Kieran McKenna discusses future plans amid talk of leaving Ipswich Town

The former Manchester United manager was only appointed as the new Tractor Boys boss in December 2021, but he has transformed the team since his appointment.

Ipswich won promotion to the Championship in their first season in charge, as they started well in the Second Division.

So perhaps it’s no surprise that McKenna is starting to attract attention from elsewhere.

It was claimed in the summer that Celtic were considering signing the 37-year-old after Ange Postecoglou left Tottenham and more recently it was believed that Ireland wanted McKenna to replace Stephen Kenny after the qualifying campaign His poor Euro 2024.

However, despite not yet directly discussing these rumours, McKenna did speak to the Telegraph about his future plans, including management at the top level, but he made it clear that he He wants that to happen to Ipswich. “The club’s ambition is also to return to the Premier League, so hopefully those two paths will go at the same time. But other than that, I don’t have plans too far ahead. My responsibility as manager is to give all my commitment and energy to help the club. From there, football will take care of itself and take you wherever it takes you.

The Ipswich board took a gamble in appointing McKenna, and they have backed him at every point since his appointment, so they are clearly well placed to meet his ambitions now. .

So, in the short term, you can’t imagine there will be too much concern at Portman Road about McKenna leaving.

However, in the long-term, the board will know that McKenna has the potential to move on to a top club, so they will have plans in place further down the line.

Pleasingly for fans of the Suffolk outfit, the new regime has earned their trust, so they will believe that the club are heading in the right direction.

As mentioned, it’s been a good start to the season for the side, who sit second in the table at this early stage, having won four of their first five games.

That will give the side a belief that they can succeed at this level, but we know there is a long way to go this season, so it’s about coping with the setbacks that inevitably come at different points.

As McKenna says, he doesn’t look too far ahead, and you can be sure that he is just looking at a way to beat Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough this weekend. The two teams drew 2-2 when they met in League One last season.

ONE.

Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna said he “loved” his side’s 1-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday. Tractor Boys on Wednesday moved just two points above last season’s second automatic promotion spot.

And despite his team’s narrow victory at Hillsborough, Wednesday was ultimately unable to knock out Ipswich. Conor Chaplin’s first-half effort was the only difference, but the visitors had plenty of chances to extend their lead and would have done so had it not been for Owls’ standout goalkeeper Devis Vasquez. Speaking after the match, McKenna said:
“I really enjoyed it and am excited for many reasons. We told the players before the game that this could be one of the best games to win, to be honest. Obviously we had a number of games against them last season and we didn’t seem to be able to win here, because obviously it’s a very difficult place to come and win.

“I thought it was a great performance. We came out in the first half and really outscored them, and it should have been two of us.