When the going got tough in his first two years as Ireland boss, Stephen Kenny always had wiggle room to play with.
Not any more. Not when the evidence of the past week suggests the team is regressing rather than progressing.
With two matches still to come in this window - before a final double-header in September - it may be stretching it to say that Kenny has four games to save his job.
But against Scotland tonight he needs to prove that the Armenia and Ukraine defeats were just bumps on the road to a better place, otherwise it really will get hairy.
“Listen, we're not far wrong,” he said last night, pointing to Ireland’s xG rating before appearing to instantly regret mentioning it
“We've lost two games with a .3 in the data. We haven't even conceded a chance but lost the game. Very tight games and that can change quickly.
“You just have to be ruthless in front of goal and we have to be better with our level of creativity in front of goal.”
In Kenny’s early days, depending on your take, the Covid cases that wreaked havoc in his squads were either matter-of-fact misfortune, or a convenient excuse for poor results.
When results were going against him, Kenny would also point to the bedding-in process required to blood so many new players.
And when the World Cup qualifying campaign effectively ended after the first two games, Kenny claimed that Euro 2024 was always the goal.
While some FAI board members have always harboured reservations about Kenny, key figures in the association had his back at that time.
Safe in that knowledge, and buoyed with an upturn in results in 2021, contract talks concluded with a seal of Euro 2024 approval.
One reason for the slight delay in getting the deal over the line was the thorny settlement package, should the relationship break down in the meantime.
The FAI is not flush with cash, clearly, but compensation figures of between €150,000 and €200,000 have been speculated on, should matters ever come to a head.
Two years into Kenny’s reign and public opinion of the manager remains as divided as it was on the day he was appointed, which speaks volumes in itself.
The wavering fans he was starting to win over earlier in the year are now back in the trenches after defeats to Armenia and Ukraine.
Kenny fights on, but without the luxury of that wiggle room as every poor result and performance is mounting and damning evidence in the court of public opinion.
And that criticism is not unreasonable either. Not when supporters have listened long enough to bold talk of change, but are actually feeling short-changed.
Watching the Hail Mary approach to Shane Duffy in the latter stages of both games in the past week, you’d be forgiven for thinking Ireland had gone back in time.
Kenny still has goodwill in the bank, but it’s being chipped away at and will disappear rapidly if he fails to arrest this current slump.
The Nations League has become a relegation battle, not the opportunity for promotion that he trumpeted.
What appeared to be a vibrant, dynamic, young team in late 2021 and into March, is now playing like a group of strangers.
The fizz they were starting to show has gone flat and Kenny and the players don’t seem to be able to explain it.
“We had a situation where we had one defeat in 12 up to last weekend,” said Kenny yesterday.
“We had a good run where from March to March we scored 23 goals, which is a really high amount for an international team.
“In the last two games we’ve come up short in front of goal. It doesn’t mean everything is wrong, it just means we haven’t capitalised on our opportunities.
“We have to improve in that regard and we have to make sure we all work hard and believe in what we’re doing and hit the back of the net.”
Kenny added: “This has been a setback in the last week but we must press on again and look to improve.”
The trouble for Kenny is that talk is cheap.
Fans want to buy into his project, they want to believe that this team has the ability to excite and go places because we've seen glimpses of it.
But supporters have also been listening to this mantra for two years now, and Ireland can't talk their way to Euro 2024.
The manager - still chasing a first competitive home win, don't forget - has reached the point of no return.
Unless he stops the rot in the next two games, a backlash awaits and Kenny will find himself back in a place that he thought he had escaped.
Actions speak louder than words.
