Ipswich Town’s remarkable renaissance under Kieran McKenna
Ipswich Town the EFL Championship on his first full managerial debut. Ipswich Town was taken over in 2021, and instead of hiring an experienced manager, the new owners agreed to bring in a ‘fresh’ face by December. Kieran McKenna was an assistant manager at Manchester United before being recruited by Ipswich Town for a full-time managerial position.\
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The club was founded in 1878 in Suffolk, Ipswich Town. Ipswich Town began playing professional football in 1936. They even played in the first Premier League season when The Tractor Boys were promoted that year. They could only last three years before slipping down a division. They returned to the big time in the 2000-01 season, only to fall back the next season.
Since 2002, the club has yet to be back playing Premier League football. Although the club continued to be ever present in the second tier of England playing in the EFL Championship they had suffered another knock. The 2018-19 season saw Ipswich Town drop another level to League One
Ipswich Town remained in League One for four seasons following their relegation in 2019.
In April 2021, things began to change. The new owners are Gamechanger 20 Ltd, which is directed by Mike O’Leary and includes Ed Schwartz, Brett Johnson, Berke Bakay, and Mark Detmer. Marcus Evans Group announced the transaction for a reported £40 million.
The new owners were dissatisfied with the situation under manager Paul Cook at the time. In addition, following their relegation to League One, Ipswich Town had only finished in the middle of the table in the previous two seasons. Cook was fired in early December 2021, when The Tractor Boys were still in 11th place in their third season of League One. By the end of the month, Manchester United’s deputy manager had been given the authority to govern the club. Kieran McKenna had never been a full-fledged manager before this position.
McKenna was formerly in charge of United’s under-18s. Jose Mourinho, the Red Devils’ manager at the time, couldn’t help but notice him doing well with the young team and swiftly integrated him as his assistant. McKenna continued to learn from him and his successors, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ralf Rangnick, until this job offer came
The 2022-23 season marked the 145th year of existence for Ipswich Town. It began with a 1-1 draw at Portman Road. And nobody could have predicted what was up in the future.
Ipswich Town under Kieran McKenna finished the 2022-23 season in second place giving them automatic qualification from League One to EFL Championship. The manager primarily used 4-2-3-1 formation where Conor Chaplin played the number 10 role behind the striker. Chaplin ended up as the joint top scorer with 26 goals while also registering the highest 161 shots across the division.
