgs

— Virgin Media Sport (@VMSportIE) June 16, 2023

However, those options appear limited, with the latest bookies odds on a potential successor making for grim contemplation for Ireland fans.

Former Ireland defender Chris Houghton leads the way on 6/1, with Damien Duff, Keith Andrews, Neil Lennon and Roy Keane rounding off an uninspiring top 5.

Echoing this sentiment of uncertainty regarding Ireland’s next step, former Ireland and Burnley winger Keith Treacy stated his own doubtfulness over what Ireland’s next step should be.

“I’m not too sure (where Ireland go from here), I’m really not too sure… having seen what the Greeks have to offer and what we have to offer, it seems like a far, far stretch of the imagination that we’ll even get third in the group”.

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