Kenny is currently the equivalent of a man standing outside the women’s changing room who’s just been asked if the wife looks fat

But he doesn’t expect women to clean up the dust because he fully respects the fairer sex. I mean they’re not fairer, they’re strong girls on the field. Sorry they’re not girls, they’re international athletes. Please tell me what to say.

Kenny is currently the equivalent of a man standing outside the women’s changing room who’s just been asked if the wife looks fat, thin, old, mutton dressed as mutton in a one-shouldered mesh top even Beyoncé couldn’t pull off.

It had all started so well with the biggest turn-out for a women’s game at Windsor Park, the feeling the team were finally getting the recognition they deserve.

One wrong word from the manager and there was an international Twitter pile-on, and all the people who couldn’t give a shin pad that the Northern Ireland women’s team have made it to the Euros under his leadership were ready with the half-time oranges of outrage.

OK his ‘women are more emotional than men’ was a foot in the mouth moment, particularly in a game where male divas are the superstars.

The timing was especially terrible, just a few days after police started an investigation into an alleged incident involving Cristiano Ronaldo, a starlet-sized ego and a young fan with autism whose phone rapidly hit the deck. But is there a week when Ronaldo (right) doesn’t behave with the emotional range of a 10-year-old?

Gareth Bale has been famously huffy for years because Real Madrid don’t treat him like the top-knotted God he is in his own head.

Ian Wright can’t leave the house without a hanky, some Rescue Remedy and his emergency HRT.

Gazza is as famous for gurning and drinking as football.

And don’t get me started on Luis Suarez, who got so emotional he liked to bite chunks out of opponents. A female player would never do that. She’d be too calorie conscious.

Shiels realised as soon as the words had left his mouth that they should have stayed in his head, and swiftly apologised.

His team captain put his remarks in the context that they’d just discussed conceding goals in swift succession and whether that was an emotional reaction.

So, if the players he was talking about have got over a football faux pas, even if it did come with the teensiest hint of sexism, then surely the rest of us don’t need to get our jockstraps in a twist.

But please tell me the team at least took the piss and presented Kenny with a mansize box of Kleenex in case he got emotional.