Postcard from home - Ireland managerial video press conference

Macdara Ferris reports from his kitchen table

It should have been a bigger day for Stephen Kenny but with the whole world in a state of chassis, the unveiling of the Republic of Ireland manager didn’t reach the levels of previous appointments.

Kenny did however get a chance to outline his vision for the new role – one that all Irish football fans wish him the very best in.

Instead of the usual big press occasion in front of the live TV and radio cameras, Thursday’s new manager event was different. Having said that though it was typical of the turbulent times that we now live in.

It was a familiar scene from over the past few weeks for those who are actually lucky enough to be able to work from home these days – it was a video conference with multiple people logging on from their respective home offices, bedrooms or kitchen tables (as was the case for this extratime.ie reporter).

Previous Republic of Ireland managerial unveilings have been in the Great Room of the Shelbourne Hotel (Brian Kerr), the Concert Hall in the RDS (Giovanni Trapattoni), the Gibson Hotel overlooking the Liffey (Martin O’Neill) and Mick McCarthy did at least get the press conference room in Aviva Stadium.

Thursday’s event for Stephen Kenny was a Microsoft Teams online meeting.

Those O’Neill and McCarthy appointments had John Delaney sitting at the top table for the unveiling and his presence was still felt around the event with Stephen Kenny – with a number of questions asked of Kenny about his decision not to retain Robbie Keane in his coaching team.

The all-time top scorer for Ireland of course still has a couple of years left to run on the FAI contract issued to him by Delaney.

It was the coronavirus that pushed up the timetable for Kenny’s appointment from this summer to this week and it was the coronavirus that meant the managerial unveiling for the new boss of the boys in green was a ‘working-from-home’ affair.

To be fair to the FAI and the new Ireland boss, they embraced the new technology with the video press conference enabling two dozen or so of the Irish sports media to talk to Kenny about his new job.

The media who joined the online call will be happy to have some real life sports content to fill their webpages or newspapers pages for the Easter Weekend. Those retrospective pieces, best of’s and top ten list articles can go on the back burner for a few days more. 

Kenny was asked questions on his back room team, his footballing philosophy and it was clear even across the video chat just how proud he is to take up the top role in Irish football calling it “the ultimate honour”.  

He also reflected on the strange situation that sees him take over the manager’s job at this time.

“There are more important things in the world right now, without doubt,” said Kenny.

“Is it the right thing to do interviews and press conferences at this time, there is a moral dilemma there, and whether it’s right or wrong, but I do think people need something to look forward to.”

Sport and football plays such a central part in many of our lives. As we all struggle to deal with the difficult COVID-19 world we are living in, we don’t have the distraction of following our League of Ireland team in action, or check on how our fantasy football team is doing or keep tabs on the players in the Ireland squad in their club games. 

And so while we didn’t get the grand unveiling that Stephen Kenny deserves, we got a vision from the new gaffer of what is coming our way and we definitely have something to look forward to. 

“My job is to try and unlock the potential of the whole team and find the best way of doing that. I’m really excited about it, and hugely honoured to be given the opportunity to do that.”

'A creative and inventive training ground coach with a high work ethic' - Stephen Kenny on Damien Duff https://t.co/eAXItm8SUjpic.twitter.com/HmPrn7nbWf

— Extratime.ie (@ExtratimeNews) April 9, 2020