Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna celebrates his first anniversary at Portman Road tomorrow. Andy Warren looks at how he made the move to Suffolk.
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Rewind exactly 12 months and Kieran McKenna is facing the biggest decision of his career.
At 35 and after more than a decade of hard work, the Northern Irishman is where he always dreamed of being, coaching the first-team at the club he grew up supporting – Manchester United.
A man in his position, with the Premier League, Champions League and Cristiano Ronaldo to worry about, would not normally be heavily invested in an FA Cup second round replay between Barrow and Ipswich Town, televised live on ITV 4 between an episode of Giant Lobster Hunters and a showing of Conan The Barbarian.
But, a year ago tonight, heavily invested McKenna is.
That’s because, in the days prior, he had met with Ipswich CEO Mark Ashton, somewhere just off the M6 between Birmingham and Manchester, and now has the chance to achieve another of his dreams, stepping out on his own as a manager.
The dream had not always been for his first job to be at Ipswich Town, of course. That had only come into view since the sacking of Paul Cook a couple of weeks prior. And, watching the Blues’ dire FA Cup loss at Holker Street, he could be forgiven for thinking the chance to manage at Portman Road could be more of a nightmare than a dream come true.
An Ipswich season which started with so much promise had come violently off the rails and those close to McKenna, as Town’s latest defeat was playing out on TV, were rightfully questioning whether swapping the bright lights of Old Trafford for a team humbled by Barrow and sitting a lacklustre 11th in League One was really a wise career move.
Those questions were being asked at United, too. McKenna remained following the sacking of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and after close friend Michael Carrick had resigned. Ralf Rangnick was in charge now and the German, as was reported at the time, wanted McKenna to remain on his staff.
Rangnick’s spent the majority of his career managing in the Bundesliga and, in his world, the brightest young coaches from the biggest clubs in the land would expect to begin their own management careers at upwardly-mobile top-flight clubs or big sides who had fallen into the second tier. Southampton, Watford, Sheffield United, maybe? A move to Ipswich Town in the third tier didn't fit that script.
But then Rangnick probably didn’t understand quite how much life there is beyond the top of the pyramid of English football. And certainly not the potential of Ipswich Town.
Fortunately, McKenna did.
His meeting with Ashton had been hugely positive, with the Town CEO previously describing it as ‘a meeting of minds’ after finally sitting down with an ambitious coach who had been on his radar for two years prior. Every reference he had sought was good, with the hierarchy at United grudgingly giving them permission to speak.
As he left their late-night meeting, Ashton called Town chairman Mike O’Leary and insisted he had found the man he wanted.
Managers, in this day and age, don’t just pick their clubs, they pick their owners. And Ashton clearly did a very good job of selling the prospect of life at Portman Road to a coach who would have studied every aspect of the club; from the CEO, to the ownership, to the playing staff, facilities and fans before making a decision.
Ashton didn’t travel to Barrow, instead remaining in Suffolk in the hope of tying up the loose ends which would finalise McKenna’s appointment.
As we now know he got his man and McKenna was appointed the next day, less than 24 hours after Ipswich’s FA Cup humbling in Cumbria.
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Before McKenna’s reign truly got underway, first there was the prospect of a big game at home to Sunderland, a day after his appointment.
The Northern Irishman had discussed whether or not to take charge against the Black Cats but instead opted not to, introducing himself to the team in the dressing room ahead of kick-off and wishing them luck before taking a seat in the directors’ box alongside Ashton.
People in their two roles at football clubs don’t often watch their own team’s games together in this way and their conversations would have been fascinating as the Blues, led by John McGreal and Kieron Dyer, secured a creditable 1-1 draw against a good team to end a difficult caretaker spell on a high in front of a packed house.
For Ashton, sitting with McKenna meant he had followed his gut – even if he had needed a little help to do so.
Replacing Cook, who was sacked on December 4, took Ashton a little under two weeks. Nobody was lined up, nobody was waiting in the wings, but the Town CEO has a type, his managerial history shows that. The likes of Brendan Rodgers, Aidy Boothroyd, Malky Mackay, Sean Dyche, Lee Johnson and Michael Appleton were all given breaks by Ashton when still very young men in coaching terms.
And, really, this is what he wanted to do this time. More than 450 potential managers were run through an analytical approach to begin the process, with only a couple spoken to in what you might call a job interview situation.
With concerns over whether a fresh face could handle the pressure of managing a club the size of Ipswich, tried and tested bosses were considered. Those out of work at the time included Neil Harris, Chris Coleman, Neil Warnock, Chris Hughton, Paul Clement and even Boothroyd.
Ashton wasn’t inspired, though and, following a pep talk from Town board member Ed Schwartz, he was encouraged to follow his gut.
He knew exactly who he was after at that point and he was soon sitting alongside his pick in the padded seats of the directors’ box, as fire cannons went off and blue and white flags were waved while the teams walked out onto the Portman Road pitch to face Sunderland.
“It wasn’t a sales pitch at all, from either side,” Ashton has previously said of his meeting with McKenna. “But our values matched each other’s with honesty, integrity and hard work.
“I would describe it as a meeting of minds.
“Kieran has got a very high level of IQ and is an outstanding communicator. That all came across. I talked about the club and how we’re trying to build it, while Kieran talked about his values and philosophy.
“I genuinely felt like there was a meeting of minds. We had a moment in time where everything felt right and, if either party hadn’t felt like that for whatever reason, it wouldn’t have happened.”
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