Kieran McKenna has been praised for the job he has done so far at Ipswich by Manchester United legend Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, according to the East Anglian Daily Times .
Who is Kieran McKenna?
McKenna is a 36-year-old former midfielder who had his playing career cut short due to injury and has since turned his attention to coaching, working for Tottenham Hotspur in the academy, Manchester United as assistant manager and now being the man in charge at Ipswich Town.
The former Northern Ireland Under 21 international took over as manager at Portman Road in December 2021, with the club struggling in 12th place in the League One table despite an expensively assembled squad.
He managed an immediate upturn in form, at one stage putting together an 11-game unbeaten league run before finishing the season in 11th spot. This season, he built a side that never left the top 3 after the first two matches and who went 19 games unbeaten from January to the end of the season, winning 14 of those as his side hunted down and overtook Sheffield Wednesday for the coveted top-two finish.
Who is Ole Gunnar Solskjaer?
The Norwegian is a playing legend at Old Trafford after joining the club from Molde in the summer of 1996 for a bargain price of £1.5 million before going on to score 126 goals during one of United’s most successful periods.
He became an instant hero with his winning strike in the 1999 European Cup Final that secured the historic treble and ended his playing career at Old Trafford with 6 Premier League titles, 2 FA Cup wins and the European title among his honours.
After spells in charge of the United reserves, two successful spells at former club Molde and relegation at Cardiff City, he found himself in the Old Trafford hotseat as interim manager in December 2018. He would take the job permanently and would lead his side to the Europa League final in 2020-21 but would eventually lose his job in November 2021 and has been out of management since.
The Solskjaer/McKenna Connection
Kieran McKenna joined the Manchester United academy coaching staff from the same role at Tottenham Hotspurs in 2018 when Jose Mourinho was in charge at Old Trafford. Shortly before the Portuguese left his role, Northern Irishman McKenna was promoted to assistant manager and it is in this role that he began working with Solskjaer.
The United goalscoring hero was brought back to the club in an interim role before the team’s fine form under his stewardship led to a permanent appointment. McKenna would continue working in his role after the Norwegian was sacked and Ralf Rangnick was appointed.
What’s Been Said?
Following a highly successful first full season in charge at Ipswich, McKenna’s manager at the Red Devils complimented his former coach.
“He’s the most thorough and analytical, step-by-step, process-driven coach that I’ve worked with. He makes it so easy for the players to see and understand what we wanted from them. He’d do that the day before a game and his memory was also fantastic, his eye for detail too.”
“One of his strong points was defensive organisation and I let him be in charge of that in training. I learned from him about defensive shape and how not to concede. So I wasn’t surprised that he went nine games without conceding this season. Not one goal. Then they conceded one horror goal (at Cheltenham), before carrying on keeping clean sheets.”
“Kieran would have unit meetings with the players and go through videos. He was more focused on when the team didn’t have possession, whereas Michael (Carrick) was about when the team did have possession. They gave the players the detail I wanted them to have before a game.
“I encouraged them to offer their personal views in meetings, then I’d make the decision. They walked out of the room and went with what I said. They were loyal, they’d convince the players that what I’d said was the right way to go forward.”
Writer’s View
McKenna joined Ipswich when they were struggling and falling far below expectations and has managed to take them from 12th to 2nd in his 18 months in charge. Tractor Boy fans would argue their club shouldn’t be in the third tier of English football but that is where they found themselves and were finding it difficult to get out, with the players and management team under huge pressure to deliver. Managing to get McKenna away from Manchester United and handing him his first role as number one has so far proved to be an inspired decision.
He got his team to be consistent throughout the season, losing just 4 of their 46 league matches and scoring over 100 goals in the process. From Solskjaer’s comments, it is perhaps not surprising that Town only conceded 35 goals in the league (the best defensive record in the division). Being the highest-scoring team and holding the best defensive record strongly suggests that the manager has put together a well-organised, well-disciplined and balanced squad.
It will be a big summer for McKenna and Ipswich as they will be looking to push on in the Championship and, particularly if they have a strong start to the new campaign, I would imagine there will be a few clubs interested in making the Northern Irishman their manager.
