Former Republic of Ireland striker Stephen Elliott believes the Boys in Green's Euro 2024 qualifying campaign is already a write-off and that there is a wider issue of a lack of identity when it comes to the national team.
Ireland beat Gibraltar 3-0 at the Aviva Stadium on Monday night but it came three days after a torrid experience in Athens against the group's fourth seeds Greece which resulted in a damaging 2-1 defeat.
Speaking on the RTÉ Soccer Podcast alongside former League of Ireland-winning midfielder Alan Cawley, Elliott offered a bleak assessment of Ireland's chances of hauling themselves into contention within what was already a difficult group.
"The damage was done in Greece. We're talking about the qualification, we've got no chance," he said.
"Minimum we needed to get a draw even out in Greece but we ended up coming away with nothing.
"This qualifying campaign is over and we've got two games coming up in September (away to France and home to the Netherlands).
"You can claim you've always got a fighter's chance but we've no chance. We really have no chance."
Reflecting on the starting team picked in Athens, Elliott was surprised by the decision to include Darragh Lenihan as the left-sided centre-back nearest to winger-turned-wing-back Callum O'Dowda, whose handball led to Greece's penalty.
But it was up front that he saw as the biggest concern with Adam Idah, who later scored his first senior goal against Gibraltar, was taken off at half-time in Greece, having been given the nod ahead of Michael Obafemi.
"When I saw Adam Idah starting, I was just very surprised. Regarding Idah, when I watch him play, with all due respect to him, I don't see an international player there at the moment," Elliott said of the Norwich centre-forward.
"(Kenny) seems to have shown a lot of faith in him but when I'm watching him play for Ireland, I don't see what he brings to the party.
"I just felt that was a poor selection and regarding Obafemi, he had energy and I think in that Greece game he could have been a good option."
Cawley also expressed disappointment in Josh Cullen's performances in both games and expanding on Liam Brady's take on the lack of overall quality available to Kenny, the Sligo native also queried whether the manager had been too optimistic about individual players' capabilities in his public comments.
"I don't know if Stephen has over-egged it in the sense that if you go through all these players at the moment and we're hearing about the potential, they're all struggling to play at their clubs," Cawley said.
"In one sense we can be critical of Stephen but then the argument goes across to the players and I think between both the manager struggling at the moment and then what he's picking from, I think it's a combination of things as well but the manager will always pay the price.
"But I just think a couple of (players) haven't shown up in this campaign as well and whatever about lads who are in and out and not playing regularly, (for) the likes of Cullen there was no excuse for him and I thought he was bitterly disappointing in the two games."
But one deeper issue that both Elliott and Cawley pointed to was an identity crisis within Irish football that is hampering what Kenny would hope to achieve with the senior team.
"We don't really have an identity and that's the big problem and like Alan mentioned there, (Kenny) did say a lot at the start of the campaign, that he was going to create this identity and this flamboyance and that's what I think people are starting to get a little bit kind of, 'Where's this coming from and do we give him another campaign to get going again?'" said Elliott, who pointed to Scotland as a side that have built what he sees as an identity since losing to Ireland in the Nations League last June and have garnered impressive recent results against the likes of Spain and Norway.
And the former Manchester City, Wolves and Sunderland striker believes opponents are less concerned about facing Ireland in contrast to bygone eras.
"I reckon these other nations look at us as if we're - I wouldn't say as bad as Gibraltar but you know the way we used to look at Latvia, Lithuania, Liechtenstein over the years," he said.
"I just think other countries and nations probably look at us like that a little bit now. That's the reality.
"I know we can mention the players we have like (Evan) Ferguson coming through, but I reckon other countries are genuinely looking at us thinking, 'We don't really have to worry about Ireland too much anymore.'"
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