2023 - the year that Irish football's endless debate was settled

2023 will go down as the year when the grand debate over Stephen Kenny gradually quietened to a murmur.

On the surface, the situation has never looked as bleak for the Irish national team, having just completed their most abject qualification attempt since the 1972 European Championships.

Bizarrely still unable to attract a main sponsor, the men's national team are, to borrow a phrase, increasingly looking like the "problem child" of the game here. Corporate Ireland, lining up to throw their underwear at the rugby team, appears to have forgotten that Irish soccer exists.

However, a glance at the squad, and its radically improved age profile, suggests the next six years may not be as depressing as the last.

All told, things did not look promising at the outset of 2023. For the first time in quite a while, the suits in Frankfurt really did us dirty with the draw.

As in Spain '82, Ireland were drawn in a group with France and Netherlands, except this time we'd be without Liam Brady, Frank Stapleton and Mark Lawrenson.

Ireland had finished 2021 having picked up some momentum, rescuing third place in the group with resounding away wins in Azerbaijan and Luxembourg.

Kenny, never slow to trot out a data point which might frame the situation in the best possible light [If he said that "only one defeat in 10 games" stat once, he said it a thousand times], announced that Ireland were now in position to top their 2022 Nations League group.

These hopes were shot after losses in Armenia and at home to Ukraine and the team slumped to a disappointing third which, crucially, narrowed our chances of availing of the Nations League playoff escape route.

Then came the catastrophic group draw. Ireland were the chumps thrown in with the Pot 2 booby