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Kieran McKenna | Ipswich manager

roonster09

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I'd love to go back to some of the posts by all the Twitter tacticos, telling me he's clearly a bad coach because of our performances. I imagine they'd tie themselves in knots.
They will argue how he has improved from his time at ManUtd.
 

NWRed

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I'd love to go back to some of the posts by all the Twitter tacticos, telling me he's clearly a bad coach because of our performances. I imagine they'd tie themselves in knots.
Who'd have thought that online 'fans' know nothing about football.

I see no parallels with the current calls for EtH to be sacked because we've had one bad season.
 

Lash

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They will argue how he has improved from his time at ManUtd.
:lol: true.
Who'd have thought that online 'fans' know nothing about football.

I see no parallels with the current calls for EtH to be sacked because we've had one bad season.
I've no problem with an opinion, but it's the verbose threads trying to show why they see the bigger picture, that do my head in
 

NicolaSacco

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Right. The addition of quality and depth is key. What equally important is to maintain the squad chemistry and togetherness. The core of his current team will play next season I think. Maybe he can give Hannibal a chance?
Hannibal is a good shout. Both our first choice central midfielders are 32 and whilst they’ve been fantastic for us we are going to need some fresh legs in here too..
 

OldTrevil

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If I remember right Lee Grant is one of the coaches there.
Interesting! Definitely a monumental achievement for everyone involved. I also love the fact Tuanzebe is there, so much potential and a great character whose stars just didn't align at United.
 

Offside

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Didn’t realise he was so young. Some achievement for such a young manager. Could easily go to the very top.
 

aeh1991

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Assuming Ten Hag will stay, the best scenario would be that we reach top 4 next season, McKenna does a great job at Ipswich and he can take over.
 

Drz

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Fantastic achievement. Wish him all the very best, regardless of how it goes in the Premier League, hope he keeps progressing and learning along the way.
 

DomesticTadpole

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Think they are owned by an American investment fund, so there is money there, but they seem to doing it sensibly. Which is not always the norm. Also McKenna will know which sort of players he wants.
 

Zed is not dead

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Some of the posts from past is a goldmine, even better when Ole was sacked. Lot of posts saying why isn't McKenna and Carrick sacked, how can RR improve the team with these 2 coaches still at ManUtd.

So clueless but so confident on their takes.
The funny part is that some posters are still shitting on Fletcher
 

DomesticTadpole

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The funny part is that some posters are still shitting on Fletcher
Think a lot of it was tweets coming out saying the players were not happy, that McKenna was like a school master and a bit of an authoritarian. Now people should realise it is best not to take notice of tweets. Fletcher is very well thought of isn't he? The club actually wanted to keep both Carrick and McKenna but they wanted to try management for themselves.
 

lysglimt

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I haven't seen that many Ipswich-games but one commentator said that he NEVER argued or screamed at referees - amazing if true. Especially if you compare that to someone like Arteta
 

Buster15

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McKenna has done a better job at Ipswich than Keane did.
Having read about the players saying how much he has worked with them to improve individually and collectively, it is extremely impressive.
But that didn't seem to happen at OT.
There were loads of negatives about the standard of coaching.
Nevertheless, what he has done is remarkable.
 

izec

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Having read about the players saying how much he has worked with them to improve individually and collectively, it is extremely impressive.
But that didn't seem to happen at OT.
There were loads of negatives about the standard of coaching.
Nevertheless, what he has done is remarkable.
He was doing what Ole wanted him to do. Now he is the boss. And is quite impressive.
 

Cassidy

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He was doing what Ole wanted him to do. Now he is the boss. And is quite impressive.
He was likely doing it at OT but again media stories and a broken squad are bigger issues. Also true he wasn’t the boss but when you have some of the stories come out leaked by player agents against him. I think its fair to say we have some in the squad who don’t actually listen to their coaches
 

VP89

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He was doing what Ole wanted him to do. Now he is the boss. And is quite impressive.
Ole reportedly ignored Carrick and Mckennas suggestions on tweaking the squad tactics when things were turning bad. They also spent all pre season on 433 if I recall, before throwing it out the window when Ronaldo came to accommodate.
 

DomesticTadpole

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Having read about the players saying how much he has worked with them to improve individually and collectively, it is extremely impressive.
But that didn't seem to happen at OT.
There were loads of negatives about the standard of coaching.
Nevertheless, what he has done is remarkable.
Think a lot of what came out at OT was press driven. Thing is with Ipswich you have time to do these things. At United they may not at that time allowed the time for individual coaching etc, too many other distractions and players who think they know it all. Ipswich players are ripe for learning and wanting to improve themselves. Ours were all world beaters in their heads.
 

andersj

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He was doing what Ole wanted him to do. Now he is the boss. And is quite impressive.
We actually did quite well in his final full season under OGS. Comfortably our best season after Ferguson. But really messed up spending heavily on Sancho, Varane and Ronaldo.

Hindsight is great, but I do think if we had spent does money well it would have turned out very differently.
 

stefan92

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Think a lot of what came out at OT was press driven. Thing is with Ipswich you have time to do these things. At United they may not at that time allowed the time for individual coaching etc, too many other distractions and players who think they know it all. Ipswich players are ripe for learning and wanting to improve themselves. Ours were all world beaters in their heads.
Do you really have more time? I don't see it. The Championship has more matches than the PL, so that effectively equals European matches. FA and Caraboa Cup also are played by Championship teams, so you have a similar amount of matches (although PL teams obviously usually play a few more cup games as they survive longer).

Nonetheless I tend to agree on your point about distractions and willingness to learn.
 

Baxquux

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Ole reportedly ignored Carrick and Mckennas suggestions on tweaking the squad tactics when things were turning bad. They also spent all pre season on 433 if I recall, before throwing it out the window when Ronaldo came to accommodate.
This is crucial, I think, particularly in the context of people automatically 'absolving' Ole every time they retroactively praise Carrick and McKenna. Ole clearly had certain strengths relating to motivation (although team fell off after he was made perm manager in a way that should have been a portent.) But tactically, aside from City game where team had a more disciplined game-plan (as the counterpunching underdog), it was 'moments FC', with little evidence of patterns week by week.

I lurked on here at the time and, aside from the general 'blame game', people were accurately pointing out how undercoached the team looked, week upon week, even when getting into the CL - in seasons when they also benefited from other sides being in transition. The Emery final epitomized Ole's shortcomings against better tacticians and coaches, given gap between the teams on paper. Both coaches have subsequently come out and said that Ole had final say not only over tactics but the direction of training, alongside recruitment profiles: obviously they could try and tailor things slightly, but when you have Ole encouraging a more primitive style, alongside players whose egos are being flattered by parts of the club hierarchy, hangers on and the size of their contracts, with no SAF (or Pep, even Klopp etc) style authoritative manager/head-coach to keep them in line, or equivalent DOF/SD with talent and clarity of vision in shaping direction of preparation and play, then you end up with that kind of nearly-side...
 

DomesticTadpole

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Do you really have more time? I don't see it. The Championship has more matches than the PL, so that effectively equals European matches. FA and Caraboa Cup also are played by Championship teams, so you have a similar amount of matches (although PL teams obviously usually play a few more cup games as they survive longer).

Nonetheless I tend to agree on your point about distractions and willingness to learn.
Depends how quick you get knocked out of cups as well. Remember Ipswich were actually giant killed and that European games involve more travelling.
 

NicolaSacco

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You have been following his development at Sevilla right?
Well, no to be honest. Has it not been going well?


Edit - oh wow he’s barely played. I’m a little surprised by that.

Edit 2. Can we take Amad instead? Thanks.
 
Last edited:

Withnail

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Well, no to be honest. Has it not been going well?


Edit - oh wow he’s barely played. I’m a little surprised by that.

Edit 2. Can we take Amad instead? Thanks.
He's had a row with the manager apparently. He seems a bit of a hot-head overall given his propensity to dive into tackles. He always seemed to be a red card waiting to happen when he played for us.
 

NicolaSacco

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He's had a row with the manager apparently. He seems a bit of a hot-head overall given his propensity to dive into tackles. He always seemed to be a red card waiting to happen when he played for us.
I agree re his temperament, although you would hope that’s the kind of fault that can be ironed out with time. The trick with him would be about finding the right balance; keeping his ultra competitive attitude whilst reducing the pointless fouls which don’t actually benefit the team. Easier said than done though, I accept.
 

city-puma

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I agree re his temperament, although you would hope that’s the kind of fault that can be ironed out with time. The trick with him would be about finding the right balance; keeping his ultra competitive attitude whilst reducing the pointless fouls which don’t actually benefit the team. Easier said than done though, I accept.
It seems Hannibal’s situation there is more complicated. People could easily assume it’s his fault and associate it with his “temperament”. For me, it’s completely nonsense.
Everytime when he played for Manutd in first team, I saw a highly motivated player eager to contribute and be a team player.
I heard DOF and main coach in Sevilla are having issues with each other. Hannibal is DOF’s signing. For me, it seems more close to the truth.
 

P-Nut

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I agree re his temperament, although you would hope that’s the kind of fault that can be ironed out with time. The trick with him would be about finding the right balance; keeping his ultra competitive attitude whilst reducing the pointless fouls which don’t actually benefit the team. Easier said than done though, I accept.
I think he'd do well for you, I've not checked the timeliness, but I assume Hannibal was part of the youth set up, when McKenna was also a part of it, so he'll have a good understanding of the player on a personal level. The talent has always been undeniable, its just whether he could put it all together across a season.

In order to stay up, you'd likely need a player with his level of talent and flair to add to the obviously hard working core you've got going on.
 

Matt Varnish

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It seems Hannibal’s situation there is more complicated. People could easily assume it’s his fault and associate it with his “temperament”. For me, it’s completely nonsense.
Everytime when he played for Manutd in first team, I saw a highly motivated player eager to contribute and be a team player.
I heard DOF and main coach in Sevilla are having issues with each other. Hannibal is DOF’s signing. For me, it seems more close to the truth.
Strange I saw a weird haircut running around like a headless chicken trying to kick lumps out of other players.
 

IRELANDUNITED

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He’s a big United fan so it will be no issue getting him here if we ever go for him. Really want to see him solidified Ipswich as a top flight club first though. I’m very excited for his future.
 

Munkehboi

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This is a really good watch/listen to Mark Ashton, Ipswich Cheif Exec. Speaks very highly of McKenna and really interesting and frank chat about Ipswich Towns infrastructure, processes, policies and culture. Clearly has a lot of admiration for McKenna and the support he gives him is fantastic. Ipswich have got so much going for them off the pitch and for the future.

 

andersj

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The more I think of it, the more I like the idea of him returning. Would be by far the most exciting choice. We played beautiful football during his time at the club and I also really enjoyed watching his U18-team. The 20/21-season is probably the best football we have seen at Man Utd since Ferguson left considering the team we had.

We really messed up bringing in Sancho, Varane and Ronaldo that summer. Fixing recruitment, and building a strong team around McKenna would make an exciting new start under Ineos.