Exclusive: Ipswich Town manager discusses his attacking principles, injury cutting short his playing career and impressing Jose Mourinho
Kieran McKenna always had a plan. He would be a manager by the age of 35. Why 35? “I mapped that out,” he says. “Mentally in my head that was retirement age as a player. I might have played until I was 35, 36.”
McKenna was appointed by Ipswich Town in December 2021. He was 35 years and seven months old when he succeeded Paul Cook with the club languishing in mid-table League One mediocrity.
McKenna won promotion back to the Championship in his first full season. After five games Ipswich, who have been outside the Premier League for more than two decades, are second, play wonderful, attacking football and the ambition is clear.
As is McKenna’s. “This is a progressive club and I know that I want to manage at the highest level of the game,” he says. “I want to be back to that level – back to the Premier League and manage in the Champions League.”
Spending a day with McKenna is illuminating. Indeed, the fact he invites me to watch a training session, have lunch, watch the Ipswich Under-21s play Coventry City and then devote time to this interview in his office at the training ground is revealing.
McKenna – and Ipswich – want to provide a full picture as to what is going on. For example, the manager does not allow Sky Sports News – the training ground staple – on the televisions in the canteen. Instead there is footage of that day’s training session, always filmed by a drone, or highlights from a recent match. This is to get the message across. Players glance up and what do they see? They see their work and its consequences.
