Stephen Kenny has been thinking about Ryan McBride and Mark Farren a lot this past week.
He managed them both at Derry City but McBride died suddenly three years ago while Farren passed away the year before that after a cancer battle.
And both men have been forefront in Kenny’s mind as he juggled a hundred thoughts jogging the coastal streets of Blackrock, just outside Dundalk.
Kenny said: “I went for a run the other morning but there’s nobody on the roads at the moment so it’s very quiet.
“I was thinking about Mark Farren and Ryan McBride, who are dead now.
“I’ve got a lot of texts from ex-players and so forth who are delighted (at his appointment) and I know I would have got messages from those two.
“There’s a foundation now, the Ryan McBride Foundation, in relation to coaching in the community and in disadvantaged areas.
“And the McBride family has asked me to be a patron of the foundation and I’m delighted to do that.”
While Kenny made his name in the League of Ireland, he insists it won’t mean that he automatically picks Irish-based players for his Ireland squad.
And he reiterated that those playing a high level of Champions League or Europa League football are more likely to be considered.
Kenny said: “It wasn’t just the senior team - you couldn’t get players from the national league into the U21 squad for a while.
“Last year we had a situation where there were nine U21 home based players in the U21 national squad for the first qualifier.
“They were in on merit because they were the best players available and had the most potential talent.
“A few players got moves back to England from that. But we've got to produce players who can get into the U21 squad first.
“We're starting to do that now but into the senior squad? That's a bigger jump, there's no doubt about that.”
And Kenny continued: “It would be great for either Shamrock Rovers or Dundalk to get to the group stages of European competition.
“I don’t discriminate against anyone, regardless of where they are playing, but you want players playing at the highest level possible.”
