Who is Kieran McKenna? Ex-Man Utd coach who led Ipswich to the Premier League

Ipswich Town have achieved back-to-back promotions, climbing 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.

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.

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Ipswich were the Championship’s top scorers in 2023/24, netting 92 times, and his side did a fine job of sharing the goalscoring burden.

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

To carry out their brand of football consistently in the Championship was a challenge, doing so with a squad of players who were recently playing in the third tier was nothing short of 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 of his side 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 was among their most important players in 2023/24, contributing an incredible 21 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.

Ipswich have come roaring back

At one point during the 2023/24 campaign, it appeared that the outsiders’ automatic promotion hopes were wobbling.

Chelsea loanee Omari Hutchinson - who could be the future of the Stamford Bridge side - 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 came roaring back after a stunning run of form and ultimately finished second ahead of the likes of Leeds and Southampton, both of whom had been playing in the Premier League the season prior. McKenna guided Ipswich to their first Premier League promotion in 22 years.

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

In 2023, they confirmed their promotion to the second tier with a 6-0 win over Exeter City in League One. Now, McKenna and his team have reached 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.

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.