Stephen Kenny has spoken to Off The Ball about the dearth of Irish talent over the last decade, and how he is aiming to address it.
The new Republic of Ireland senior manager spoke to Nathan Murphy about, as he sees it, a lack of breakthrough players between the generation of Robbie Brady and the current crop.
"There is no change in my position. I am the manager of the team, which is all I ever wanted to be," said Kenny of his role within the FAI.
Kenny reiterated that he is working closely with managers at all under-age levels, including Jim Crawford and Tom Mohan at the under-21s and under-19s.
"We're meeting regularly to establish the style of play that we want to formulate right throughout the teams.
"There was a lot of good work done before I was appointed, by Ruud Dokter and all of the coaches."
Stephen Kenny on the 'production line'
As for the system he has inherited, Kenny believes there are issues to address.
"Apart from Allan Browne at Cork City, and Seanie Maguire played in Gibraltar - apart from those Cork City lads that played once or twice in competitive games, the next player [after Brady and Hendrick's generation] is Aaron Connolly.
"So we have nine years of no players actually making the breakthrough."
But this is a situation that Stephen Kenny can see being rectified.
"So, all of a sudden, we have got all of these players that the under-age managers have been working with, and all of the clubs. We have all of these players who I feel are ready to come through.
"Every year, we want to have a number of players who are capable of stepping up. It might not be as simple as that, as some years have better players than others, but it's something that we can't ignore."
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