A new contract for Stephen Kenny is no longer credible, believes Richie Sadlier, following Sunday's defeat to the Netherlands, which ended any chance of the Republic of Ireland qualifying automatically for Euro 2024.
After taking an early lead against the Dutch, courtesy of Adam Idah's converted penalty, there was hope that Kenny's side could could go on to get a vital victory and finally kickstart their campaign.
However, the Dutch hit back after 19 minutes with a spot-kick of their own as Cody Gakpo dispatched the penalty.
Ireland had no response once substitute Wout Weghourst added a second early in the second half as Ronald Koeman's side closed out a 2-1 victory.
The Group B table does not make pretty viewing for the Irish, with just the one win from five games. A home tie against Greece and away encounters against Gibraltar and Netherlands will round out qualifying, but no doubt the talk will now centre on the manager and whether he will be in charge for those final three games and a potential play-off in March.
Speaking to RTÉ Sport, in the aftermath of the Dutch loss at the Aviva Stadium, a somewhat dejected Stephen Kenny was adamant he will still be in charge for the remaining group games, though he did not speculate beyond that.
"Yeah absolutely, we've two matches in October, Greece and Gibraltar, and then Holland in Amsterdam. After that, that's certainly not my decision. We have to see if we have the play-off in March, there's still a chance."
As for being involved in the last-chance saloon series next spring, Albania's win over Poland at the weekend was one outcome that did not help Ireland's cause, though the full picture won't be known until the conclusion of the qualifiers.
Former Ireland international Sadlier, part of the panel for RTÉ's television coverage of the Aviva encounter, was pretty firm in his view that Kenny's time is up in the wake of a 13th defeat in 26 competitive games and that the FAI have a decision to make as to whether he should see out the campaign.
"We can't accept this. Has he [Kenny] taken them as far as he can? Whatever the answer is, if this is the level we're at, we can't accept this. One win in five, four defeats in five, this is not acceptable.
"We've run out of road. We're just a team that can't win matches when it matters
"The FAI basically have a decision now; there is no argument that anyone can make credibly saying that Stephen deserves a new contract. I'm firm on that now. I said the opposite over the last couple of campaigns. It's whether or not the FAI can sit back and go 'Is there merit in making the change before the final game?' We may have a play-off in March. What is the discussion around the merits of replacing him in the meantime?
"This is a game at senior level where results matter. He's had more patience, more support from the crowd, from the media, from the FAI than anyone else has been given, given the run of results he's had.
"In isolation, every one of the disappointing nights we've had in the last three years is kind of understandable. There was a wider context you could point to and say 'relax, we're going in the right direction'.
"Every previous manager that has managed this team we have judged them to a particular standard and it was about results. Stephen should be judged on results."
Former Liverpool and Germany star Didi Hamann, also part of the RTÉ coverage, believes Kenny should go now, with a successor given the chance to build some momentum and confidence before any play-off in the remaining qualifying matches.
"You have to stay positive and hope you'll get into a play-off. I don't think he should be given that play-off. He started with a play-off against Slovakia but found a way to get beaten and there was another game to play against Northern Ireland and Bosnia; it was only a semi-final.
"I think it would be a great start for somebody to pick up three points against Gibraltar and hopefully beat Greece here. You've got six points and a bit of confidence. Then you got the Netherlands and you hopefully get a draw, so you go there with a bit of looking forward to a game.
"People are deflated, they didn't expect to win the game [against the Netherlands] because they haven't seen the team win against a good team. You can lose against these but you can't lose the way they did because they were there for the taking.
"I don't think he should be given the opportunity if we get to a play-off.
"We can always say the players aren't good enough but don't you think there's somebody out there who would get more out of these players? The punters deserve better.
"If he hadn't been from the League of Ireland... I think other managers wouldn't have been given the opportunity to play the qualifying campaign. At some stage you have to say 'This is not good enough'."
Stephen Kelly said that Irish fans had great goodwill for Kenny but that his attempt to rebuild the team with a new style of play simply hadn't been successful.
"The reason why this conversation is so hard is because we have an Irishman who is genuinely passionate about Irish football," he said.
"We want someone like that to succeed. We want to get behind him and him to take this as far as he can, reinvent Irish football and play a fantastic style.
"But it hasn't worked."
Listen to the RTÉ Soccer podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
Watch Republic of Ireland U-21 v San Marino U-21 in Euro 2025 Under-21 qualifying on Tuesday from 7pm on the RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, follow a live blog on RTÉ.ie/Sport and the RTÉ News app
