Kieran McKenna may not be able to persuade Cristiano Ronaldo to link-up with him again in Suffolk, but he can use his experience of coaching the global superstar to inspire the current crop of Blues players.
Having earnt his stripes at Old Trafford in an academy role, McKenna, along with Michael Carrick, was promoted to the role of Manchester United assistant manager by first team boss Joe Mourinho in 2018.
Jokingly asked if he might be able to get Ronaldo, who recently became a free agent, to join him at Portman Road, McKenna laughed: “I’m not sure we will be top of his list! We would be more than honoured, but we’re not waiting on the phone call.”
That exchange, which was part of lengthy interview for ‘The League of 72’, led to a more in-depth chat about his experience of working with world class players and how that can feed into being manager of a League One club.
“To operate at the very top, of course there has to be a level of talent and physical blessings,” he said.
“But it probably hit me working further down the pyramid that sometimes the gaps in the talent levels aren’t that high.
“Often what has made the career of a player has been the mental things; the determination, the resilience in difficult moments, the commitment, the dedication and professionalism.
“It’s an absolute truth that’s impossible to make it to the top level, certainly to sustain it, without having those amazing characteristics from a phycological point of view.
“That’s not to say players at this level don’t have that. Some do. We have some fantastic professionals here.
“It’s just about sharing some of my insights because I think a lot of players enjoy hearing about role models and how they can try to emulate them in their own way.
“Of course they are interested in the fact you’ve worked with world class players.
“At this level, players are really interested in watching clips of the top players and any little nuggets you can share with them about ‘he did this’ and ‘he did that’. It instantly gets their attention.
“That’s a tool in the armoury, but has to be just one of many. Because if a manager has just one way of doing things then players can get very bored of it quickly.
“If I sat here every day and said ‘this player did this, why didn’t you?’ then it’s not going to work for very long.
“You need different ways to connect with and help players. That's a good one to have, it’s a benefit of where I've coached, but it can’t be the only one.”
A talented midfielder, McKenna came over to England from Northern Ireland as a teenager in an attempt to make it as professional footballer.
At the age of 20, when ‘really close’ to breaking into the Tottenham first team, he started to suffer hip problems.
After several years of surgeries, he was eventually told by medical experts that ‘enough’s enough’ and reluctantly hung up his boots.
Immediately he channelled his deep love of the game into the vocation of coaching.
“At that time there was Alex Inglethorpe, who at 32/33 was extremely young at that time for a youth team boss, John McDermott, who has of course gone on to be the technical director of the FA, as well as the likes of Chris Ramsey and Tim Sherwood.
“The level of thought that went into everything there was higher than what was going on elsewhere, I think. It was certainly way above what I thought was possible.
“That made me go ‘this is a really serious profession’.”
Experiences were gained at Loughborough University, Nottingham Forest and in the United States and Canada before he returned to Tottenham to become Under-18s manager.
There was always one club on his mind though.
“I grew up as a Man United fan and was always passionate about the club,” he says.
“That was an early goal that I wrote down when I started off my coaching career. I put it on paper that I wanted to work for Man United.
“The sheer scale of the club is on another level to almost any other in world football. That hits you when you go there.
“The thing that also hits you is that it’s a club that still has that family feel. You felt like you were coming into a club with great history and tradition.”
Asked who has influenced him most during his coaching career so far, McKenna said: “It’s been good seeing the different ways that people do it.
“Your responsibilities are really clear with Jose. He’s very clear with his staff about what he wants from them.
“He was always open, wanted input and ideas, but was also really strong in that he was the ultimate decision maker and that once he’s made a decision everyone has to be behind it 100% and you follow it his way.
“I worked with AVB (Andre Villas Boas) at Tottenham when I was youth team coach. I got to see (Mauricio) Pochettino up close a lot - he was really interested in the academy.
“I saw Harry Redknapp’s years... They’ve all got different ways of running a football club. I’ve taken a lot from each of them.
“It’s not just the big names that influenced me. I worked in non-league at Loughborough with Stuart McLaren, who was a good influence on me.
“You learn things from everyone, but ultimately you have to do the job in a way that is true to yourself and your own personality.”
Another one of the goals that McKenna wrote down was to become a first team manager by the age of 35/36.
He achieved that last December when taking over Ipswich Town.
With there currently being 17 permanent managers in their 30s across the 72 Football League clubs (but none in the Premier League) McKenna was asked if he felt he and the likes of Steven Schumacher and Liam Manning were setting a new trend of clubs trusting in young British coaches.
“Being a trend-setter is not something I've thought about,” he said.
“But it would be lovely to know that you give somebody hope out there.
“You’re always following the generations that come before you. You’re standing on the shoulders of giants in a way.
“The likes of Jose came from a non-big playing background and went on to manage massive football clubs and make a huge impact on English football in general.
“I’ve had some really good conversations with Brendan Rodgers. When he was making his first steps it probably wasn’t as normal as it is now for a young Bristish coach to get an opportunity in the game.
“Those of us who are coming along now are following those who broke down those big boundaries.
“There are some fantastic managers from an older generation, there are some fantastic managers who had big playing careers, but there are also those of us who have taken a different path who can also make an impact.
“I think we’ve probably been behind other countries in that way. If you look at the Bundesliga for example – you've got Julian Nagelsmann who is managing Bayern Munich at 34 years old. In England that would still be unheard of.
“I think Britain has made some good strides and hopefully that will continue. But, again, I stress that it’s not about one thing being better than another. It’s about recognising that there are different ways into the job. It should be about your quality and how good you are, not just your age or your past experiences.
“It’s up to those of us who have been given opportunities to do as well as we can and hopefully, like those before us, we can open up more opportunities for others.”
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