Gavan Reilly: Ivana Bacik could only dream of a Kenny-style renaissance

After a few lean years it was brilliant to see a Republic of Ireland soccer team genuinely put it up to one of the world’s best at the weekend. Belgium may not have any major senior honours to their name, but they do possess a squad packed full of global talent and the number 1 spot in the current FIFA rankings – yet they can really see themselves lucky to have left Dublin with a 2-2 draw against Stephen Kenny’s youthful, energetic side.

Kenny’s reinvention of a ageing team left behind by Mick McCarthy might be a template for plenty of others in charge of a stale outfit in need of a new purpose, a new identity and perhaps a new ethos. On that note, Ivana Bacik could probably do worse than to take notes.

In many ways the Labour Party reminds me of my own beloved Manchester United as of late. United are about to appoint their fifth manager in nine years, but none have been able to bring them back to their 2008-2011 peak. (Fellow United fan Alan Kelly might have considered himself the Solskjaer, but evidently seems to have become more of a Mourinho.) Labour have churned through leader since Eamon Gilmore’s poor showing at the 2014 local elections; Joan Burton, Brendan Howlin and Alan Kelly all failed to bring the good days back.

How will Bacik be different? How can she pull a Stephen Kenny and breathe new vigour into a stale outfit? There is no playbook - it was three decades before Jürgen Klopp could bring Liverpool back to a champions’ standard - and unfortunately for Bacik the marketplace is now even more crowded than before.

One of my constant frustrations about Irish politics is that there are often parties who have near-identical outlooks for the future, who refuse to coalesce because they can’t agree over the past. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil would probably fall into that mould but at least they have parked their differences (!) to govern together. Labour and the Social Democrats would be another: the parties would be almost identical in outlook, but differ over the actions of the 2011-16 government. A Labour and a Social Democrat election manifesto would have precious little in the difference.

But we are where we are, meaning any proposal to revive Labour first means having to wrest back its own voters from its newer rivals. Much as Bacik would prefer otherwise - and she made that clear in several interviews, including to me on Newstalk on Sunday - this means she will have to give Labour a point of difference which isn’t just its longer history or its international links. This is the main pivot between Bacik and Kelly, who repeatedly called for the Social Democrats to consider a merger: the best way back for Labour would be to become a group with 13 Dáil seats and almost 70 county councillors.

Unfortunately for Bacik, Stephen Kenny has one advantage she does not. Most of Kenny’s charges can’t simply defect to another country. Bacik will have to convince her own deserters that Labour is still their home. Easier said than done.