Former Ireland player and pundit Eamon Dunphy believes Ireland are at the lowest point they have ever been in their history.
This week, Ireland lost 2-0 to both England and Greece in Dublin, effectively ending their Nations League journey. They now have to travel to Greece and England in the group, making qualification seem as good as dead.
The post-mortem since the two defeats has left many Ireland fans questioning the long-term status of some of the players, as well as their new manager, Heimir Hallgrimsson, who only took over in July.
Dunphy, who has never been one to mince his words on TV, asked whether Hallgrimsson will last longer than former British Prime Minister Liz Truss. Truss became the shortest-serving prime minister in British history in 2022 after serving for 49 days. Her brief tenure is famously remembered for the livestream of a decaying head of lettuce.
British tabloid newspaper the Daily Star began a livestream of an iceberg lettuce next to a framed photograph of Liz Truss, asking the question: Who would last longer, the lettuce or Truss?
Dunphy has now compared Hallgrimsson's tenure to Truss's and even claimed that Hallgrimsson won't outlast a lettuce if the same lettuce idea is recreated.
"There was a question The Star asked when former British PM Liz Truss sank the economy just weeks into her Downing Street tenure. It went like this: What will have a longer shelf life, a lettuce or Liz as Prime Minister? Liz lasted 49 days. An iceberg lettuce, once properly refrigerated, outlasted her," said Dunphy in his Irish Mirror column.
Dublin , Ireland, 10 September 2024: Republic of Ireland head coach Heimir Hallgrimsson with Sammie Szmodics of the Republic of Ireland during the UEFA Nations League B Group 2 match between the Republic of Ireland and Greece at Aviva Stadium in Dublin. (Photo By Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile via Getty Images) )"Two years on, the same question now applies in a football context. Who will last longer—a lettuce in the fridge or Heimir Hallgrimsson in the Ireland hotseat?
"My money is on the lettuce because this appointment is beginning to look not just strange but wrong. Yes, he helped Iceland defeat England eight years ago, but he was a joint manager then, not the solitary figure in charge.
"Since then, he has managed Jamaica, where his record was patchy. And we are meant to believe that the FAI waited seven months to get this guy. What did they see in him?"
Dunphy also added that he thinks Ireland has never been worse in his lifetime.
"I’m baffled. I’m frustrated. I’m hurt. And I’m sickened. And I’ll tell you why. At 79 years of age, I have never seen things as bad as they are now. This is an all-time low," he added.
Many fans of the Irish team have questioned the FAI in the past, and those fans would have had their lack of belief heightened after Stephen Kenny's sacking. It took the FAI several months to replace Kenny, and they eventually hired a candidate nobody would have put on the list after Kenny's departure.
Shay Given believes that the managerial hunt for Kenny's successor has set Ireland back, and Dunphy is of the same opinion. He believes that Ireland is in a worse state than they were a year ago.
"The process to replace Kenny was inadequate; the end choice was unsatisfactory; the two performances since he became boss have been pathetic. So that’s where we are—in a worse state now than we were this time last year.
"In fact, we are in a worse state now than ever—this Greece defeat making it an unhappy record where we have lost four competitive games at home for the first time. There is no point in blaming the players.
"To be out there under that sort of pressure is difficult enough. But to then have a lack of organisation in your team’s setup is simply horrendous. We made five substitutions against Greece, and none of them made any sense."
