If you take as gospel some of what was written last week, the Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna must be a managerial god-in-waiting. Not even Jesse James, the notorious outlaw, found himself on more wanted lists. Brighton & Hove Albion, Chelsea and Manchester United are all supposedly ready to recruit him. Not bad for a 38-year-old who has never taken charge of a game in the Premier League.
Save a thought for Ipswich fans, who have gone from euphoria to dread in less than a month. On the day that the team clinched their place in the Premier League, a banner tied to a railing outside Portman Road proclaimed, “We’ve Got Super Kieran McKenna”. Now, they’re not so sure.
Times have changed and 38 is no longer that young for a manager. Julian Nagelsmann was 28 when appointed TSG Hoffenheim’s head coach in 2015, 29 when the club made the Champions League for the first time in their history. Eddie Howe was 37 when he first managed Bournemouth in the Premier League.
Still, the thought of McKenna taking over at Chelsea or Manchester United seems, at best, a leap into the unknown or, at worst, too much too soon for the young coach. He has been a manager for 2½ years, for goodness’ sake. The counter argument is that in that time he has achieved spectacular results.
He took the reins at Ipswich in December 2021, at a time when they were a mid-table team in League One. They had finished 11th and ninth in their two previous seasons in League One and would again be 11th at the end of McKenna’s first six months. From there, two consecutive promotions. Managers are judged on results and the quality of the football.
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As my colleague Charlotte Duncker noted last week, McKenna has done well on both counts. “Since taking charge of his first game, no club in the top four tiers of English football have won more league points (237) and only Manchester City have scored more than their 222 goals.”
Unsurprisingly, McKenna is revered in Ipswich. They talk as much about his character as his transformation of the team. Down to earth, modest, calm, intelligent; he effuses values that seemed to become part of the team’s DNA. At the victory banquet two days after the win over Huddersfield Town that secured promotion, McKenna spoke only of the retiring first-team squad member Sone Aluko.
“Coaching Sone and getting to know him over the last couple of years has been one of the honours of my career,” McKenna said. “He is a fantastic football player and everyone who has seen him grace Portman Road over the last couple of years will attest to that. His football ability and his football brain is outstanding and I’d have loved to have coached him a few years earlier. His emotional intelligence, empathy and selflessness is off the scale and the way he has helped me, the staff and the leaders manage the group has been massive for us.”
A year after he got the job at Ipswich, McKenna did an extended interview with David Prutton for Sky Sports. The last question was whether he preferred to be called Kieran or gaffer.
“You know it’s funny, people asked me that when I came here,” he replied. “My assistant Martyn came in and said, ‘People have been asking what do we call you, Kieran, or the gaffer?’ and I just said everyone should call me what they’re comfortable with. I don’t mind.
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“I don’t like to force these things. I think you want people to respect you for how you are as a person, for how you treat them, for how you lead, not because you demand a certain job title. So I’ve left it open. Most people probably call me gaffer, or boss, but some call me Kieran. If that’s what they’re comfortable with, I’m fine with that, and it sort of fits with the culture we’re trying to build.”
He was the 16-year-old at Tottenham Hotspur constantly told he would one day be a coach. He was the 17-year-old who continued with his studies after getting good GCSE grades, while trying to become a professional footballer. His A-levels allowed him to do a sports science degree at Loughborough University when a chronic hip injury ended his playing career at 22.
Having started his coaching career at Tottenham, he continued at Manchester United; two years coaching the under-18s and then a further three as assistant coach, first to José Mourinho, then Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. He grew up an avid United fan after being taken to Old Trafford as an eight-year-old by his dad.
McKenna now faces one of the most difficult decisions of his football career. Asked about leaving Ipswich in the heady aftermath of promotion, he couldn’t see the imminent dilemma. “I love it here, it’s a fantastic club,” he said. “That sort of speculation’s been there for the last two years, to be honest, and I’ve shown loyalty to the club through that and I’m really pleased that I’ve stuck with it and achieved what we’ve achieved. There’s some big and exciting steps to come for the football club.”
It is reported that he or his representatives have had talks with Brighton, Chelsea and United. Though McKenna has not spoken about the speculation, there is now an expectation that he will leave Ipswich and a feeling that if he is indeed offered the opportunity to manage his boyhood club, he will not be able to turn it down.
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Andrew C, a United fan commenting on this possibility beneath a piece in The New York Times, observed: “If McKenna wants to come to us he needs his head checked. Stay at Ipswich for a year or learn your craft at Brighton. Jumping from Ipswich to United is like going from a Sunday drive in your Mini Cooper to driving a truck of nitroglycerin down a very bumpy road.” David Moyes, Louis van Gaal, Mourinho, Solskjaer drove that truck, and all met the end that is now predicted for Erik ten Hag.
Romantics, and there are still many of us, want McKenna to carry on at Ipswich. It is a terrific club with the potential to grow. Pragmatists may advise the young manager to hitch his wagon to Brighton, a well-run and established Premier League club. On the south coast, he could further his education and prove he has what it takes to succeed at one of the elite clubs in the Premier League.
Given his intelligence, McKenna will no doubt see this. Brighton is a safer bet than either Chelsea or Manchester United. But as Blaise Pascal once wrote, the heart hath reason that the reason never heard of. Whatever decision he makes, I wish McKenna the best of luck.
