Erik ten Hag is hardly a managerial veteran. The Manchester United boss only celebrated his 54th birthday in February, after all.
But it’s a measure to he remarkable success Kieran McKenna has enjoyed so early on in his own managerial career that a man 17 years Ten Hag’s junior has one Ipswich Town legend convinced that ‘he would be able to go to Manchester United today and run that football club’.
At least, that is the view of Darren Ambrose, Ipswich icon.
37-year-old McKenna, previously a member of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s backroom staff alongside Michael Carrick – also now working in the Championship with Middlesbrough – has presided over one of the greatest transformations in recent English football history.
Ipswich were 12th in the third tier when he arrived in December 2021. Two-and-a-half years on, the Tractor Boys started this weekend top of the Championship, even if their Saturday lunchtime defeat to rivals Norwich City in the so-called Old Farm derby was obviously an untimely bump on an otherwise slick road.
Kieran McKenna tipped for Manchester United ‘success’
“He’s young, he’s got ambitions. There is 12, 13 players in the Ipswich first-team who are taking their coaching badges now because they want to coach like Kieran McKenna,” Ambrose tells talkSPORT (6 April, 11.20am).
“He has his methods and he’s sticking by them. It worked in League One and it’s working in hte Championship. And I have no doubts it will work in the Premier League if they get there.
“I am gutted I didn’t get chance to play for a manager like Kieran McKenna. I think he’d have made me 20, 30, 40 per cent better. He’s done that with all of his players.”
McKenna’s remarkable penchant for turning average players into good ones, good ones into potentially great ones, has helped ensure that many of those who represented Ipswich in the third-tier have made the step up to the second tier look remarkably straightforward.
‘A genius’
Ambrose is also full of admiration for the patterns of play McKenna has instilled at Portman Road, Ipswich cutting through their opposition with an almost machine-like efficiency. Given that one of the biggest criticisms facing Ten Hag at Old Trafford focuses on the apparent lack of a clear, coherent tactical strategy, you can see why some feel Man United could do worse than to call upon the services of a man who, in hindsight, probably deserved a lot more credit than he got when he was sharing a dugout with Solskjaer.
“I have no doubt he would be able to go to Man United today and run that football club. He will be a success wherever he goes,” adds Ambrose, the former Newcastle and Crystal Palace midfielder.
“Yes, he’d have to stop conceding goals. He and Ipswich are very much ‘we’ll score more than you do’. It’s worked. It doesn’t always work when you get to the high level. But I think he is good enough and he will adapt to that.”
McKenna’s Ipswich in promotion race
Most would probably accept that a job with the pressure and the magnitude of Man United is maybe a little too soon for McKenna. If reports are to be believed, Ineos are still leaning towards keeping Erik ten Hag, at least until his contract expires in 2025.
By then, however, McKenna could have a season of Premier League football under his belt at Ipswich. If or when that happens, the Red Devils decision-makers may have some serious thinking to do.
“His mind is just incredible. He’s a genius,” adds Ipswich’s one-time Arsenal youngster Harry Clarke.
“I know he’s young but the things I’ve learned from him, obviously I played for a big club in Arsenal but playing under this manager, I feel I can hit very, very big potential.”
Receive a digest of our best United content each week direct to your mailbox
