Ipswich Town are in talks with Manchester United first-team coach Kieran McKenna about becoming their new manager, 90min can confirm.
Town have been looking for a new boss since sacking Paul Cook at the start of this month. The Tractor Boys had endured an indifferent start to the season which saw them languishing outside the play-offs in League One.
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Ipswich went into the season as one of the favourites for promotion and they backed Cook with a number of big money deals, but they are currently way off the pace – sitting in 12th and 16 points off top spot.
After axing Cook, Ipswich have been looking at options and one of their primary targets was understood to be Blackburn’s Tony Mowbray who spent a number of years at Portman Road as a player. But with Rovers pushing for promotion from the Championship, that deal was not possible.
A host of other names had also applied, but Town have made McKenna their number one target and following an approach, 90min understands that they have been given permission to talk to him by United.
35-year-old McKenna is currently first-team coach at Old Trafford, but now looks ready to make his first move into management with Ipswich – who are confident about securing his signature.
Northern Irishman McKenna had to retire from playing in his early 20s while at Tottenham due to a hip injury, but soon moved into coaching at White Hart Lane and quickly became one of the most highly-rated in the Premier League.
In 2016, Manchester United appointed him to their youth staff, and in 2018 he was promoted into the first-team ranks to assist Jose Mourinho following Rui Faria’s departure.
McKenna stayed at the club after Mourinho’s sacking to assist Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, and will become the second member of the Norwegian’s backroom team to follow him out the exit door after Michael Carrick stepped down from his role.
Ipswich are due to play Sunderland in a huge League One clash on Saturday and it is believed they would want McKenna in place for that game.
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