Unruffled manager Kieran McKenna is seated on the open-top bus of Ipswich Town, proudly basking in the glory of his triumphant elevation to the Premier League. At 37, the manager’s casual attire, a white t-shirt under a grey top, belies the magnitude of the accomplishment. He flashes his smile and waves intermittently to the crowd in Suffolk, albeit without a display of exuberant celebration.
Sky Sports correspondents on the bus note McKenna’s cool demeanour contrasting their own fervour. His responses to the rapid-fire questions are measured and thoughtful. As the players groove to ‘Tell Me Ma’, donning blue headbands and scarfs, Sky Sports probes about his plans for the forthcoming season. After all, transitioning from League One, through the Championship, to the epitome of English football is no mean feat.
“We’ve maintained an exceptional consistency, not only with the team but also in our playing style and identity”, McKenna asserts. However, he recognises the significant leap and the need to preserve the best of what Ipswich currently has. His possession-centric approach, refined during his tenures at Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United, necessitates skill and courage for continual application.
Sky Sports draws comparisons to former Ipswich managers Alf Ramsey and Bobby Robson. McKenna modestly deflects the praise, interrupting only to wave to a fan he recognises. Enquired about his highlight of the day, he responds, “It was heart-warming to see my family – wife, kids, parents – cheering us on the streets as we drove past our house.”
Known for his level-headed nature and uncompromising honesty, McKenna embodies the Zen-like energy that can be his driving force in the Premier League. An example of this was his silent acknowledgment to Wes Burns’s goal against Huddersfield, a defining moment that set Ipswich on the course to the Premier League.
A loyal supporter commented to journalist David Walsh outside the stadium, praising McKenna’s calm, grounded nature and emphasising his refusal to berate referees or lose his cool. Having been compelled to abandon his playing career with Tottenham and Northern Ireland at 22 due to severe hip issues, McKenna’s journey reflects resilience personified.
Recalling his early days as a scholar, he shares his youth-team coaches, Jimmy Neighbour, and Mike Stone, at Spurs, predicted his managerial future. However, it wasn’t always so clear cut for him. As a footballer, he was focused solely on his performance on the pitch. Long before he dabbled in coaching at Leicester City, Nottingham Forest, and Vancouver Whitecaps, and completing a Sports Science degree from Loughborough University, he was playing box-to-box midfield for Enniskillen Town United and Ballinamallard United, with a short period of Gaelic football at Enniskillen Gaels packed in between. He started his journey as a 16-year-old lad at Spurs.
Fellow coach at the Irish Football Association, Ray Sanderson, accounts him as a calm and composed leader, not the stereotypical boisterous type. Despite his serene exterior, he was always planning and strategizing within. Spurs academy helped shape his career after a premature retirement, with their academy head, John McDermott, made a push for him to study and retrace his coaching trajectory.
Recollecting his past, he notes how he went from working with Spurs’ youth team to coaching Loughborough in non-league or Nottingham Forest’s under-nines. However, he acknowledges it as a beneficial turnaround, exposing him to a larger panorama of knowledge, experience, and stimulating thought. It allowed him to refine his ideologies and collaborate with individuals from diverse backgrounds.
Eventually, he made his way back to Tottenham, securing a position as the academy’s performance analyst, which evolved into a coaching role for under-18s. Following an impressive youth cup semi-final run in 2015 and a declined offer from Liverpool’s youth set-up, his favorite childhood club extended him a job offer.
Nicky Butt, the academy head at Manchester United, was the first to spot and appreciate his method of preparing the players, in which the training mirrored the opponent’s playing style to expose and exploit their weaknesses. His techniques were further expounded by Indy Boonen, a former United academy player.
José Mourinho was sufficiently impressed by what he observed at the Carrington training facility to elevate him to the primary team bench, sharing it with Michael Carrick. In this role, McKenna also assisted both Ole Gunnar Solskjær and Ralf Rangnick, concurrently developing a robust standing despite the mediocrity at Old Trafford.
“You require a sense of resilience to endure there with its sheer intensity,” McKenna expressed. “Despite the challenges, significant progress was accomplished during my tenure, a fact well-recognised and appreciated in-house. Our achievements in that period were always a source of pride for me.”
December 2021 witnessed McKenna’s appointment as manager of Ipswich Town, touting his efficacy and consistency that led to an 11th place finish in League One during the same season. His successful stint started with seven victories from the first ten matches and culminating in a spree of 11 back-to-back wins. Also remarkable was the club’s record 547-minute span without conceding a goal.
Most doubted his game approach, let alone its potential for getting promoted amidst the fiercely competitive lower leagues of English football. Recalling past experiences, he stated, “There were players who were sceptical about escaping League One through an audacious game strategy that focused on wide play and emphasized ground passing to keep the ball in motion, all while originating from the defence with a keen eye on spaces,” in a 2023 Guardian interview.
Ipswich managed to lose only four out of 46 games in the past season, scoring an impressive 101 goals. The nearest competitor was Plymouth Argyle, the League One winners, with 82 goals. However, this term, six losses were incurred, scoring 92 goals, and falling one point short of League champions Leicester City’s tally, who suffered 11 defeats.
One-time skipper of the Northern Ireland U-21 team, McKenna is a blend of British and Irish origins, hailing from Fermanagh. Born to Liam and Mary in London in 1986, the family relocated to Lough Erne’s coastline where they run the Manor County House, an 18th-century property inclusive of a hotel, spa, and gourmet restaurant. This was indeed a radical transition for McKenna’s father, a car mechanic, and his mother, a nurse.
“The devoted commitment and unwavering drive observed in their work has undeniably shaped me,” he confessed. “You could metaphorically say that my father resided at the hotel, just as it is claimed that I practically stay at this football fraternity.”
Southampton was the last club to leapfrog from League One to the Championship then into the Premier League in 2012, a feat Ipswich has yet to accomplish in 22 years. This was not down to chance. Marcus Evans handed the reins to an Ohio investment concern, Gamechanger 20 Ltd, in April 2021 after unloading the club. It took the new proprietors seven months to land McKenna.
Since his arrival, no English team has tallied more points, and only Manchester City has outscored Ipswich’s whopping 222 goals, credited to 19 different squad members.
Burns remarked, “From the moment McKenna arrived, we’ve been overwhelmed with a wealth of knowledge.” “However, the immense progress witnessed in our collective and personal capacities indicates that we’re under the tutelage of an extraordinary coach.”
At present, they face the uphill task of retaining McKenna as fiercely as Manchester United possibly aims to dispense with Erik Ten Hag. This perhaps presents the most testing part of McKenna’s high-speed career to date: determining his subsequent step.