Ipswich’s ‘incredible’ transformation leaves talkSPORT host stunned after night out with superstar manager Kieran McKenna

Kieran McKenna has transformed Ipswich from a mid-table League One side to a powerhouse on the brink of promotion to the Premier League.

It’s been 22 long years since Tractor Boys were in the top flight, a relegation season which saw them go down alongside Derby County and this season’s Championship winners Leicester City.

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George Burley was the coach, Marcus Bent was the top scorer with 10 goals, while Hermann Hreidarsson and talkSPORT’s Matt Holland were first-team regulars.

Now Town are just one game away from sealing an incredible return to the big time after victory over Coventry City on Tuesday – and the work McKenna has done deserves all the plaudits.

Go back just three years and some Ipswich supporters protested outside their club’s training ground, setting off flares to disrupt players’ preparations – an unusual move for the Town faithful who were clearly fed up of being stuck on the third level.

Ipswich were 12th in League One, having won just two of their last seven matches, with manager Paul Lambert under increasing pressure.

The former Aston Villa boss was sacked soon after, with Paul Cook arriving and leading Town to finish that season in ninth place.

Ahead of the 2021/22 season, Cook oversaw a significant change within the playing squad and coaching staff – supported by the club’s new American owners – which involved the introduction of 19 new stars.

Two wins in 10 games early in the campaign saw Cook lose his job, however, bemoaning what he believed to be an expectation for him to achieve “overnight success”.

Ironically, that’s exactly what his successor did.

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McKenna had a huge job to do when he arrived at the end of the 2021/22 season. But just over a year later he had led them to promotion from the third tier in his first full campaign.

To be within striking distance of back-to-back promotions is even more impressive when you consider that they actually finished second in League One that season.

In comparison, last season’s Third Division champions Plymouth Argyle are battling relegation on the final day.

In truth, the majority of the building blocks of Ipswich’s rise up the pyramid were put in place during this League One promotion campaign.

The XI that beat Exeter City 6-0 to confirm their place in the Championship, which included key stars Conor Chaplin and George Hirst, is still at Portman Road today.

According to Holland, a former Tractor Boys star, it is this impressive squad depth and offensive threat that has been key in getting them to where they are today.

Speaking to fellow Town legend Alan Brazil on talkSPORT Breakfast on Wednesday, the former midfielder said: “(This weekend) is going to be a big occasion, it’s not done yet but it has been such a phenomenal season.

“It’s been a phenomenal two years under Kieran McKenna, back-to-back 90-plus point seasons now, it’s just an incredible achievement. What we have is goals throughout the team.

“We are the top scorers in the league, you feel like you are going to score every time you go forward. Cameron Burgess, the centre-back, came through last night for the winner and there are goals all over the team.

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“Plus the ability, with the depth of the team, to change games when things aren’t going your way. You have the ability to go to your bench and you have game changes there.”

Unsurprisingly, he’s also a big fan of McKenna and hopes he keeps his stars focused ahead of a huge weekend.

“Of course you’re going to be nervous, you’re bound to be,” he said. “You’re so close to getting into the Premier League so there’s going to be some nerves this weekend.

“Hopefully an early goal would sort all that out, but at the moment you can feel that everyone thinks the job is done. It’s not.

“I know what Kieran McKenna is like, his attention to detail is frightening, he doesn’t let players relax or rest on their laurels. They won’t rest on what they did last night.”

McKenna’s trip to the Portman Road hot seat more than prepared him for the final battle of Ipswich.

His coaching career began at Tottenham Hotspur, the club at which he was forced to retire from his playing career at the age of 22 due to a persistent hip injury.

The former Northern Ireland youth international studied sports science at Loughborough University and spent his time as a youth coach at Spurs, as well as Leicester City, Nottingham Forest and the Canadian team Vancouver Whitecaps.

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After he graduated, Spurs hired him as the Academy’s head of performance analysis.

He was approached by Liverpool, with the Reds offering him a coaching role in their academy. However, he refused before becoming coach of Spurs’ under-18s.

By August 2016, McKenna had become under-18s manager at Manchester United, leading his side to the Premier League Northern Division title in his second year in charge.

A promotion to the first team subsequently took place, with him and former Man United star and now Middlesbrough boss Michael Carrick becoming assistant managers to Jose Mourinho.

He remained in his post after Mourinho’s departure, serving under both Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ralf Rangnick. Then, in December 2021, Ipswich Town came calling – and McKenna was a success from the start.

Town won seven of their first 10 games in charge, keeping seven clean sheets in the process.

They also went 11 matches without defeat in February and March, setting a new club record for the longest period without conceding a goal, surpassing the previous record of 547 minutes.

Their promotion the following season came after a 19-game unbeaten run, and that good spirits have remained at Ipswich ever since.

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But although McKenna has done an incredible job of turning around Ipswich’s fortunes, one man can’t believe he is at the center of their success given his memories of him: McKenna’s former teammate at Spurs academy, Jamie O’Hara.

“He’s still young, he’s only a few years older than me,” the former Tottenham midfielder and talkSPORT Sports Bar host said after listening to McKenna’s post-match on Tuesday. “We played together.

“So for him to be as young and as mature as he is, just listening to the interview he just gave there, he seems really mature.”

Starting to laugh, O’Hara continued: “I remember the nights we had together in Faces and he definitely wasn’t mature then!

“He would probably agree with that, when he was driving his really bad green Clio (Renault)! But frankly, he did an incredible job.”

In truth, Ipswich’s 2-1 victory over Coventry in their penultimate game appeared to be on a knife’s edge.

Town needed all three points to maintain a three-point gap on third-placed Leeds and gain the upper hand heading into the final day, with the Yorkshire side having a superior goal difference of six goals.

Kieffer Moore gave them an early lead in the eighth minute, but Coventry stayed in the game, eventually finding an equalizer just beyond the hour mark to make it 1-1.

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The Town supporters in the crowd during the tight encounter summed up the nervousness of the evening, with those fears eased slightly when Cameron Burgess put them ahead just five minutes after Coventry’s goal.

It’s no surprise that they all screamed at the final whistle as they released their anxieties and took a big step towards promotion.

A draw or win against Huddersfield Town – whose relegation was all but confirmed last weekend – this Saturday will see them leapfrog Leeds and seal that all-important second automatic promotion spot.

From Fleetwood to a potential return to Old Trafford in just a year’s time… Who knows what McKenna will have in store for the Premier League if he gets the job done.