Stephen Kenny outlines why St Pat's are NOT likely to win the league
Stephen Kenny has poured cold water on the idea that St Patrick's Athletic were ever favourites for this season's Premier Division title.
The Saints were tipped by plenty of pundits in pre-season to finish ahead of the rest.
But Kenny reckons there is no logic behind such claims, even if Pat's can climb as high as second in the table with a win on Friday evening against Waterford.
'We weren't shouting out that we were going to be league champions. Other people were making that point,' Kenny said.
'On what basis did we think we'd arrive to be the league champions based on me coming three quarters of the way through the season or over halfway through the season, getting into Europe or whatever?
'And then all of a sudden we're just going to flick a switch and win the league? Life isn't like that.
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'You must work hard for everything over a sustained period of time and you know, you need certainty, teams need time to develop and evolve.'
The Richmond Park boss has a huge headache ahead of the game, with midfielders Jamie Lennon (suspended) and Kian Leavy (ankle) joining longer-term absentees Romal Palmer and Chris Forrester on the sidelines.
Despite his treatment table woes, he sides with Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola when it comes to opinions on squad depth.
Guardiola has threatened to quit his job if his huge squad isn't cut down, as leaving so many players out on matchdays is 'impossible for my soul.'
Kenny said: 'We've formulated a squad, we don't like squads that are too big.
'I seen Pep Guardiola, he doesn't want to be at Man City if they've 25 players because he doesn't want to put four or five in the squad every week.
'You know, I agree with that, I don't think you need to have that big a squad.
'You know we have a very good squad, a very talented group, a lot of attacking potential.
'Like everything else, we've had key players missing for part of the season but so have other teams also.
'And so we have to adjust and try and put in a performance that can get us three points on Friday.'
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