Former Birmingham City defender Jeff Kenna heads to Florida to pursue American dream

Jul 10 2011 by Brian Dick, Sunday Mercury

JEFF Kenna is planning an escape to the sun after becoming exasperated with English football.

Frustrated Kenna, who was part of the Blues side that won promotion in 2002, has not had a permanent position for nearly two years.

The 40-year-old ex-Ireland international finished his playing career with Kidderminster in 2008 to become manager at Galway United.

And, having led the seemingly doomed outfit to safety, he returned to his hometown to take the reins at St. Patrick’s’ Athletic.

But since leaving Dublin he has found it impossible to break back into the game back in England.

It seems neither his part in Birmingham’s climb back into the top flight nor Blackburn Rovers’ first Premier League title has counted for anything when in comes to career opportunities.

“I have got all my licences. Pro, A licence, B licence - the lot,” Kenna says.

“It is disappointing but being a realist about it I am one of 400-500 players who retire every year.

“I would say 80 per cent of those don’t know anything other than football and the natural progression is to go into coaching and management.

“Unfortunately there are only 80-90 odd jobs. It’s very difficult, people tend to work with who they have worked with before. The difficulty is getting in.

“Once you get in it seems the same heads get all the different jobs, it’s like a merry-go-round. People have been sacked one week and been appointed somewhere else another week

“It’s a weird industry for that, you would presume they had been sacked because it hadn’t worked out – failed for want of a different word.