Jeff Kenna

Jeffrey Jude Kenna (born 27 August 1970) is an Irish football manager and former professional footballer.

Jeff Kenna
Personal information
Full name Jeffrey Jude Kenna[1]
Date of birth (1970-08-27) 27 August 1970[1]
Place of birth Dublin,[1] Ireland
Height 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)[2]
Position(s) Right back
Youth career
1987–1989 Southampton
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1989–1995 Southampton 114 (4)
1995–2002 Blackburn Rovers 156 (1)
2001 → Tranmere Rovers (loan) 11 (0)
2001 → Wigan Athletic (loan) 6 (1)
2001–2002 → Birmingham City (loan) 6 (0)
2002–2004 Birmingham City 69 (3)
2004–2006 Derby County 65 (0)
2006–2008 Kidderminster Harriers 57 (1)
2008 Galway United 6 (0)
2009 St Patrick's Athletic 0 (0)
Total 490 (10)
International career
1988–1992 Republic of Ireland U21 8 (0)
1994 Republic of Ireland B 1 (0)
1995–1999 Republic of Ireland 27 (0)
Managerial career
2008–2009 Galway United
2009 St Patrick's Athletic
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

He played as a defender from 1989 until 2009, notably in the Premier League for Southampton, Blackburn Rovers and Birmingham City. He was part of the Rovers side that won the title in 1995 following his mid-season transfer from the Saints. He also played in the Football League for Tranmere Rovers, Wigan Athletic and Derby County, finishing his career in England with Non-league side Kidderminster Harriers. He was capped 27 times by Republic of Ireland.

Following retirement he went on to manage Galway United and St Patrick's Athletic. In 2011, he joined the coaching staff of the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida.

Playing career

Kenna was born in Dublin, but began his club career in England, with Southampton in 1988. He made his debut on 4 May 1991 in a 6–2 league defeat by Derby County at the Baseball Ground. He became a first team regular in the 1992–93 season and remained a fixture in the first team until 15 March 1995, when he moved to Blackburn Rovers for a fee of £1.5 million,[3] playing a part in the run-in to the club's Premier League title that year.

He had played 114 league matches for the Saints, scoring four goals.[3]

He was a regular in the Blackburn team until the 1999–2000 season, after Blackburn had been relegated to Division One. He made his final six appearances for Rovers in the 2000–01 season. During that campaign he had loan spells with Tranmere Rovers and Wigan Athletic, before finally exiting Ewood Park after nearly seven years to join Birmingham City on a free transfer on 24 December 2001.[3]

Kenna scored three goals for Birmingham City after their promotion to the Premier League as Division One playoff winners at the end of the 2001–02 season – their first top division campaign in nearly 20 years.

He joined Derby County on a free transfer in March 2004,[3] and was appointed club captain 2005, but was released at the end of the season in May 2006. In August 2006 he sealed a move to Kidderminster Harriers in the Conference National. Along with Steve Guppy, he became the first player to play at both Wembley stadiums, having played twice at the old ground, when he played for Kidderminster in their defeat to Stevenage in the FA Trophy Final 2007.

Coaching career

Kenna was named Galway United manager (taking over from his former Republic of Ireland U21 international team-mate Tony Cousins) in a press conference on 21 April 2008.[4] He lost his first match in charge 3–2 versus Bray Wanderers.[5]

At the time taking over at United, the club were bottom of the table and haemorrhaging money. Due to league financial regulations a lot of the senior players were sold onto other clubs to ensure that the clubs salary expenditure fell within league requirements. On 15 July 2008, Kenna officially (albeit somewhat reluctantly) became player-manager at Galway United.[6]

Galway were forced to rely on a lot of young inexperienced players, but as the season drew to a climax Kenna engendered a real team spirit in the side to the extent that over the last seven games United collected five wins, a draw and one loss. This enabled Galway to garner seventeen crucial points and narrowly avoid relegation to the First Division, pipping Finn Harps by a single point.. A wonderful feather in the cap of this fledgeling manager (he had also led the club to the last four of both the League Cup and the FAI Cup), Kenna was understood to be contracted for another season with Galway but decided to quit during the winter period.

He took the position of St. Patricks' Athletic manager on 15 January 2009. His first competitive match was a 3–0 home defeat at the hands of his previous club whose new manager, Ian Foster, had been Kenna's assistant the season before. Indifferent league form (which included two more defeats at the hands of Galway) combined with the fact that he was commuting between Dublin and the UK saw Kenna come under pressure from the St. Pat's fans quite quickly, but a run to the Fourth Qualifying Round of the Europa League (which included a victory over Russian side Krylia Sovetov) appeared to have weathered the storm.

However, a 2–0 loss at home to First Division Waterford United in the quarter final of the FAI Cup ultimately led to Kenna's resignation as St. Patrick's Athletic manager on 18 September 2009.

On 1 August 2011, Kenna joined the coaching staff at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida.[7]

Personal life

Kenna is the brother of heavyweight boxer Colin Kenna and second cousin of football manager Pat Scully. His father Liam is an Irish former snooker international. Since his days at Birmingham City Kenna's family had been settled in the West Midlands and he commuted to Ireland for training activities.

Career statistics

Club
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition [8][9][10][11]
Club Season League FA Cup League Cup Other Total
DivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
Southampton
1990–91 First Division 200000—20
1991–92 First Division 14040003[lower-alpha 1]0210
1992–93 Premier League 2921000—302
1993–94 Premier League 4121010—432
1994–95 Premier League 2805020—350
Total 114411030301314
Blackburn Rovers
1994–95 Premier League 910000—91
1995–96 Premier League 32020406[lower-alpha 2]0440
1996–97 Premier League 3702030—420
1997–98 Premier League 3704010—420
1998–99 Premier League 23030301[lower-alpha 3]0300
1999–2000 First Division 1102030—160
2000–01 First Division 700040—110
2001–02 Premier League 000010—10
Total 1561130190701951
Tranmere Rovers (loan) 2000–01 First Division 1100000—110
Wigan Athletic (loan) 2001–02 Second Division 611000—71
Birmingham City (loan) 2001–02 First Division 600000—60
Birmingham City
2001–02 First Division 15000003[lower-alpha 4]0180
2002–03 Premier League 3711010—391
2003–04 Premier League 1724000—212
Total 753501030843
Derby County
2003–04 First Division 900000—90
2004–05 Championship 40020102[lower-alpha 5]0450
2005–06 Championship 1601010—180
Total 650302020720
Kidderminster Harriers
2006–07 Conference National 29110—5[lower-alpha 6]0351
2007–08 Conference National 28000—1[lower-alpha 7]0290
Total 571100060641
Galway United 2008 Irish Premier Division 602[lower-alpha 8]01[lower-alpha 9]0—90
Career total 4901036026021057310
  1. Appearances in Full Members' Cup
  2. Appearances in UEFA Champions League and Charity Shield
  3. Appearances in UEFA Europa League
  4. Appearances in 2002 play-offs
  5. Appearances in 2005 play-offs
  6. Appearances in FA Trophy
  7. Appearances in Conference League Cup
  8. Appearances in FAI Cup
  9. Appearances in League of Ireland Cup

International
Appearances and goals by national team and year
National teamYearAppsGoals
Republic of Ireland U21 198930
199010
199140
Total80
Republic of Ireland B 199410
Total10
Republic of Ireland 199560
199690
199770
199840
199910
Total270

Managerial
Managerial record by team and tenure
Team From To Record
G W D L GF GA GD Win %
Galway United 21 April 2008 14 January 2009 34 13 8 13 44 41 +3 038.24
St Patrick's Athletic 14 January 2009 18 September 2009 38 13 5 20 29 49 −20 034.21

Honours

Blackburn Rovers

Southampton

References
  1. "Jeff Kenna". Barry Hugman's Footballers. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
  2. Rollin, Glenda; Rollin, Jack, eds. (2003). Playfair Football Annual 2003–2004. Headline. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-7553-1313-6.
  3. "Jeff Kenna: Birmingham City FC". Sporting Heroes. Retrieved 13 February 2021.
  4. Kenna appointed manager
  5. Result: Galway United 2 Bray Wanderers 3
  6. Kenna becomes Player Manager
  7. "Jeff Kenna joins IMG Academy". IMG Academy. 1 August 2011. Archived from the original on 29 September 2011. Retrieved 12 August 2011.
  8. "Jeff Kenna career appearances". soccerbase.com. Retrieved 2 October 2022.
  9. "Jeff Kenna career appearances". worldfootball.net. Retrieved 2 October 2022.
  10. "Jeff Kenna career appearances". 11v11.com. Retrieved 2 October 2022.
  11. "Jeff Kenna Galway United appearances". extratime.com. Retrieved 2 October 2022.
  12. Crooke, Jaquob (6 April 2020). "Batty's nerves, Liverpool and Kenna's euphoria from Rovers' PL title". LancsLive. Retrieved 9 June 2023.
  13. "Champions: Jeff Kenna: The defender reflects on that magical Premier League title-winning campaign 25 years ago". Blackburn Rovers F.C. 5 April 2020. Retrieved 9 June 2023. There was only nine games left and I played in every game, so I was very pleased with that and ultimately I got a medal. I think there was a thing at the time that you needed to play 10 games to officially be entitled to a medal, but the club sorted all that out. I think there was two or three of us who hadn't played 10 games, but everybody got a medal, so it was great.
  14. Holley, Duncan; Chalk, Gary (2003). In That Number – A post-war chronicle of Southampton FC. Hagiology. p. 301. ISBN 0-9534474-3-X.
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