Where are we going under Stephen Kenny's Ireland?

Heading into the Euro 2024 qualifying campaign, a young but talented squad has a chance to put Ireland on the road to better days ahead.

As the road has lead us up motorways of excitement and progress down into dark alleyways of disappointment and concern throughout Stephen Kenny’s era in Ireland, I still think history will ultimately look fondly on his time, even if he has little by means of memorable results and historic qualifications to show for it.

Because if it’s given us anything, it has ushered through a generation of enormous talent that has its prime well ahead of it.

Much has been written and even more debated in the crevices of Irish Football Twitter and beyond about Kenny’s tenure. From the early days of the quarterly referenda on his chops as international manager, to now where the doubters and naysayers have been wrestled into submission that Kenny is here to stay, at least for now, so just get along for the ride.

But as we look ahead into a qualifying campaign where once again the odds are heavily stacked against success, the green sprouts that we’ve desperately clutched onto may be coming into spring.

The average age of the side that beat Latvia the other night was a shade over 23. With a handful of other young talents in the pipeline, the hook of the future being bright is not just a platitude that rings around whenever an Irish player does anything of note before the age of 21.

Kenny, out of necessity due to the blackhole of talent from the generation that preceded him, has had to massively overpromote players before their time. Ideally a figure like Troy Parrott, who is still finding his way at club level, shouldn’t have to be relied upon so soon at international level. Likewise players like Jason Knight and Jayson Molumby could already be regarded as haggard elder statesmen in the squad, with 37 appearances between them, as they look more and more accomplished in the team with each passing game.

But the two most shining lights to emerge from Kenny’s creché are quite likely to be two of his most recent debutantes: Evan Ferguson and Will Smallbone. It’s impossible not to bleat on too much about the Brighton striker, but as each game goes by it becomes easier and easier to claim that he is the real deal. We’ve been there before with Adam Idah, Aaron Connolly and Parrott, but Ferguson is the one we’ve been waiting for. He’s all three rolled into one and with the building blocks nicely nestled into place at club level to keep him on an upward trajectory. The exciting thing is we know it’s high, but how high can he go?

As for Smallbone, an assist five minutes into his debut and resulting man of the match performance shows a player capable of doing a lot of things many Irish players can’t. His creativity and vision on the ball and ability to thread moves around him adds an extra threat level to the array of strikers looking to poke it home. Players of his ilk have come and gone in previous Irish teams, but at 23, Smallbone is only starting out and without saying he’s already become integral to the squad after a single appearance, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Ireland look less ambitious when he’s not on the pitch and we could find that out as soon as Monday night.

A number of concerns remain coming out of the 3-2 friendly win over Latvia, not least the defensive softness, once our mantle which has now become our weakness. Goals are becoming more common and more varied but in exchange Ireland have lost the solid foundations which for a time it could rely on out of necessity for banking on a 1-0 win.

But even there, some sprouts are evident. Andrew Omobamidele has had a torrid time with injuries but has all the tools to make it at the highest level, while Dara O’Shea and Nathan Collins are exemplary young talents despite the latter’s recent struggles at Wolves, and John Egan provides the fulcrum with experience in spades at every level. The trend of conceding obscene goals from outside the box has to whittle back to the mean eventually.

France will be Kenny’s biggest challenge yet as Ireland manager, in a time littered with them. A result and it polishes a dung heap of a qualifying draw, a performance moves us on from Latvia, but a comprehensive defeat will confirm a lot of presumptions many had about Ireland’s standing at this point.

Maybe the next man up will reap the rewards sowed by Kenny’s debutantes, but trends are up across the board. Goals are being scored and passing rates are astronomical compared to anything in the last two decades. Converting that into results is now Kenny’s number one priority, especially against the Gibraltar’s and Greece’s of international football.

Where the road leads remains to be seen - but the talent is there, ready to lead Ireland to better days ahead. That journey could begin on Monday night.