Damien Delaney had a point on Virgin Media by branding it the most important job in Irish life outside of the Taoiseach.

Kenny had his time, plenty of it in fact, over 40 matches to prove he was the right man but, like many of the youngsters he leaned on along his ‘radical shift’, potential didn’t upgrade to progression on the pitch.

Hanging on for a draw against New Zealand before a nervous crowd on Tuesday typified his tenure but his post-match analysis indicated an acceptance of what awaited last night and the realities of international football.

He had referred to next Tuesday’s scheduled board meeting as the juncture for D-day but in a belatedly wise switch, that virtual summit was brought forward to within 24 hours of the anticlimax.

Nothing in the last eight weeks was going to shift the position executive leads Marc Canham and Jonathan Hill, the chief executive himself under strain.

Six defeats in eight Euro qualifiers, the wins only coming over Gibraltar, complemented a failed World Cup qualifying series, two Nations League campaigns and a Euro 2021 playoff semi-final defeat.

“Following a meeting on Wednesday evening and a presentation to the board by CEO Jonathan Hill and Director of Football Marc Canham, the FAI board decided that Kenny’s contract, which is set to conclude following the end of the unsuccessful Euro 2024 qualification campaign, will not be renewed,” read the FAI statement released at 6.41pm.

"Having reviewed the Euro 2024 qualification campaign in its entirety, and recognising how difficult the group was, the results needed to realise our goal of qualification for the Tournament were not achieved.

"The board agrees that now is the right time for change ahead of the friendly matches in March and June 2024 and the next Nations League campaign starting in September 2024."

Clarity and decisiveness at last. The Kenny regime, for months hanging on by a thread, was finally decommissioned.

On too many occasions, notably 24 months ago when a farcical own-goal clutched a draw from the jaws of a win for Serbia, it was as if Kenny was watching a different match.

Squandered chances were the currency he declared supreme when points were lost but the statistical overload couldn’t disguise what the eye could see on the pitch and scoreboard.

While Didi Hamann was harsh in declaring Kenny to have been kidding the population for three years, by the end a health warning applied when the excuse books was opened to masquerade repeated failures.

Fine margins weren’t at play in this latest campaign. Greece were the better side in both victories, as clearly were the French and Dutch on their own patches.

In Dublin, the Netherlands dealt with the early press and deficit to dominate and Ronald Koeman was justified in highlighting the ease with which they saw out the win once Kenny couldn’t match his tactical flexibility.

Where Ireland deserved credit was for the opener against France In March, containing the aristocrats until a sloppy concession just after the interval.

There was nothing expansive or revolutionary about the response, a late stampede peaking with a header by centre-back Nathan Collins that Mike Maignon clawed away to prevent finding the top corner.

With his fate inevitable, Kenny might have mobilised the hyperbole machine again after the All-Whites ensured another off-colour display by his team.

“We had opportunities to win it but so did they.” A reasonable surmising of that ilk earns respect, not the ridicule his previous exaggerations invited.

That he didn’t crib about the merits of the end that was looming, nor the process around it, was admirable as well. “I’ve no complaints over that,” he said about the sequence of events.

Emotion has been the Kenny hallmark throughout his career and his eyes welling up and face reddening wasn’t a surprise as he delivered his parting press conference.

Kenny had just come from a dressing-room where players were informed of what they suspected.

Many spoke up passionately for Kenny in sympathetic terms, noting the manager’s influence on their career development.

The pressure that heaped from his first 11 winless games, pockmarked by World Cup qualification hopes being sunk by losing to lowly Luxembourg at home, rarely lifted.

Even the contract extension granted by the FAI in early 2022 contained a clause permitting them to cut the cord prematurely at no extra cost.

For various reasons – none compelling - they allowed the manager to see out his deal in a phase of purgatory talking up a future for the squad he’ll be detached from.

A rump of board members, including Packie Bonner, had their doubts on Kenny's longevity between campaigns but loyalists also changed tack in the project midstream.

June represented the turning point in the boardroom.

Getting exposed so tactically bereft in the Greece defeat was one thing but waiting until half-time to address why they were firing blanks against the part-timers of Gibraltar similarly irked those in power previously feasting on Kenny’s diet of soundbites.

A few directors were eager to lower the axe then, rather than allow the series limp to the underwhelming conclusion that unfolded.

Chairman Roy Barrett quitting earlier than flagged, ahead of the meeting to rubberstamp Kenny’s exit, provided another pointer of the guard changing in various FAI roles. The bumps in the road Barrett cited after Luxembourg couldn’t be smoothed over.

“Yes, there has been a lot of criticism,” he noted before delving into the boardroom machinations. “Listen, now is not the time but I think it’s very political. The Irish football community is very small and quite political and I think that’s a disappointing aspect.

“I have no regrets. But did I get everything right? No, of course I didn’t.

“What I had to deal with in the first period (Covid), I don’t think anyone will have to deal with. It was so difficult but that’s the way it is.”

Kenny’s successor may think differently but won’t allow it to define him.