Maybe Kieran McKenna could see into the future.
And he didn’t feel like his own should still be with Manchester United. Which is understandable, considering he left United within a month of ‘Wreck It Ralf’ Rangnick arriving as caretaker boss at the end of 2021.
And we all know what happened next. Or perhaps the more likely explanation is that United bosses just didn’t have the wit to see the value in McKenna’s credentials – and allowed him to leave.
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Because those in power at United at the time thought it a good idea to replace McKenna on the first team coaching staff with a bloke called Chris Armas. Whose most significant contribution during his time with the fallen giants was to be nicknamed ‘Ted Lasso’ by the first team squad.
Ironic, really, that a group of players unable to do their own jobs properly should be taking the mickey out of someone for being a comedy figure on the training ground. I digress, but the fact remains United had the next top coach in English football right under their noses, and allowed him to go work somewhere else.
Do you think Manchester United should have done more to keep Kieran McKenna at Old Trafford? Let us know in the comments section below
(Image: REX/Shutterstock)
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That place was Ipswich Town, who are now heading back to the Premier League for the first time in more than two decades thanks to the brilliance of McKenna. It used to be said that all those players and managers who left United went into decline.
That the road leaving Old Trafford was downhill, because careers didn’t get much better than being at one of the biggest clubs in the world. But McKenna is living proof that this theory deserves to be thrown into the dustbin. When McKenna joined Ipswich five days before the Christmas of 2021, the club were languishing in League One.
And it has taken the Northern Irishman less three seasons to lead them into the promised land. With a combination of swashbuckling and adventurous football. The sort that has become a thing of the past at Old Trafford.
At least United will spend next season getting a first hand look at what they could still have, when McKenna becomes the youngest to ever manage in the Premier League at the ripe old age of just 38. Who he lines up against in the United dugout remains to be seen, of course.
(Image: Getty Images)
United will not secure Champions League qualification this season, meaning Erik ten Hag will not, in all likelihood, keep his job as boss. Before Monday’s trip to Crystal Palace, United had found themselves overtaken in the table by a Chelsea team supposedly having a season to forget under Mauricio Pochettino.
But McKenna won’t care less about what is happening back at the madhouse he managed to escape from. His focus now will be to keep on establishing himself as one of the brightest and best coaches in the game. And making United look like idiots in the process.
Because since leaving them, he has done at Ipswich what the likes of Rangnick, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and now Ten Hag have all failed to do at United. He’s made those players under his leadership better ones.
And what price would new United investor Sir Jim Ratcliffe be willing to pay to have someone capable of doing this right now – and in the future – at Old Trafford?