Stephen Kenny: 'Vera's legacy is that Ireland qualified for the World ...

Kenny’s position at the helm of the Men’s National Team is also under scrutiny but speaking shortly after announcing his 25-man squad for their upcoming crunch Euro 2024 qualifiers against France and the Netherlands, the former Dundalk boss, who spoke with Pauw over the phone on Thursday morning, insisted she can be proud of her accomplishments with Ireland.

“Listen, Vera’s legacy is that Ireland qualified for the World Cup and it’s a great achievement and she did a terrific job as Ireland manager,” said Kenny.

“I had a good relationship (with her), I spoke to her after she came back from Australia, she actually rang me this morning and I spoke to her this morning.

“It wasn’t the ending she wanted, she can be very proud of her achievements as manager of the women’s team and she did a terrific job.”

Notable call-ups into Kenny's squad include defender Shane Duffy, who was impressed since joining Norwich this summer, and striker Aaron Connolly, who has received his first call-up to the senior squad since October 2021 after netting on three occasions for the Tigers this term.

“Listen, Aaron is not really…it’s unusual to pick someone who is not starting, he’s not been starting for Hull,” continued Kenny.

“But everyone knows it’s not been a straightforward journey for Aaron but he showed great humility and great determination going back to the Under-21 team in Israel and playing in the play-offs.

“He’s got a manager there in Liam Rosenior who he has a very good relationship with and has been very good for him, and a very good manager.

“You know, they’ve a good way of playing and he has a relationship with him from his previous club and he got two goals against Blackburn which were outstanding, real good goals.

“He hasn’t been starting for Hull so it’s not realistic to start for us. But he’s shown his capacity to come on and get goals in the last couple of weeks. That’s why he’s included.” 

Another notable inclusion is Festy Ebosele, who receives his first senior call-up since June 2022 after impressing for Udinese in the Italian Serie A.

The 21-year-old wing-back could be in line to earn his first senior cap against a star-studded French side given the injuries Ireland have in that position with Seamus Coleman and Callum O’Dowda, who will be sidelined for four weeks with a groin tear, ruled out.

Matt Doherty will also miss the trip to Paris through suspension following his red card against Greece, a decision which Kenny is unhappy about.

“To be honest I was constantly onto the operations team over the last while. To me it's a yellow card, looking at the video evidence he has gone over and nudged him with his shoulder, the player has hit the deck like he absolutely collapsed.

“Other players have actually grabbed Matt; he could have collapsed on the deck and the Greek player would have been sent off. But he didn't do that. There was no need for the player to hit the deck number one. And the second thing is that, how its two matches I’ll just never know.

“I asked the FAI to contact UEFA, and it was delay delay delay, there was no subsequent meeting.

“Ultimately, we heard a couple of weeks ago that he got the two matches. I had a meeting with our legal team, we had a load of video evidence.

“We viewed it and under the rules they felt there wasn't a case for an appeal. The fact that the two sets of players were involved after that exacerbates the actual incident. That's what led to the two matches.

“He (Festy) is in contention. Ultimately, we see Festy as an attacking player, who has sort of been relocated to right wing back.

“Obviously he played 58 minutes v Juventus and made a late introduction in the second game. So it's an interesting journey for him going to Udinese, a different culture and a new language.

“Different challenges tactically. A big learning curve for him and one he is trying to embrace and trying to improve all the time. He has the capacity for improvement and has some very good attributes.”