STEPHEN KENNY believes Martin O’Neill “took satisfaction” from Ireland not succeeding under the St Pat’s boss.
Kenny took charge of the Republic of Ireland in 2020, with the Boys in Green losing a Euro 2020 play-off to Slovakia on penalties in his first significant game of note.
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His tenure – which saw Ireland fail to qualify for the 2022 World Cup and 2024 Euros – was brought to an end in November 2023.
O’Neill – who led the Boys in Green to the last-16 of Euro 2016 – was a vocal critic of Kenny towards the end of his time.
Following their Euro 2024 qualifier defeat to the Netherlands, the ex-Aston Villa gaffer claimed the FAI had succumbed to pressure from the Irish media by appointing the Dubliner.
He said: “The Irish media have put Stephen in charge and therefore they are still going to peddle this idea that he has changed the course of football.
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“That the Republic of Ireland play a different type of football.
“They put him in charge because they were very strongly in favour of him and the FAI succumbed and went with that, which was fine.
“The whole idea was he would change the course of football. We’re going to be a possession team, we are going to change it.
“That’s very, very difficult to change when you are an international manager. You have players for two or three days.
“The bottom line is you have to win football games. The Republic of Ireland want to qualify.”
Despite this, Kenny insisted he had had a positive relationship with O’Neill, and even advised him on transfers once upon a time.
He told Second Captains: “I knew Martin because when I managed Derry City against PSG to qualify for the [UEFA Cup] group stages back in 2006, he flew over for the match at the Brandywell.
“We drew the first leg and we had a mutual friend, who is a surgeon in Belfast. Dr Raymond White.
“We met in the everglades and he said, ‘would you come back to my apartment?’
“Me, Raymond and Martin went back and had a Chinese in his apartment at about 4am. He got a flight back for training.
“I had been to see Marseille and PSG and I said, ‘I think you could really sign these two players. I think you should look into it.’
“They were [Samir] Nasri and [Franck] Ribery playing for Marseille. I’m not joking.
“I had a relationship with him from then.”
Kenny – who was succeeded by Heimir Hallgrimsson and is now in charge of St Patrick’s Athletic – opted not to delve too deeply into criticism he received from O’Neill.
But he claimed that his predecessor seemed to enjoy his struggles with the national team.
He added: “There had been a bit of sniping alright. I am not going to get into that.
“I had had a good relationship with him and I think when he got the job I had been in touch with him because he had come to a few of the games in the Europa League and so forth.
“My relationship with Martin was fine but he did seem to take some satisfaction in us not succeeding. That’s alright.”