Stephen Kenny

big club in their in their league you know traditionally uh you know the second most populated city and i think uh for them and there's only one club in the city so for them not to be in the league is it was a bit of a blow really for for football ireland but they got relegated like and they had a good squad german they had a strong squad last year so it could be anybody that's the point so it is very very competitive now and i think that's the nature of it um

you know everyone wants to get into europe you know everyone is hoping the owners take over and they think yeah we want to get into europe we only want to group stages and the ad the fact that the group stages are now much more attainable yeah it gives owners and people who are willing to invest in the leagues a greater incentive and we've seen that with uh

you know it used to be if you got knocked out in the Champions League.

We got to the group stages in 2016 of the Europa League and then the following season in the Champions League we lost to Rosenberg 2017 in extra time away and we were out.

You know now you get three goals.

If you get knocked out of the Champions League

you know if you're seeded you get a weaker team in the first round anyway and then you get knocked out of the Champions League you went to the Europa League if you get knocked out of the Europa League you get into the Conference League and the money in the Conference is still transformative absolutely it's massive so it is brilliant that is brilliant for clubs and great opportunities for all and Shelbourne obviously experienced that this year so I think

It is, boy, and it just shows you how hard it was in the past, but beating Linfield, they actually got in.

So all the clubs are looking at that and saying, that's a route, you know, that's a route.

And to have two, it seemed many years ago that very aspirational to have a club into the group stages of...

European football.

That happens so rarely.

I used to be going on about it before we achieved it and being accused of being a bit of a dreamer that you know that's not realistic and you wouldn't believe the sort of the tone around that then you know you'd be you know so now to say well hang on a minute we can get two in it yeah that was that was that was that was terrific okay I didn't get to do as well as they would have liked both clubs obviously Sean McGovern's been in it three times now and they did better last year but I think um

they have two teams in it for the overall league.

I think people are looking at that saying, you know, a lot of clubs can probably aspire to try and achieve that.

Yeah, I think, I suppose it's interesting because

We started off last season, a lot of people were saying... It's our fault, it was the media who were bigging you up, yeah.

No, no, which is fair enough.

We never had any issue with that.

I don't think anyone will be tipping us to win the league this year.