‘People who want to cause problems for the team’

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Stephen Kenny has spoken for the first time about the video that was shown to his players before England’s game at Wembley, stating that it was essentially a football video and not a story.

The Ireland manager believes the source of the story came from “people behind the scenes or elsewhere” who want to cause trouble for the team.

But Kenny also added that the story was simply a distraction and that he has shifted to planning the next World Cup qualifying campaign.

“The video was not a story,” said Kenny, after the World Cup qualifying draw.

“It was a football video with goals scored by the players in training and goals scored at Wembley the night before, and some goals from previous Ireland games against England with some historical references, and that was it.

“I don’t think the leaks were intentional from inside the locker room and I think there may be people behind the scenes or elsewhere who want to cause trouble for the team or who don’t have the best interests of the team.”

“But I certainly don’t have a problem with anyone in the locker room. That’s not a problem for me.”

The story, of course, attracted wide coverage after it first appeared in the English newspaper, the Daily Mail, which was followed by a strongly worded FAI press release saying the association was “investigating this internally as a matter of urgency, in order to establish the facts. ”

And while saying that he had gotten over the topic, Kenny admitted that he was surprised and disappointed by the whole episode, but is now fully focused on helping Ireland qualify for the World Cup.

The coach also ruled out the possibility that goalkeeping coach Alan Kelly had complained, revealing that the former Ireland goalkeeper would return to work with the team in March, having withdrawn from the last game in Dublin due to concerns about his asthma.

“Definitely not [complain]. I’m not going to talk about any of the staff at the press conference, but that’s not doing Alan any favors.

“It was a distraction, we could all have done it without him and now we are focused on the World Cup qualifiers, there are some great games and that is what we are waiting for.”

Heading into the start of the campaign, where Ireland will face Portugal, Serbia, Luxembourg and Azerbaijan, the coach said he believes the team will be stronger before matches and that recent matches have created healthy competition for places.

“We will approach the games in a very positive way and we hope to have a good month in March,” he said. “That has to be our ambition. We are here to try to qualify and our intention is to try to achieve it.

“We will be much stronger in March because we have a better group of players. Ten players have entered, added to those who are returning to the squad, which means there will be a selection dilemma and we are competing for places.” . “

The manager also dismissed rumors that Darren Randolph was asking for time in his international career and said the West Ham goalkeeper would return with the team in 2021.

“I spoke to Darren and he said he has no intention of retiring, and he said he’s disappointed that that story came out because it was completely untrue.”



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