At some point in 2020 – hopefully later, rather than sooner – there will be a revolution in Irish football and Stephen Kenny will take to the barricades. He is not the most obvious kind of radical, a softly-spoken and emotional team-builder rather than a touchline firebrand, but change is coming and he will be its architect. There will be no fear and, in his own words, he will “never compromise.”



Kenny is the next Republic of Ireland manager, or “the king in waiting,” as one Irish newspaper put it. He will not be waiting long. Once the country’s European Championship campaign is done, preferably after their supporters have daubed next summer’s finals green, the 48-year-old will step up from his present role with the under-21s to succeed Mick McCarthy. Decades of navel-gazing will be swept away.



Kenny will bring idealism to a role which has been defined by pragmatism. He will inject creativity into a team which has stood...