Ireland manager Stephen Kenny came out swinging in a spiky exchange with a journalist who branded his tenure of the national side as 'shambolic'.
The nation's hopes of reaching the EURO 2024 finals seem to be hanging in the balance after Kenny and co suffered a damaging 2-1 defeat to Greece in the qualifying campaign on Friday evening with Kenny's current record as boss coming in for some heavy scrutiny. The 51-year-old was quizzed on his future but claims he has sought "no assurances" over what lies ahead should the side not turn their campaign around.
And one reporter engaged in a verbal tete-a-tete during Kenny's press conference before Ireland are due to take on Gibraltar in a crucial clash at the Aviva Stadium. Kenny accused the journalist of 'absolute terrible disrespect' before James McLean, who will make a landmark 100th appearance for his nation, jumped to his manager's defence as tensions got high.
When quizzed on his future, he responded: “Yeah, I definitely do (intend to remain in the job). My contract is up until the end of the campaign and whether it’s renewed will depend on how people feel the campaign went overall but certainly I fully expect to be.
“I’m not going to sit here and do a full press conference on an assessment of my period in charge or anything like that, I’m here really to prepare for tomorrow, the game against Gibraltar. It’s a big game for us and I said to you I’m disappointed that we lost against Greece but we’ve got to bounce back against Gibraltar and I’m fairly sure we can do that and we’ll take that into September.”
The reporter then hammered the manager’s record of 12 defeats from from 23 competitive matches since as ‘shambolic’ before Kenny responded strongly, saying: “It’s about time we had a bit of respect from you to be honest. The lack of respect at times at press conferences shouldn’t be tolerated, do you know what I mean? It’s absolutely terrible at times.”
McLean then jumped to his gaffer's defence, interjecting by saying: “What do you think of the players? Do you believe in the players, to take this country into major tournaments going forward? Do you believe as players we’re capable of doing that?”
There was a short response before silence fell on the press room as Ireland look to turn their fortunes around on Monday.
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