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Brighton & Hove Albion, Chelsea, and Kieran McKenna’s current employers, Ipswich Town, may face a delay in determining who their head coach will be next season.
That’s because McKenna is waiting to see if he has a chance to succeed Erik ten Hag as Manchester United boss, according to The Times’ Charlotte Duncker and Paul Hirst.
Brighton and Chelsea are both reportedly willing to pay McKenna’s £6-million release clause at Ipswich and will meet his personal demands. Meanwhile, the newly promoted club is trying to keep McKenna as their manager with a new contract offer.
But it seems the Northern Irishman prefers to move to Old Trafford. McKenna spent five years coaching at United, first with the Under-18 team before being promoted to Jose Mourinho’s first-team staff, before he left in 2021. He’s also a boyhood United fan. In his first role as a senior boss, he’s led Ipswich to back-to-back promotions, ending 22 years of the club toiling below the Premier League.
McKenna is part of a four-man shortlist of candidates to potentially succeed Ten Hag in Stretford, The Times’ Matt Lawton and Charlotte Duncker reported Thursday. The following day, reports surfaced that Ten Hag would be sacked regardless of United’s result in the FA Cup final against Manchester City on Saturday.
The four men apparently under consideration to replace Ten Hag are Mauricio Pochettino and Thomas Tuchel – who recently left Chelsea and Bayern Munich, respectively – and Ipswich’s McKenna and Brentford’s Thomas Frank. Tuchel is the front-runner to take over if Ten Hag departs, The Guardian’s Jamie Jackson reported Thursday.
