Stephen Kenny admits he is fighting a losing battle to persuade people the Republic of Ireland are making progress under his charge.
A 2-0 defeat by Greece at the Aviva Stadium on Friday evening ended Ireland's mathematical hopes of making it to the Euro 2024 finals and left the 51-year-old desperately defending his record amid growing calls for change.
Kenny, who has overhauled the squad he inherited from Mick McCarthy in April 2020 and blooded a new generation of young players, asked to be judged on this campaign, and the verdict is damning with his side sitting a distant fourth in Group B with only three points from six games.
Asked how he would judge himself, the former under-21s boss said: "I have a vision about how I want the team to play. We've tried to radically change the way the team would have played beforehand and we’ve achieved that in a lot of games.
"A lot of people came here in the home games against France and Holland and were really impressed in how we played, really impressed. Gibraltar, OK that was a professional job. Tonight maybe not so.
"We’ve changed the way we played. We’ve conceded goals we shouldn’t and I’ve got to accept responsibility for that.
"I think I’m a team builder, that’s what I am, I have a vision for what I want and I try and build to create that. That’s what I would have seen with this, the international team, a team completely at the end of its cycle and an absence of talent in between in the intervening years.
"Three years ago, that was my first game... I'm going to lose the argument whatever I say here. It's not an argument I can win or an argument I'm interested in having, but I suppose I'm trying to answer your question honestly. Particularly after losing 2-0 at home to Greece, it's not an argument you can win."
Seven of the men who started Friday's game – Gavin Bazunu, Nathan Collins, Liam Scales, Will Smallbone, Jason Knight, Chiedozie Ogbene and 18-year-old Evan Ferguson – have been handed senior international debuts by Kenny, and they are not alone.
The likes of Caoimhin Kelleher, Dara O'Shea, Festy Ebosele, Jayson Molumby, Adam Idah and Sinclair Armstrong have also emerged from the junior ranks, and while senior men Seamus Coleman, who is currently injured, Matt Doherty and the recalled Shane Duffy remain key figures, the pool of players from which the manager now selects has changed radically.
That Kenny has given younger men a chance and invited them to play a more expansive brand of football is laudable; that he has not been rewarded with points – Ireland have won just five of his 27 competitive games at the helm – is undeniable.
Football Association of Ireland chief executive Jonathan Hill this week indicated that the manager would see out the campaign regardless of the results against Greece and Gibraltar – although just how a failure to complete a double over the group minnows in Faro on Monday evening would be greeted remains to be seen.
There is still a possibility, albeit a remote one, that his side could yet be handed a wild card via the play-offs.
Asked if he would want to remain in charge should that prove the case, Kenny, who brushed aside TV pundit Didi Hamann's accusation that he had been "kidding the Irish public for the last three years", said: "Of course I do, but these decisions are not in my hands and that is the reality. I'm not naive.
"There is a lot right, but we have fallen down on the fine margins and I know as a manager that I have to take responsibility for that as well, and I do. But I think we have done a lot of good things and that's it."
