Next Friday will mark Kieran McKenna’s first year in charge of Ipswich Town. The Northern Irishman has been reflecting in an interview for ‘The League of 72’.
Kieran McKenna says it feels ‘right and natural’ being manager of Ipswich Town.
As always, the 36-year-old manages to deliver such a line in a way that doesn't feel in any way whatsoever arrogant.
“That bit I’ve found fine, to be honest. I’ve enjoyed that bit,” says the Blues boss, when asked by former Nottingham Forest, Southampton, Leeds and Sheffield Wednesday midfielder David Prutton (now working for Sky Sports) how he’d found becoming the ultimate decision-maker following several years as a first team coach at Manchester United.
“Academy and first team football is different in some ways, but it’s not as different as some people think.
“When you’ve been youth team manager at Man United and Tottenham you are picking a team every week, you’re deciding on set-ups, you’re leaving people out the team, you’re making decisions and you’re managing support staff. So on a much smaller scale I’d had the lead role in some big football clubs.
“Then when you’re a first team coach at Man United you’re involved in a lot of really big decisions.
“So it feels right and it feels natural.
“It’s nice, in some ways, having the final decision now. In some ways you miss the days where you can sit back as an assistant and think *blows cheeks out* ‘I wouldn’t want to have to make that call!’
“I just try and have clear criteria on which to make my decisions, try and treat people the right way and do what’s best for the team.
“Some decisions you get right, some you get wrong. But a lot of times in football you never know whether it was right or wrong because the result often dictates the narrative when in reality football is a random low-scoring event. So whether it goes in or out off the post doesn't determine whether your decision was right or wrong.
“It’s about perspective. I’ve always thought ‘do you know what, I’m going to do the right things, work extremely hard, have really good processes in place and try and not lose sleep over a hairline in a football match’.
“Of course the result is the be-all and end-all in football. At Ipswich it affects 30,000 peoples’ weekends. But you need to keep perspective. I just need to know, going to bed, that I’ve done everything I can to help the players. After that what will be, will be.”
Quizzed on his calm and measured demeanour, he continues: “Personality-wise I do have a temper side as well that can be attested to by a few references!
“But I made a conscious decision to assume the best of players and to give them trust and faith until that point is broken. That way, most of my job is about facilitating their learning and helping their performances.
“I think most of the time players respond best to being given reasonable feedback and a plan towards improving in their careers.”
Such wise words for someone who only turned 36 in May.
Then again, as Prutton points out, having to quit the game at the age of 23 due to a chronic hip problem did provide McKenna with a head-start in terms of his coaching career.
“I mentally wasn’t prepared for management at 32 or 33,” admits the Blues boss.
“But I always had in my head the goal of becoming a manager by around 35, from quite early in my career actually. Probably because that’s near the normal retirement age of a player.
“I wanted to gain as much experience and exposure as I could, but I also knew that if I was going to be a manager I wanted to do it young and have a real good go at it.
“At the start of last season I knew that if the right opportunity came then it would be something I’d look at.
“I knew I was really well respected internally at Man United, had a good job there and a future at the club, but I also knew that I wanted to go out on my own two feet.
“You don’t know when the right opportunity is going to come up. Sometimes it’s more convenient if that comes up at the end of the season because you can close the book of the job you are doing, but for me it came a week or two before Christmas. It happened really quickly. It was a case of packing the bags and having Christmas day in a hotel with the family.
“Whether it was going to be then, or in a further three months, six months, or whatever, I just knew I didn’t want to be a first team coach for another two or three seasons.
“I felt like I’d worked under really good managers, been given a bit of responsibility in those set-ups and that now I wanted to go out and do it for myself.
“Thankfully Ipswich was the club that came along that I thought was really good for me.”
McKenna has been in charge of the Blues for 50 games now (W27 D14 L9 F83 A36). Next Friday will mark the first anniversary of his arrival in Suffolk.
“The first thing I’d say is that I’ve really enjoyed it,” he reflects.
“I’ve settled in the area with my family and I’ve settled into the club. It feels like home.
“We have made really good strides on and off the pitch as a club. Some of that started before I arrived with the change of ownership and the investment and work behind the scenes.
“Of course I can help with that and give my ideas on how we can improve the football club, but the main thing for me is to improve and develop the team. I think we have managed to do that. I think we are in a good place. A better place than we were this time last year.
“But if you ask me ‘what have we done?’ The short answer is nothing.
“We finished last season with some really good performances, we have carried that into this season, but we’re not even halfway through the season yet. There is still a long way to go.
“We have got big goals for the football club – not just for this season, but for the seasons beyond.
“I think it’s really early days on that. It’s just about keeping the head down and continuing that work that so far has been fruitful and enjoyable.”
Asked how he’s found the transition from coaching top level Premier League players to managing a League One club, McKenna said: “I’d been to plenty of League One games over the years to watch players who had been out on loan from academies or the first team.
“I knew there was a good level of player. And I knew, of course, that there are some really big football clubs with big infrastructures.
“But I think it’s really hard to get a feel for a league, whether that’s the Premier League, the Bundesliga or League One, until you’re in that league and living it every week.
“I’ve learnt a lot about the specific challenges of this league - the different types of opposition, the conditions, the refereeing.
“I feel like we’re there now. I feel like that’s an area that myself and my staff are miles ahead with. But that’s definitely been a learning curve.”
Sitting in his training ground office, which has an image of a young Bobby Robson on the wall, McKenna is asked about the history and fanbase of Ipswich Town.
“It’s a beautiful challenge,” he replies.
“I’ve been clear from the start that it’s something that I want to embrace.
“There have been some fantastic managers who have been through the door here at the same age as me. You don’t want any comparison with them, but it’s an inspirational thing to look at.
“We’re getting 28,000, almost 30,000 people following us in League One. That’s not because were playing good football in League One, it’s because of a generation of people who have seen this club win trophies and be at the top end of the English game. Now, hopefully, their children are being told those stories and inheriting that love for the club.
“It’s about us now giving them something new to get behind.”
He continues: “This is the fourth season for the club in League One and the team hasn’t been anywhere near a promotion push at the business end of the season.
“For so many clubs in this league, coming to Ipswich is one of their biggest games of the season. It’s their cup final. You get players coming here who are used to playing in front of a few thousand one weekend and then they’re playing in front of 30,000. That can be an inspiration for us, but it can also be a push for the other team.
“If you don’t handle that in the right way as an Ipswich Town player or manager then that can be a burden because the crowd are coming to see Ipswich win.
“It's not been easy for a lot of the historically bigger football clubs in League One. Over the last decade the likes of Nottingham Forest and Leeds have been in this division and seen it’s not easy to automatically bounce straight back up again.
“We know it’s a challenge, but we embrace it. The players have all chosen to be here for a reason, I’ve chosen to be here and a lot of others would love to be here.”
McKenna, typically, finishes with some more measured and mature thoughts.
“This is a very demanding job, with long hours and there are huge sacrifices needed to do it how I want to do it,” he says.
“But I also know it’s a privilege. Sometimes I struggle to call it work because you get to talk about, coach and play football every day. If you’d told me that at 14 years old I would have said ‘that’s not a job!’
“There’s a love there and it’s really important to keep hold of that.
“We’re all giving up time from loved ones and recreations we could be doing, so as much as we’re going to do everything we can to win a game and be successful at the end of the season, we’re also going to try and make it a rewarding and enjoyable environment along the way so that people come to work with a spring in their step.
“We want people excited about what they might do today and feel that they’re seeing friends and people who care about them and that they’re going to learn and get better at something.
“It’s important to keep that bit of the job in tact because there are so many pressures to it.”
Asked if his players call him ‘gaffer’, McKenna replies: “It’s funny. My assistant (Martyn Pert) would come in and say ‘people have been asking what they should call you’. I just said ‘everyone can call me what they’re comfortable with, I don’t mind’.
“I don’t like to force these things. You want people to respect you because of how you are as a person and how you treat them, not because you demand a certain job title.
“I’ve left it open. Most people call me ‘gaffer’ or ‘boss’, but some call me Kieran and if that’s what they're comfortable with then I'm fine with it because it sort of fits the culture that we’re trying to build.”
No doubt about it, there’s certainly something ‘right and natural’ about Kieran McKenna being Ipswich Town manager.
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