Manchester United Update: The Rise of Kieran McKenna – Mourinho’s Assistant Poised for Premier League with Ipswich Town

Ipswich Town stand on the brink of an incredible achievement – back to back promotions from all the way from League One to the Premier League.

Guiding the Tractor Boys’ journey is Kieran McKenna, the 37-year-old Northern Irishman who is carving out a reputation as one of the most ambitious and exciting young managers working in the British game.

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His fast, direct team have earned the plaudits for their rate of goalscoring – they netted 101 in League One last season while finishing second to Plymouth – and are tireless workers off the ball.

READ MORE: Man Utd risk losing the ‘next Bukayo Saka’ for peanuts

Ipswich are the Championship’s top scorers this term, currently on 84, and his side have done a fine job of sharing the goalscoring burden.

Nathan Broadhead and Conor Chaplin, who have dealt incredibly well with the step up from League One to the Championship promotion places, have led the way, and there have been important contributions from winter signings Ali Al-Hamadi and Kieffer Moore, moves necessitated by the injury to first-choice forward George Hirst.

“Ipswich Town are seven games from greatness!”

What a STRIKE from Leif Davis! 🚀 pic.twitter.com/FTJ8Rw6Y04

— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) April 1, 2024

To carry out their brand of football consistently in the Championship is a challenge, to do so with a squad of players who were recently playing in the third tier is astonishing.

McKenna has proven himself to be an adaptable coach, with Ipswich usually lining up in a 4-2-3-1.

In the engine room are hard-working midfield pair Massimo Luongo and Samy Morsy, who is usually charged with getting things going.

He asks a lot from his full backs, and left back Leif Davis has been among their most important players this season, contributing an incredible 19 assists – the most of any player in the division.

The full backs are charged with getting high and wide and even winning the ball back high up the pitch before opponents have a chance to get out.

They are solid off the ball and are always on the lookout for a counter. When they attack, they tend to get five or six players forward, ensuring plenty of opportunities for crosses or cutbacks from the byline.

Liam Rosenior ✅

Daniel Farke ✅

Kieran McKenna ✅

The three nominees for the Championship manager of the season at the upcoming EFL Awards.

Who’s your winner? #BBCFootball pic.twitter.com/bOTUl0zDSk

— Match of the Day (@BBCMOTD) April 3, 2024

Ipswich have come roaring back

Rewind a couple of months though and it appeared that the outsiders’ automatic promotion hopes were wobbling.

Chelsea loanee Omari Hutchinson struck a last-gasp equaliser against fellow hopefuls West Brom to rescue a vital point, but that still left Ipswich on a run of only one win in nine Championship matches.

But they have roared back in the final third of the season, winning nine of their last 10 matches, scoring 29 times and propelling themselves to the top of the table.

Leicester City and Leeds United, two relegated teams, currently trail but there is a long way to go and only the finest of margins separate the three teams vying for two promotion places.

The scenes, however, when Ipswich downed Southampton last week with a 97th-minute winner showed that players and fans now alike truly believe in what could be about to materialise; Ipswich playing in the top flight for the first time since 2002.

McKenna flourishes by Mourinho’s side

McKenna was signed from Manchester United in December 2021 – with the side languishing in League One – the culmination of a steady rise through the ranks.

He was a promising young player for both Northern Ireland and Tottenham before a chronic hip injury ended his career aged only 22.

Encouraged by Spurs, he enrolled on a sports science course at Loughborough University, which he combined with coaching at Leicester, Spurs and Nottingham Forest, and had a job waiting for him with Spurs when he graduated.

That job was ‘head of academy performance analysis’ and by 2015 he was the club’s under-18s manager.

First-team coach Kieran McKenna has left the club to become Ipswich Town’s new manager.#MUFC

— Manchester United (@ManUtd) December 16, 2021

McKenna had in 2014 met with compatriot and then-Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers over a coaching position in the Liverpool youth ranks, when Alex Inglethorpe was promoted to academy director, but he stayed with Spurs.

A run to the FA Youth Cup semi-finals in 2015 included a victory against Manchester United, a side including a certain Marcus Rashford, and then-academy head Nicky Butt was sufficiently convinced to offer McKenna a job in a newly-restructured United youth setup in 2016.

For a boyhood Man United fan, it was the crowning moment of his career.

“It’s a dream come true really. I was a massive United fan. My dad brought me over to my first game in the 1994 season to see them lift the Premier League trophy,” he said upon his appointment.

His progress through the United ranks was rapid and when Rui Faria left his post as Jose Mourinho’s assistant in 2018, McKenna, along with Michael Carrick, entered the first-team setup.

He’d only been at Old Trafford a matter of 18 months or so, but at 32, had already taken his place on the bench alongside one of the most storied managers in the game.

When Ole Gunnar Solskjaer replaced the Special One at the end of 2018, he retained his position in the coaching set-up.

Although reports emerged of concerns among first-team players over the quality of McKenna’s sessions, he is credited with the development of players like Mason Greenwood, Angel Gomes and Tahith Chong.

When Solskjaer was given his marching orders at the end of 2021, McKenna again stayed on with new boss Ralf Rangnick but it was only a matter of weeks later when the call came from Portman Road.

McKenna enters the limelight

Less than a year ago they confirmed their promotion to the second tier with a 6-0 win over Exeter City in League One. Now McKenna and his team stand on the brink of the riches of the Premier League.

An unassuming character, McKenna is more comfortable on the training ground than in the limelight but such has been Ipswich’s progression under his watch that he has become one of the most talked-about managers on the scene.

🧸 A post-match visit from Ed.#itfc

— Ipswich Town (@IpswichTown) December 12, 2023

Ipswich’s biggest celebrity fan, Ed Sheeran, gatecrashed one of his post-game interviews when the side had just downed Watford away from home in December.

Sheeran, decked out in an Ipswich Christmas jumper, had just watched the game with Elton John, Watford’s Honorary Life-President, who was “not happy” that the away side picked up the points.

With an arm around McKenna, the superstar singer-songwriter – who sponsors the team – was full of praise for the boss; a surreal moment of star quality that suddenly brought home how close McKenna was to catapulting his team to the big time.

Already the links have started with bigger clubs; Peterborough chairman Darragh MacAnthony believes he would be a “dark horse” to replace Jurgen Klopp at Anfield while other reports have stated that Manchester United insiders believe he is a future manager of the club.

McKenna is certainly going places, starting with the Premier League with Ipswich Town. One day he may well outgrow his current club but looks certain to establish himself as one of the elite coaches in the Premier League sooner rather than later.