Johnny Kenny

Ah well Kenny, was good having a bit of hope for you for a little while.

But we've all seen this story before, young talent doesn't make the first team, gets loaned out to a level that does him no good in development or preparation for us.

Is it a sign of * poor player management/development from ourselves(an aspect we've been terrible at for decades), or a sign of him just not being good enough?

Either way, if he's not good enough just release him? Or be more active in getting him a better loan than the Irish league(absolutely no offence to the league).

But aye, good luck in your future Kenny, hope it works out either way

Sent from my M2012K11AG using Tapatalk

 

You wonder what sort of agents these kids have. Surely part of their job is managing their career as much as, if not more than the club?

 

Absolute waste of time signing this guy.

I'm more likely to make it at Celtic fs.

 

I just meant up here bud

 

Agreed we need our promising development players to have options. The club needs to establish this clubs that we can safely trust to send players to for match game time.

 

Sign him up

 

I ended up managing Larne on fm once and signed him and he was absolutely quality in the northern irish league

 

In my experience, Larne is the Protestant version of the Twilight zone, but much more creepy and unexplainable.

Not sure where that leaves the Kenny discussion, but thought it worth a mention.

 

See what I admire about that vid, (sorry its not about the player) it's the fact that's an under-21 International and you can hear how many kids are there watching in the stands. I say this all the time bit if you inspire the next generation of footballers into the ground your onto a good thing. Can't even mind the last time I heard of Scotlands unders playing, never mind in a packed stadium.

Just out of interest maybe someone was there, what was the pricing on the tickets? Because it looked like a cracking atmosphere, the SFA would do well to follow that model.

 

Didn't realise this boy was still only 19, he's one along with Vata and Joey Dawson I'd like to see integrated into the first team squad next season, Dawson looked pretty good last season when he scored. Has a bit eh the Pearson look about him

 

Dawson looks like he's out till 2024

Sent from my GM1903 using Tapatalk

 

Fiver for kids, tenner for adults, 20 for family (2 adults and 2 kids). It also helped that it was in Cork which can be starved of chances to see the teams.

 

Thats amazing! That's how it should be, football is a sport for all get families in for £20 you really can't ask much more than that, that's a fair price for a day/night out with the wee ones. (Actually mega chuffed you replied with that)

 

As the American's say - Get em cheap - get em on everything else. It's good business - drinks, foods etc.

 

No worries. The last few years we've had a real explosion in interest in the U21s in Ireland because this group and the one that came before it are seen as our most promising in a long time. Kenny getting the U21 job in preparation for the senior job also drew a lot of eyes. The games regularly get good attendance and the games are usually shown on TV too by the national broadcaster (RTÉ).

 

Johnny Kenny has asserted that he hasn’t given up on his ultimate ambition of playing for the Celtic first team despite ending up back in Ireland a year after his move to Scotland.

The Sligo native signed a five-year deal with the Glasgow giants last January, and was around the fringes of their squad in their pre-season, but a season-long switch to Scottish Championship side Queen’s Park was cut short at the halfway point as he was struggling to make an impression.

That paved the way for the Sligo Rovers product to return to the League of Ireland for this year to sign for Shamrock Rovers and he’s beginning to find his feet with the Hoops, scoring in Friday’s important win at Dundalk. Kenny arrived in good spirits after coming off the bench to hit the target on his Ireland U-21 debut, a confidence boost for the 19-year-old in the context of his longer term dreams.

“I just needed to get back the form that I had pre going to Celtic when I was with Sligo Rovers,” said Kenny, explaining how he viewed the Tallaght opportunity.

“It would be nice to get back to that and better and push onto the next level. It didn’t work for the first one (loan) but we’re here now and hopefully this one will.



I just need to keep doing it on the pitch and hopefully they (Celtic) will keep in touch with me.”

Kenny admitted there was an adjustment period going to Celtic, especially as he’d built up such momentum with his hometown club and then suddenly found himself inactive. He takes heart from the fact that he was around Ange Postecoglou’s first team environment when he was fit.

“I was injured at the start and then trained every day with the first team, played a few B team games and played a pre-season game in the summer and that was it,” he said.

“That’s my aim, I want to get back there and play in the first team. That’s why I’m here.

“I played my last game (for Sligo Rovers) against Bohs in November (2021) and then don’t think I kicked a ball properly until March or April, maybe five games in eight or nine months, (it was) obviously not ideal. It might have been a setback but I’m back playing now and I love it.



I was eager to get back playing. I joined Queens Park and it just didn’t work for whatever reasons. You can blame things but you have to look at yourself too. Probably I should have done better.


“I wanted to come home, I met with Stephen (Bradley) and they were the best club in the country for the last three years so I think it was a no-brainer to come. I know it wasn’t a great start for us but we’re up and running now ad hopefully we can reach the heights we want to.”

Kenny is sharing a house with Rory Gaffney, a striking rival on paper but they played together in the four-goal success at Oriel Park.

He says he is receiving plenty of advice from his fellow Connacht man.

“He’s on me every day in the house ‘you need to pass here, you need to do this and do that’,” he smiles.



I think we’re clicking at the right time and obviously he’s probably one of the people I’m closest with in the squad and I think it’s going to help on the pitch.

“We discuss it a lot to be fair, probably more giving out to each other than helping each other but look he helps me a lot, he’s had a great career and he’s still here now, player of the year last year, so I can only learn from him.”

Bradley is very happy with how Kenny has adjusted, believing that his speed offers the Hoops an attacking outlet they lacked after the departure of Danny Mandroiu for Lincoln last summer.

“I’ve loved him, I’ve loved his attitude and what he’s brought to the group,” said Bradley.

“He’s hungry to score goals. In this team we create so many opportunities and the one thing is he puts himself into positions to miss and if you have that as a centre-forward you’ll always score. People sometimes miss and then don’t want to go into that same area because they’re afraid they’ll miss and Johnny hasn’t got that.


He’s just different to what we had. He thinks differently to what we’ve had. We have a lot of players who like to link but when we have Johnny it gives us something completely different because we know teams are going to press us but, with Johnny’s pace, if they’re going to press us they’re in trouble. Obviously we lost Danny so it’s one we’ve been looking for and I think Johnny gives us that.”

Rovers will look to carry the momentum from their Dundalk win into Friday’s showdown with league leaders and arch rivals Bohemians at Dalymount Park.