Kieran McKenna | Close to signing long term deal to stay at Ipswich
- Thread starter roonster09
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Think he might be off. Difficult for Ipswich but they'll be odds on to finish 20th in the league and he might want to jump before he has a relegation on his record.
It would surprise me if he stayed on with Ipswich. Yes he's been loyal to them and has done a truly remarkable job but they'll likely be heading back down again next year and with the interest in him from clubs such as United, Chelsea and Brighton you'd be hard pushed to be too critical of him if he were to take any one of those potential opportunities , especially with United and Chelsea. Those jobs don't come around often.
He should definitely take a good offer if one comes. Staying at Ipswich is more risk than reward. The club got promoted to Championship from League One and apart from signing a handful of loanees (Brandon Williams among them) and free agents (Tuanzebe among them), it only spent £5m on 3 players. Despite that, McKenna managed to get them promoted and now they're basically a very well coached team with League One players that finds itself in the Premier League.
Whichever way Ipswich go there's trouble. They could either try to spend big and sign loads of players (like Forrest), if they can afford that is, and hope that they manage to have a cohesive team by mid-season to hopefully survive. Or stick with what they have plus 2-3 quality additions, which arguably might not be enough in quality to see them survive.
Brighton or West Ham would definitely be much safer bets for him. Just taking on the hardest, riskiest challenges is not a smart way to build a career in any field never mind coaching.
Brighton would be the perfect stepping stone before a bigger club.
Good squad, good budget but maybe no control of transfers might be off-putting.
I've no problem with a coach taking the bigger job if offered it, at worst you will find yourself in contention for a Brighton/West Ham level appointment, with the greatest of respect to those clubs, if you do get let go of.
They don't tend to reinvest the majority of the money that they generate back into the squad. They have averaged £85m in net profits per transfer season, over the last couple of years while De Zerbi was there. Basically, they haven't really shown any ambition to cling on to the European places or start pushing for top 4. So far at least, they seem a club generally happy just to be where they are (about mid-table) and to re-invest just enough to not be in risk of relegation.
I'm just adding some context. It's still a much better place from McKenna's perspective than Ipswich of course.
They do re-invest but they invest in the youth. Yes they make nice profits with player sales but they purchase a lot of talented young players from around the world.
Looks more like 58 than 38 in the photo.
They re-invest about half of what they take though. Which is less than what clubs around them do. While I'm all for praising their scouting/talent department, I don't think it's unfair to criticise the board perhaps for lack of ambition compared to some teams at their position. Not all young players will turn out well and those that do will still take time to develop. Meanwhile, when you sell all your best players over 3-4 transfer windows and only by some youngsters, you can easily go from 6th to 11th like they did this season.
And that can also reflect badly on the manager. A lot of people in here saying De Zerbi might not be all that and last year a one-off, because of their league finish this season. Football is a reputation sport.
I get what you’re saying, but at the same time I assume most of their fans are happy with how they operate.
There's this notion that Erik was hired as a hipster manager but as stated he's one of the most experienced managers in the league, therefore he should be achieving more over the short-term compared to our expectations in the long-run. That's why for the majority of the season he's been relatively stubborn in not changing the dynamics when the teams performances have suffered. A young manager being inexperienced makes the necessary adjustments whereas the older sticks to what he knows.
I don't think Erik has much legroom to actually grow in terms of his own proficiency, he has a ceiling and that's clearly been demonstrated. Even if you takeaway the injuries and assess United on merit of performance metrics, there's still no consistency to the teams methods in attack, the press still falls apart if the opposition beat the first press and United's best system both last season and the present campaign is pragmatism.
I would take Mckenna over Erik if the impetus with INEOS is to build something for the future. Everything about Erik thus far is suggestive of him actually being a short-term solution as opposed to a longer term initiative. The team is getting progressively worse under his trajectory, expecting the team next season to resolve all the faults through fitness and recruitment is fantasy.
I don't think Erik has much legroom to actually grow in terms of his own proficiency, he has a ceiling and that's clearly been demonstrated. Even if you takeaway the injuries and assess United on merit of performance metrics, there's still no consistency to the teams methods in attack, the press still falls apart if the opposition beat the first press and United's best system both last season and the present campaign is pragmatism.
I would take Mckenna over Erik if the impetus with INEOS is to build something for the future. Everything about Erik thus far is suggestive of him actually being a short-term solution as opposed to a longer term initiative. The team is getting progressively worse under his trajectory, expecting the team next season to resolve all the faults through fitness and recruitment is fantasy.
They buy a lot but mostly "punts" on players they feel are undervalued.
It's worked well for them so far.
It's still a decent budget.
I wonder how much power the manager has over signings and transfers.
Yeah perhaps. I'm mostly trying to explain the risks each job has. It's not all rosy at Brighton either.
Ipswich is very high risk and for no reward at all. Hardly any one (outside of Ipswich) will write column inches for him and sing his praises, if he manages to keep them up after a tough relegation battle. Instead, having a team near the relegation zone with more losses than wins and on the receiving end of some batterings, will likely damage his current popularity. Even if it's a Herculean feat to have made even it here, never mind to survive.
Brighton is a safer job but without too much ambition. You might find that after a good season the club sells its best players for a huge profit and then it goes backwards again for a while until the new players find their feet. If you don't want your reputation to suffer (like De Zerbi's after a good season) you'd be best suited to jump again when that happens and another option arises.
A club like West Ham are more ambitious in their spending and targets, but perhaps not quite as well run Brighton. They have more upside potential than Brighton based on location, funds etc. They would have been a better job for McKenna if they hadn't already opted for Lopetegui.
United and Chelsea are both very high risk but also very high reward. They have spent the most money compared to their rivals but are in positions where under a good manager, they can only go up. Yet they are chaotically run while the expectations and pressure are very high at both.
Good post, agree with a lot of it.
Although could say that Ipswich is the opposite. Low risk, high reward. With Leicester & So’ton/Leeds going up, every single realistic football follower will say that Ipswich will go down. So if they do, I don’t think his reputation will take a hit. Unless they make some records and end up with 8 points or something. Sure some will laugh at him but at the same time the football people at different clubs know what he has done in the past two seasons.
Now if they avoid relegation, that’s a near miracle (judging by the squads as it is). That’d would be the high reward and should make him an even more attractive option to clubs looking for a new manager. They’d also have the evidence from him managing in the PL, which he currently lacks.
Brighton's a sideway move for McKenna. I genuinely believe Ipswich will be competitive next season, play good football and they have huge momentum. Behind the scenes at the club, there's so much investment and forward planning, the setup is quite promising there. Feels very different from recent teams that have been promoted. They've really changed the culture and structure at Ipswich and I can see them cementing a mid table place within the EPL soon much like Brighton, Brentford, Bournemouth etc.
However Chelsea have the players more suited to his tactics I feel. He would make them super competitive. A double pivot of Enzo and Caicedo will work wonders and they are a very athletic team which is what he looks for. People will scoff at this but if he went there, they would be a shoe in for top 4. McKennas not a possession obsessed coach so not sure how he fits the ethos at Brighton?
However Chelsea have the players more suited to his tactics I feel. He would make them super competitive. A double pivot of Enzo and Caicedo will work wonders and they are a very athletic team which is what he looks for. People will scoff at this but if he went there, they would be a shoe in for top 4. McKennas not a possession obsessed coach so not sure how he fits the ethos at Brighton?
I would suggest that these jobs do come around fairly often.
Manchester United 9 managers since 2013
Chelsea 11 managers since 2013
Brighton might be a poisoned chalice too. They didn't reinvest after selling a bunch of key players (Caicedo, Cucurella, Bissouma, Trossard, Mac Allister, Ben White, Sanchez). It's actually pretty incredible to me that people still underrate De Zerbi after managing them through this transition. I think they'll struggle next year and be in the relegation mix if the summer business is not absolutely on point.
The job becoming available is one thing. You being considered for the job, never mind it being offered to you, is quite another. From the point of any individual coach, those jobs don't come around very often at all, if ever.
Yes. I understand that most managers are never in the running for the top jobs but assuming that McKenna can keep Ipswich up this season I feel that lots of top jobs will open up for him.
that is an incredibly huge assumption to make in regards to keeping ipswich up.
Very disingenuous to include caretakers. We've had 5 permanent managers since SAF retired.
Brighton would be a stupid move. His next move, if not to a very top club, should be to a club like Spurs who are always there or thereabouts the top 4.
Tbh, any move for a stable Pl club would be good. He will have a decision on his hand.
I think it would be a good next step. Brighton should give him some time to adapt and he will certainly have less pressure. Going to any top club bar United could see him in trouble if he does not hit the ground running.
For sure there is a chance he takes Brighton backwards but I think it’s a safer bet than staying with Ipswich. They will be favourites for relegation and even if he avoids that will his stock still be as high?
The only top club that might give him more time is United at the moment. INEOS will want to give their new man time and after the last few years the supporters rightly or wrongly are fed up with most of the current players and will quickly point to the players.
I have a sneaking suspicion that he will keep Ipswich up as long as they spend their money well. I have watched a lot of Championship football this season & the Ipswich team have some thing special going on. McKenna is for me a special manager who is able to influence games in a way I don't see from many other managers.
It was a somewhat "tongue in cheek" reply to the statement that jobs like this don't come along very often.
Kudos to you for using 'disingenuous' in a post
Not really. You've already said the realistic bet is that they will go down. Therefore if they do, even if people acknowledge 'it's not really McKenna's fault because of the squad quality, the Premier League competition and the history of promoted teams', who's going to look glowingly at a manager that got his team relegated? No Premier League team will bring in him because they will probably already have a load of quality foreign coaches from the continent and proven British coaches to choose from next year.
Look at Kompany and Burnley, who did even better in the Championship last year. If McKenna has a choice between jobs and he really believes in his own ability/doesn't need the time to mature as a coach then a Brighton/West Ham and or Utd is easily the 'better' bet for him on a personal level.
Do tell us more mate. I love a manager who adapts his tactics.
I reckon Chelsea will snag him, they love their managerial merry go rounds.
Got told off for posting this last week but told you it came very reliable sources
United and Chelsea no chance.
Brighton it is.
United and Chelsea no chance.
Brighton it is.
Needs to manage Brighton for 2 years then he can make the jump up to United.
How do you feel about getting Slot?Got told off for posting this last week but told you it came very reliable sources
United and Chelsea no chance.
Brighton it is.
Jumping ship to an established PL club rather than running the (very likely) risk of getting stuffed every week with Ipswich would be a very shrewd career move.
Keeping Brighton in midtable would be a lot easier than keeping Ipswich up, and would probably do his stock the same amount of good.
Excuse me?
I'm utd through and through.
Looking forward to the next season's "how Brighton beat football again" video
He has no problem making early substitutions & swapping three players players out at a time. He will change the formation mid game as well switching between 4-2-3-1 and 3-4-2-1.
The best thing for me is that he isn't in love with the possession tippy tappy football that so many young managers embrace these days. He uses a big CF to holdup play & transition to attack.