Ipswich Town's remarkable renaissance under Kieran McKenna

Once José Mourinho recognised McKenna's qualities, now the world does

From giving up his football career at 22 to leading Ipswich Town back to the EFL Championship in his first full debut as a manager, Kieran McKenna has experienced it all. A club takeover happened in 2021 for Ipswich Town and instead of going and signing a proven manager, the new owners approved bringing in a 'fresh' face by December. Before being approached by Ipswich Town for a fully-fledged managerial role, Kieran McKenna was serving as an assistant manager at Manchester United.

The Ipswich Town before Kieran McKenna

The club was formed way back in 1878 in Suffolk, England. By 1936, Ipswich Town started playing football professionally. They even participated in the inaugural Premier League season as The Tractor Boys got promoted that very year. However, they could only survive three years before dropping down a division. Once again in the 2000-01 season, they were back to the big times only to go down the next season.

Since 2002, the club has yet to be back playing Premier League football. Although the club continued to be ever present in the second tier of England playing in the EFL Championship they had suffered another knock. The 2018-19 season saw Ipswich Town drop another level to League One.

Gamechanger 20 takeover and appointment of McKenna

Post the 2019 drop, Ipswich Town remained in League One for four consecutive seasons.

Things started to change in April 2021. Gamechanger 20 Ltd led by Mike O’Leary comprising Ed Schwartz, Brett Johnson, Berke Bakay and Mark Detmer became the new owners. The sale was made official by Marcus Evans Group for a reported £40 million.

The new owners weren't pleased by the state of affairs under manager Paul Cook at the time. Also, Ipswich Town could only finish mid-table in the previous two years after the demotion to League One. Cook was relieved of his duties in early December 2021 as The Tractor Boys were still lingering in 11th position in their third season of League One. By month's end, the assistant manager of Manchester United was given the right to manage the club. For a fact, Kieran McKenna had never been a full-scale manager before this appointment.

Previously McKenna was looking over the under-18s in United. The Red Devils' manager at the time, Jose Mourinho couldn't help but notice him doing well with the youth side and quickly integrated him as his assistant. McKenna continued learning from him and then his successors - Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ralf Rangnick, until this job offer arrived.

McKenna leads The Tractor Boys back to the Championship

The new head coach couldn't do much after arriving mid-campaign and only could earn his club an 11th-place finish in League One. The Northern Ireland man though delivered in his full debut as a manager next season.

The 2022-23 season marked the 145th year of existence for Ipswich Town. It began with a 1-1 draw at Portman Road. And nobody could have predicted what was up in the future.

Ipswich Town under Kieran McKenna finished the 2022-23 season in second place giving them automatic qualification from League One to EFL Championship. The manager primarily used 4-2-3-1 formation where Conor Chaplin played the number 10 role behind the striker. Chaplin ended up as the joint top scorer with 26 goals while also registering the highest 161 shots across the division.

McKenna's style of play not only resulted in Ispwich outscoring every other team but also the one that conceded the least goals. The final table for The Tractor Boys had 101 goals and 98 points in League One. The team also recorded almost 60 per cent of the possession and 380 successful passes per game as per Opta Analyst.

Highlights from the 2022-23 season were the 101 goals. It led Ipswich Town to become the 14th side to score more than a hundred goals across a league season in all the top four tiers of English football. The final 19 games of League One were observed as unbeaten also.

Back-to-back promotion awaits?

The momentum is continuing for the Portman Road hosts. After 11 games in the EFL Championship, the team sits in second place only behind Leicester City. The Foxes are still a strong coupled squad having been relegated from the PL last season.

Even though we can't disregard the quality of opponents they are facing in the Championship after promotion, they still are recording 2.55 points per match (PPM). Ipswich Town are using the same football philosophy that brought them success last season. And if they manage to gain further promotion to PL, it will mark them as the only fifth club to gain back-to-back promotion from the third division to the first in the Premier League era. Previously four clubs - Watford, Manchester City, rivals Norwich City and Southampton FC, only had delivered back-to-back promotions to reach the PL.

Once McKenna was in the ranks of Tottenham Hotspur. An injury resulted in him quitting his playing career at the young age of 22. Everything seemed to fall apart. The man remained determined and shifted his energy to coaching. Now at 37 years and 5 months old, Kieran McKenna is the youngest manager in all of the four tiers of English football trying to land Ipswich Town a Premier League promotion. A sight the fans have been waiting to see since 2002.