‘Unbelievable’ Ipswich transformation leaves talkSPORT host stunned after nights 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 Premier League promotion.

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

George Burley was manager, Marcus Bent was top goalscorer 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 following their win over Coventry City on Tuesday – and the job McKenna has done deserves all the plaudits.

Rewind just three years and some Ipswich fans protested outside of their club’s training ground, letting off flares to disrupt the players’ preparations – an uncharacteristic move for the Town faithful who had clearly had enough of being stuck in the third tier.

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

The ex-Aston Villa boss was sacked soon after, with Paul Cook coming in and leading Town to end that season in ninth place.

Ahead of the 2021/22 season, Cook oversaw a major turnover in both the playing squad and coaching staff – backed by the club’s new US owners – which involved introducing 19 new stars.

Two wins in 10 games at the start of the campaign saw Cook lose his job, though, with him bemoaning what he believed was an expectation for him to achieve ‘instant success’.

Ironically, his successor went on to do exactly that.

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McKenna had a huge job on his hands when he came in 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.

Being touching distance away from consecutive promotions is even more impressive when you consider they actually finished second in League One that season.

By comparison, last term’s third tier champions Plymouth Argyle are battling relegation on the final day.

In truth, a majority of the building blocks for Ipswich’s charge up the pyramid were put in place in that 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, are still at Portman Road today.

According to former Tractor Boys star Holland, it’s that impressive squad depth and attacking threat that’s been key to getting them 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 huge occasion, it isn’t done yet but it has been such a phenomenal season.

“It’s been a phenomenal couple of years under Kieran McKenna, back to back seasons of over 90 points now, it’s just an incredible achievement. What we do have is goals throughout the team.

“We’re the top scorers in the Championship, you feel you’re going to score every time you go forward. Cameron Burgess the centre-half coming up big last night for the winner and there’s goals throughout the team.

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“Plus the ability, with the depth of the squad, to change games when things aren’t going your way. You’ve got the opportunity to go to your bench and you’ve got game changers there.”

Unsurprisingly, he’s a huge fan of McKenna, too, and trusts he’ll keep his stars focused ahead of a huge weekend.

“Of course you’re going to be nervy, you’re bound to be,” he said. “You’re so close to getting to the Premier League so there’s going to be a few nerves on the weekend.

“Hopefully an early goal would settle all that but at the moment you can sense everyone thinks the job is done. That isn’t the case.

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

McKenna’s journey to the Portman Road hot seat has more than prepped him for Ipswich’s final day battle.

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

The ex-Northern Ireland youth international studied a sports science degree at Loughborough University, spending his time as a youth coach at Spurs, as well as Leicester City, Nottingham Forest, and Canadian side Vancouver Whitecaps.

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Following his graduation, Spurs hired him as their Head of Academy Performance Analysis.

He was approached by Liverpool, with the Reds offering him a coaching role in their academy. He turned it down, though, before going on to coach Spurs’ Under-18s.

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

A promotion to the first team came after that, with him and former Man United star and now-Middlesbrough boss Michael Carrick becoming Jose Mourinho’s assistant managers.

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

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

They also went 11 matches unbeaten through February and March, setting a new club record for the longest time gone 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 feel-good mood has remained at Ipswich ever since.

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But despite McKenna doing an incredible job of turning Ipswich’s fortunes around, one man can’t quite believe he’s at the centre of their success given his memories of him – McKenna’s former Spurs academy teammate, Jamie O’Hara.

“He’s still young, he’s only a few years older than me,” the ex-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 as he is and be as mature as he is, just listening to that interview he just gave there, he sounds really mature.”

Beginning to crack up, O’Hara continued: “I remember nights out we used to have in Faces together and he definitely weren’t mature then!

“He would probably agree with that, when he was driving around his really bad green [Renault] Clio! But fair play to him, he’s done an unbelievable job.”

In truth, Ipswich’s 2-1 win over Coventry in their penultimate game felt as if it was on a knife edge throughout.

Town needed all three points to keep the three point gap over third-place Leeds and have the upper hand going into the final day, with the Yorkshire outfit having a superior goal difference of six goals.

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

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Town fans in the crowd during the tight affair summed up the nerves on the night, with those fears being slightly alleviated when Cameron Burgess put them ahead just five minutes after Coventry’s goal.

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

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

From Fleetwood away to a potential Old Trafford return in just one year… Who knows what McKenna will have in store for the Premier League if they get the job done.