Kieran McKenna is very much flavour of the month and a manager that is topping some football club’s shopping lists if they have a vacant space in their dugout. Of course, having guided Ipswich Town to the Premier League with back-to-back promotions, it will take a very top job to lure him away from Portman Road.
Respected football writer and pundit Eamon Dunphy has gone on record to suggest that he is exactly what the Republic of Ireland needs, and should have pursued, and should be knocking down walls to get him into the country’s hot seat.
McKenna is now a hot topic, and Ipswich will do well to keep him, but as Dunphy joins in the praise the Irish journalist points to the territory that has helped so many managers get off the ground.
There is of course a strong history of Irish managers doing well on English shores, and Northern Ireland and the Eire have had varied degrees of success over the last 40 years. Dunphy though looks at the present and bring a comparison to Brendan Rodgers who is currently guiding Celtic to another league title in Scotland.
"Fermanagh native Kieran McKenna is exactly what we want in a Republic of Ireland manager – the FAI should have been banging down his door to talk to him."
Read Eamon Dunphy's (@Dunphy_Official) column here: https://t.co/yo1UOwz5km
— Buzz.ie (@buzzdotie) May 7, 2024
Should Rodgers bring the Scottish title home it will be his eighth trophy in the two spells in charge of the green and white hoops. Add this to his time in charge of Liverpool where he so nearly bought a Premier League title, and McKenna is being held in lofty company.
Ireland of course does have a manager cutting his teeth at the International level, and Dunphy did acknowledge this in his column for the Irish Mirror. “Plenty of us now think John O’Shea should be appointed Ireland boss. He has the intelligence, knowledge and character to do well in the job.
“But it is a fact that O’Shea has never been a manager. All his jobs in coaching so far have been in assistant roles.”
McKenna will draw attention after the success he is bringing to Suffolk and will be flattered to be mentioned in the same breath as Rodgers, and indeed the likes of Martin O’Neill, and ones for the older generations, Terry Neill and Johnny Giles, all Illustrious names in Irish football.
So, why did McKenna slip through the net when the FAI were drawing up their list of replacements for Stephen Kenny?
“My understanding is that the FAI never talked to him, or many any kind of approach at all.” Dunphy says, “This, to me, is a dereliction of duty. It has been reported that Ipswich Town have a hefty release clause with McKenna. So what? He is a real talent and the FAI could surely find a sponsor to cough up.
“McKenna has a growing reputation and the carrot of the Premier League is a massive one. He got Ipswich promoted from League One with a squad that cost just €11.5m. Last summer, McKenna then signed seven players on free transfers. So he has done a miraculous job with Ipswich on a shoestring. He has made the whole far greater than the sum of the parts. That’s exactly what we want in a manager.
“Sure, he’s going to the Premier League but that’s an arena that can destroy growing reputations. Ipswich are likely to go straight back down next season and, looking at the history of promoted teams, McKenna might well end up getting sacked along the way.
“So the FAI should be trying to sell him a different path. Sell him the challenge of improving a talented squad in international football with the knowledge that he is young enough to go back to the club game in a few years’ time.”
Writer’s View
Kieran McKenna is the perfect fit for Ipswich Town at this moment in time, and he has achieved so much in such a short space of time that it is only natural that he will be talked of as the next big thing in certain quarters.
To have Eamon Dunphy be upfront about why the FAI have not pursued the 37-year-old manager is not a surprise. The journalist often shoots from the hip, but on this occasion, you can see sense as to why he would be outspoken on this subject. For now, though McKenna deserves the praise coming his way, and the support of his peers if he is to continue to bring success both for his team and personally.
