"He's revered as a God" - Inside Kieran McKenna's Ipswich revolution
“Within six months, we realised we could have the next Sir Bobby Robson. And everyone is talking about a statue of Kieran in a decade's time. That’s how highly he’s regarded.”
Bobby Robson and Alf Ramsey stand tall outside Portman Road, keeping watch on their old patch and the new sheriff in town.
The respective statues of the legendary Ipswich Town and England managers were commissioned by the official Ipswich Town Supporters' Club. That group expects to be fundraising for a third in the not too distant future, in honour of Fermanagh man Kieran McKenna - and they’re not even joking.
The 38-year-old will be three years in the job next month and, after back-to-back promotions to reach the Premier League, it’s safe to say he’s adored by the locals. And even that’s putting it mildly as Baz Morgan-Smith, secretary of the Ipswich Town Supporters' Club, explains ahead of tomorrow’s clash with Manchester United.
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“Kieran McKenna is revered here as a God,” Morgan-Smith told Mirror Sport. “Within six months, we realised we could have the next Sir Bobby Robson. And everyone is talking about a statue of Kieran in a decade's time. That’s how highly he’s regarded.”
Garry Haylock, the Englishman who spent the bulk of his playing career in the League of Ireland and Irish League, subscribes to the theory that McKenna could be special.
They were on the same Pro Licence course in 2017, run by the English Football Association. Others on it included ex-Liverpool striker Robbie Fowler, Chelsea’s former Director of Football Michael Emenalo and a certain Marc Canham, the FAI’s chief football officer.
Haylock and Canham were team-mates at Team Bath and when Haylock became a manager, he signed the FAI man for Hayes and Yeading. But Haylock got to know McKenna too, and understands why he’s gone from Tottenham’s U18s, to Manchester United first-team coach, to Ipswich Town boss in the blink of an eye.
Haylock said: “The issue for Ipswich is can they hold onto him? Or could he go win a European trophy with the likes of Borussia Dortmund or RB Leipzig? I could see that.
“Football’s a simple game, but getting players to do more than they are capable of is a people skill. If Kieran went into something else completely, say engineering or banking, he'd do really well because he'd get people to work for you. So if in 10 years he's won a European trophy and then becomes the manager of Real Madrid, I'll go 'yeah, I could see that'.”
Having played for Enniskillen Town United and Ballinamallard United, McKenna was snapped up by Tottenham as a 16-year-old. At that stage of his fledgling career, he might have dreamed of playing for or against Real Madrid, not managing them. But McKenna’s playing days were cruelly cut short aged 22, due to a hip injury.
“He was a very good player,” says Thomas Stewart, the ex-Linfield, Derry City, Shamrock Rovers, Dundalk and Larne striker who played with McKenna for Northern Ireland.
The pair were international team-mates all the way through the underage ranks up to and including Under-21 level.
And Stewart said: “We were in the Victory Shield together but got left out of the final squad. We were gutted, but that motivation spurred us on. It turned out we were the only two players from that squad who actually went on to play for the U21s. It was testament to our attitude that we didn’t get too down about it and you’d see that in Kieran now, he doesn’t get too high or too low”
Stewart is a manager himself now and is weighing up his options after last month finishing up with Swedish side Ytterhogdals. It's been a while since he saw McKenna, but Stewart instantly recalls the last time they crossed paths on the pitch.
McKenna was Spurs U18s captain playing against Stewart’s Wolves side, and Stewart said: “He was a technical player, full of energy and very vocal on the pitch. He was a centre-mid, but played a bit at right-back as clubs liked to play young lads in different positions to improve their tactical knowledge, so they’re not one-minded.”
Forced to retire in his early 20s, McKenna studied sports science at Loughborough University. He juggled it with youth coach roles at Tottenham, Leicester City, Nottingham Forest and Canadian side Vancouver Whitecaps. When he graduated, he started working at Tottenham as an academy analyst before eventually becoming their U18 manager, which is when he embarked on his Pro Licence.
According to Haylock, it was a tight group of coaches and they travelled to places like Switzerland and the Toulon Tournament, when Gareth Southgate's U21s won it in 2016.
“I sat next to Kieran on one of the flights and we spoke at length about boxing films,” recalled Haylock.
“They do these things on the course to help get to know each other; you talk for three minutes, they talk for three and then you talk about them to the group and vice versa. I did it with Kieran and he spoke about his dog, a little bulldog, that he got and absolutely loved. We spent three minutes talking about this dog, and then he spent three minutes talking about the summer house I was trying to build for my son!”
But it was McKenna's manner and ease in his surroundings that struck Haylock more than anything, and that’s why he feels he’s thriving in management. Promotion from League One was one thing, but getting out of the Championship at the first time of asking is why some people are talking about statues.
“Kieran stood out like a sore thumb on the Pro Licence, he was just next level”, said Haylock. “He gave a presentation that I still think about now, on a black background with white writing which I’d never seen before. He just liked it visually, and still uses it for everything.
“We did a lot of role playing and we did one about releasing a young player and how you would go about it. They brought in actors and it was a really good exercise, but Kieran was different class. He was so comfortable it was brilliant. He was Spurs U18s manager at the time, but went to Man Utd and I remember thinking 'he could end up as manager of Man Utd’ as he’d stand out in any company.”
And Haylock continued: “I'm confident in what I do and I can turn my hand to most things, but I look at Kieran and think 'I can't do what you do'. I don't have that personality, that warmth. He’s humble without being shy and always got the pitch right. You can't not like him. If he does a Thomas Frank and keeps Ipswich up, he’ll be talked about as the future Man Utd or Liverpool manager, or one of those really big jobs. And it wouldn't surprise me down the line if he got the Real Madrid job because what he has done is off the charts, he stands out that much.”
Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrimsson will be getting to know McKenna over the course of the season due to the blossoming Irish colony at Ipswich. Sammie Szmodics, Chiedozie Ogbene, Dara O’Shea and Jack Taylor are all Tractor Boys this season, but Hallgrimsson’s first port of call is more likely to be Martyn Pert.
Pert is McKenna’s assistant manager and, in keeping with the coach education theme, did his Pro Licence with Hallgrimsson. “We’ve a good relationship and that’s going to be good because we’ll need a good relationship with a club like Ipswich,” said the Icelander.
McKenna is a ‘details man' and that’s what Jose Mourinho spotted when he promoted him to Man United’s first-team staff, and why Ole Gunnar Solskjaer retained him. “He’s the most thorough and analytical, step-by-step, process-driven coach that I’ve worked with,” said Solskjaer during his time at the wheel.
And the day Kenna masterminded Ipswich’s promotion to the Premier League, Harry Maguire posted a wand and clapping hands emoji over an Insta screengrab of McKenna celebrating. Yet when Solskjaer was released, it was claimed that some United players were unhappy with McKenna’s ‘dry and school-teacherly' approach, according to reports in the UK.
But ahead of tomorrow’s clash with Manchester United at Portman Road, Ipswich Town fans are loving his work.
“He’s the other end of the scale,” laughs Morgan-Smith again, the Supporters' Club secretary, when asked about the last Irishman before McKenna to manage the club. “Roy Keane was an outstanding footballer and is a clever pundit, but I didn't personally rate him as a manager when he was here,” he said.
“His own self importance and trying to rule by a rod of iron, he's about as far removed from Kieran's way of doing it that you can possibly imagine. We had to google Kieran when he got the job, but the players think the world of him and so do we. It’s been a marriage made in heaven.”
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