There is a football awakening in the Republic of Ireland and it has little to do with the national team and even less with the Football Association of Ireland. Instead the flagbearers are Dundalk FC and their manager, Stephen Kenny, who has led the team to unprecedented success by cultivating flair and technique, shattering stereotypes and redefining Irish players’ potential. Now he is being acclaimed as an ideal future manager of a country whose football has not fully broken free of the mould imposed by Jack Charlton in the 1980s.
“The next few weeks will determine whether this is the most successful season in the history of Irish football or we actually win nothing,” Kenny tells the Guardian in advance of an intensive period during which Dundalk could win a third league title in a row, retain the FAI Cup and become the first Irish club to qualify from the Europa League’s group stage, having already become the first to win a match in it or even a point.
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