Who will be the next Ipswich Town boss? Our verdict on early contenders

0:08Ross Halls:Hello everybody, it's me Roscoe and welcome to a new video here on Kings of Anglia. And we're still getting over, aren't we, the shock news that Kieran McKenna has quit Itchwich Town. And I'm joined by Stuart Watson. And we've got to get started, Stu. We're talking about potential candidates. So that's what we're going to do in today's video. How are you feeling, though? Less than 24 hours removed from the shocking news, my friend. Yeah, I think everyone's going through the range of emotions, aren't they, at the moment? Denial, sadness, shock. So it feels slightly wrong to be immediately talking about who next.

0:47But the news cycle of football goes at pace. Ipswich Town won't want to waste too much time in terms of getting the new man in and start preparing for a big season ahead, a big challenge ahead. No time to waste. So it's only right that we start discussing some potential candidates, I guess, to fill some sizable shoes.

1:09Ross Halls:Yes, indeed. I'm sure Mark Huston, we've spoken to us about this many times when McKenna has been linked away from the club in previous summers. I'm sure he's got a list of potential names, but we're just going to have a nice little chat, really. These names are just throwing out there. Obviously, there's betting odds for the next Itchers Town manager, but this is just us discussing potential candidates, too. We've got different categories. We're going to start off with, I think, McKenna Link, someone who he's worked with before, who's actually been seeing Itchers Town games throughout his tenure, and that is Olly Gona Solskjaer, my friend.

1:44Ross Halls:And, of course, the Manchester United legend, the baby-faced assassin back in his playing days, of course, had a spell at May United in charge of them for a period. Of course, his last job was in Turkey. Not a great spell at Cardiff, but he's a name that's been sort of thrown out there by a few town fans. Let us know a bit more on that, Stu, about that McKenna link. And I know you mentioned about Paul Jewell sort of recommending Mick McCarthy for the job back in 2012. well yeah sometimes it happens when managers leave on on good terms and with strong relations which Kieran McKenna has done then sometimes they're asked who do you think should take over from you um I would imagine Kieran McKenna is just going away and enjoying a break at the moment while Mark Ashton and co um busily get on with things but if they do speak to Kieran at some stage I would imagine his very good friend and former colleague Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will be mentioned.

2:44Reasons why this could work for Ipswich Town. From a romantic side of things, we've talked a lot about the thread of Sir Bobby Robson through to Jose Mourinho through to Kieran McKenna before. That would continue that thread with Solskjaer having kind of been at Man United at the same time. There are some Man United connections at the club might enable Martin Perk to stay on. They would have worked together at Old Trafford, I think. Mick Court has come in from Man United to head up recruitment as well. So there's a continuity element to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. When he's been out of work over the last few years, he's come to quite a few Ipswich games to support Kieran McKenna.

3:25I'm sure they've spoken a lot along the way. So he will know the vibe of the club. He will know the journey it's been on. So, you know, he should be able to get that from day one. and then I just think from a personality point of view it's really important that it's the right fit for Ipswich Town and I don't want to overplay the kind of the sleepy Suffolk or whatever cliches and stereotypes you want to apply but there's something about Ipswich Town being a family club and having the right personality and we go back to Roy Keane just not being the right fit personality-wide and Kieran McKenna was someone who is empathetic and somebody who has got high emotional IQ.

4:08And Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, I think, just seems like a really good egg. And I think that's important as well. And as you say, did well at Man United, second and third, during quite a difficult period for them where they were churning through managers post Sir Alex Ferguson. So that's not to be sniffed at. The more I think about it, the more I like this idea. I note today as well, Phil Jones has left his role at Blackburn. He went in there in February to work as part of the coaching staff. There's a statement saying he's left to pursue another opportunity. Him and Solskjaer are pretty close at Man United by all accounts.

4:46Am I reading too much into that? I don't know. But it's an interesting name to kick us off for us.

4:52Ross Halls:Yeah, I like it. And I think he'll bring really good man management skills as well. I think that's what we need going into this season. And I'm sure a lot of players are still very much like trying to get over this because they're now losing a manager who sort of have helped them do their dream playing in the Premier League and stuff like that. So, Oli, he's an interesting name. Let us know your thoughts, ladies and gentlemen, in the comments down below. Let us know all your thoughts on the names we're going to be chucking out there as they've got different categories. We're going to move on to, Stu, the bookies' favourites.

5:21Ross Halls:As always, when a new manager gets sacked, the bookies are straight away chucking names out there, adding different odds. and currently some of the bookie favourites are Gary O 'Neill and Liam Resenia, who, one, is still currently in the job. Manati's obviously Gary O 'Neill in France and Liam Resenia was sacked by Chelsea after a disastrous spell there. But he's got connections with town because of the games against Hull City and, of course, a former town loanee. Gary O 'Neill, funny enough, last time he managed in the Premier League was for Wolves. His last game for them, of course, was that Town win, that Jack Taylake winner at Molineux.

6:00Ross Halls:So your thoughts on those two names? And I know there's a lot of Town fans, their names have been chucked out already and they're like, I don't know about those. First thing I'd say is Bookie's Odds. Certainly at this very early stage, I wouldn't read anything into those at all. The fact that Thomas Frank, I think, is right up there in terms of favourites. And that's a man who has come out and categorically said he won't be returning to management this summer because he wants to continue enjoying punditry and having a good work-life balance. and we have to take him at face value on that. Gary O 'Neill, yes, I remember that well when Ipswich went to Wolves and won and he got sacked after what was quite a ranty post-match press conference.

6:39It all went a bit Pete Tong, didn't it, at the end for Wolves with players fighting on the pitch. And I guess that's the slight knock on Gary O 'Neill is that he's had two Premier League jobs now, Bournemouth and Wolves. Both have started really well. He was caretaker boss at Bournemouth. did so well there, got manager of the month nomination along the way. And then he got the job full time and then it tailed off a little bit. They finished 15th. Iriola came in and took them to a new level. Wolves got massive praise in his first season against the backdrop of a lot of star players being sold. They finished, I think, 14th, had a decent little run in the cup.

7:17And then, as I've just said, it all kind of unraveled the following season, didn't it? So hard to judge him fully. He's over at Strasbourg at the moment. It's clear that he's got some serious frustrations about Bluco and the way that the kind of Chelsea-Strasbourg relations work and how players sort of come and go. So I think he's very much gettable for Ipswich Town. He ticks the Premier League experience box. So I was expecting a lot of noise around him, and that's already started. Liam Rosina is an interesting one. I know some of the reaction from Ipswich fans has been, no thank you because of the Chelsea spell recently.

7:56And I know he's become, dare I say it, a bit of a meme with some of the sound bites and stuff. I don't think his CV is completely trashed by getting chewed up and spat out by Chelsea. It's a goldfish bowl there. It's a huge club with huge scrutiny. And it's a bit of a strange setup, isn't it, with all the young players being sort of scooped up. I think there's still a lot of good behind Liam Rosina and take the Chelsea side of things out of it. Did well at Hull, certainly did well over in France as well. And again, I think he ticks the sort of personality box in being sort of quite level-headed and thoughtful and a good sort of players manager.

8:40So I'm not as anti-Liam Rosina as a lot of people I sense are feeling at the moment.

8:47Ross Halls:I can imagine he's learned a lot from that Chelsea spell and I'm sure there's a few things he's gone maybe I shouldn't have done that one little bonus if we did get Liam Rossini and he may be able to bring Liam to lap with him so and he's worked under or Jacob Greaves has played under him Jadon Filagene so you've got that little connection there so I'm not completely against it but I know a lot of talent fans are like no, no chance because of that Chelsea spell but we'll see my friend Shall we link now, Stu, to an Aston connection? And that is Brendan Rodgers, another Northern Irishman. So back-to-back with, of course, our Jimma Jilton back in the 2000s.

9:27Ross Halls:Of course, Mark Aston gave Brendan Rodgers his first job back in the 2000s, I think 2008, I think it was, at Watford, when Aston, of course, was there a chairman and co. Yeah, Brendan Rodgers is currently in Saudi, isn't he? So that's another thing we have to look at. Will Town go down the route of trying to get a manager from another club or would they rather have a manager out of work? But then why are they out of work? Are they because they've been sacked or they've just been on a break? That's going to be an interesting one. But Brendan Rodgers, that's an interesting name. Brendan Rodgers, yeah, was given his first chance by Mark Ashton at Watford way back in 2008, as you mentioned.

10:07So there is a relationship there. I don't know how much that's been maintained over the years. Far more experienced than any of the names that we've mentioned so far. Swansea, Liverpool, Celtic, so many trophies there. Leicester as well. He was in charge when they won the FA Cup, wasn't he? Went back to Celtic for a spell, didn't work out. And he's now in Saudi, as you say. Al-Qadzia went there in December 2025. And by all accounts, he's on a hell of a contract there. And he's talked about he will see this through to the end of the contract, which I think has still got another couple of years to run on it.

10:49Could he be tempted by the lure of coming back to the Premier League? Possibly.

10:57But, yeah, judging, I think financially, this one is probably a bit of a no-no.

11:03Ross Halls:Yeah, and just going back to the question I just mentioned earlier, Stu, about do you think Tam will look at managers who are in jobs? Because that's just extra bit of work they have to do more money to maybe pay him out of their contract. As I said, the risk of a manager out of work, as I said, they may be out of work because they've been sacked because they didn't do a great job, as already mentioned, Liam Rossini and stuff like that. I think if they felt that the right man was within a job, we've just talked about Gary O 'Neill, for example, at Strasbourg, and they were gettable, I think they'd do it equally.

11:42out of work, sometimes you can look beyond the reasons why a last job might have not worked out or why a manager finds themselves out of work. So I think both options on the table in answer to your question. Definitely.

11:55Ross Halls:And to be fair, McKenna was technically in a job at May United, so they had to pay a little bit there. So, yeah, very interesting indeed. Sort of linking with Brendan Rodgers and Mark Hashton, given young coaches their first job, There's a name that you've sort of been chucking about, and I think he was actually linked. Well, I wouldn't say linked, but a name that was on the list before Kieran McKenna and Anthony Barry, who, of course, is an assistant with Thomas Tuchel of England, and he's been at Bayern Munich and stuff like that. Yeah, he's a name that you're liking. And, yeah, could Mark Ashton go down that route again, given a young coach their first job in management?

12:33Well, I think that's going to come for Anthony Barry. 40 years old and has built up some incredible experience as a young coach, primarily working alongside Thomas Tuchel, as you say, went with him from Chelsea to Bayern Munich and now to England. Also Roberto Martinez, worked with him with Belgium and Portugal. So you think of some of the superstars of the game that he's worked with. He's just someone I've tracked for a little while. There's a fascinating backstory in terms of, you know, he's seen as a set-piece guru, someone who wrote a dissertation on throw-ins and watched 17 ,000 throw-ins to look at the impact on the game.

13:11That's the sort of methodical, detail-driven coach he is, which would be able to pick up the baton from Kieran McKenna on that front. And again, just seems like a modern, young, empathetic football manager who will go it alone, I think, sooner rather than later. Do I think Mark Ashton will kind of follow his trend of giving young managers their first chance. As a Premier League club, I just think that's too big a risk. And then equally, Anthony Barry being at the World Cup, I think is a bit of a stumbling block as well because Ipswich need to act sooner rather than later to get someone in to start preparing.

13:52They can't really afford to wait around till whenever England go out of the World Cup. You know, the final is on the 19th of July. Who knows how far they'll go? and I think that probably applies to people like Graham Potter, who's Sweden manager, Mauricio Poticino, who's USA manager, going into this tournament. Some of those names might have been under consideration, but I just think timing is not quite right for them.

14:18Ross Halls:Yes, very much so. And that's the thing. If we didn't have a World Cup year, things won't be hauled up so much with transfers. That's going to be a massive thing and you're going to have to wait maybe until we get big, big signings until the manager's in charge. But I'm sure as they do scouting and stuff like that, they have sort of targets in mind anyway, and they just sort of show it to a new manager and go, you know, would you be interested? We've been scouting this guy for a while. So it's going to be a very, very interesting summer, Stu. And we're going to now mention sort of pragmatic, sort of Sonic, experienced managers.

14:51Ross Halls:And Sean Dyche is one that's out there. Yeah, he's called Salwood Job at the moment. Was at Nottingham Forest for a very short spell, but that is just a crazy club at the moment. And there's probably another name we can mention who was recently there as well. But Sean Dyche did a fantastic job at Burnley. Of course, had a spell at Everton as well. Did a right there as well. So he's someone who's been there, done that on sort of small budgets. And he's, of course, another character. I'm just waiting to, if he did ever get a point of tower manager, his voice and stuff like that. Yeah, Sean Dyche, my friend.

15:26yeah he could um we haven't had a gravelly voice in the blues dugout since paul cook albeit that was um a part-time gravel voice from paul cook full-time gravel voice from sean dyash and um as you say the most pragmatic option on this list that we're discussing uh had burnley punching well above their weight in the premier league for such a long time um kept everton up two seasons in a row when things were really turbulent up at Goodison Park. That stint is not to be knocked. And then, yeah, Forrest was part of the major managerial churn of managers coming and going. I don't know how much you can kind of read into that spell, to be honest.

16:10So I know he gets tarred with the kind of defensive, direct football, not always easy on the eye, but finds a way to get results. I think he sort of bulks at that suggestion. And, you know, in some of the early Forest games, he actually got on playing some pretty nice stuff if you watch some of those early Forest games. So, yeah, and he'd be a lot of fun too, as you say. He's a big personality. He doesn't take himself too seriously at times. I don't think this is a route Ipswich will go down. I think they'll look for sort of halfway house between experience and up and coming. But he's definitely worth a mention in this kind of runners and riders conversation we're having.

16:54Definitely, mate.

16:55Ross Halls:And do you think it is a good job for someone to come in? It is going to be a massive job for anyone who's going to be joining a club who just got promoted back to the Premier League. Of course, it's a historic football club. Kieran McKenna came as a young coach, and he obviously learned more and more about the club and the area. And I'm sure there's a few other ambitious names we can chuck out there, Stu, but it's going to be a very interesting appointment. It's got massive appeal, Ross. It's going to only be the 20th permanent manager in the club's history, 90-year professional history. So that's not to say they wouldn't be under pressure to deliver, but I think it's very different to someone like Rosina going in at Chelsea, for example.

17:37I think you're away from that major glare of a big club. There's only 20 Premier League clubs and only so many opportunities that come along. so you know the the new training ground that's that's opening this summer um it's the second attempt in the premier league so they're back on the map a little bit more ipswich now um it's of massive appeal i would say this and there's probably only a handful of people that would see themselves above ipswich town at the moment that's where they've got themselves in in the food chain and um they can be pretty ambitious with who they go for um who have you got on your list of ambitious targets?

18:18Ross Halls:I know there's a few. Do you go for a big name, like Steven Gerrard maybe? Or do you go down a route of Steve Cooper, who's done a good job previously? Or do you go down the foreign route? We've never had a foreign manager before, Stu. That would be sexy. Ruben Aberin is the sort of name that you chuck out there. Once again, he didn't have a struggle at Manchester United because things are going off the pitch. Gareth Southgate, could he be someone? Have you got any sort of left field choices or some big names? Big Ange is one we've sort of already mentioned on podcasts and stuff. Not for me, that one.

19:01We're talking about maybe Ipswich needing to take a slightly more pragmatic tactical approach just to establish themselves in the Premier League. Ange Posikoglu is not that. we've seen it sort of kamikaze football at times you know we talk about maybe being able to put one failure aside he's probably coming off the back of two now I know he won the Europa League at Tottenham but to finish 17th for that squad even with the injuries taken into account was not great at all and then I thought there was a lot of naivety with the way he came in taking over from Nuno at Forest and trying to completely change a structure that had worked so well for them, defensively solid, counter-attacking football.

19:46And he came in and tried to sort of change that overnight with the players that weren't able to do it. So that's a bit of a red flag for me with Ange Postacoglu.

19:57You mentioned, I think you mentioned him in passing earlier, Steve Cooper, I think, sort of falls within a bit of a halfway house option, someone that's got some good Premier League experience, got Forrest up, kept Forrest up. might have kept them up again. He got sacked, I think, when they were 17th in the table. Forrest fans speak really highly of him. He's had some brief spells that didn't go so well at Leicester, although there's an argument they sacked him. They didn't give him enough time. And Bromby, it's not quite worked out for him in Denmark recently. I think he's worthy of discussion.

20:31Yeah, as I said right at the start, But I think Premier League slash top European League experience, I think, will probably be a must. I think being the right sort of personality for Ipswich Town Football Club will be a must. And then everything else is kind of open in terms of in work, out of work, age, experience. but it's a job that's going to appeal and Ipswich, you know, it's a very different situation to when they last appointed a manager in the depths of League One. So, yeah, it's an exciting opportunity.

21:16Ross Halls:Yes, indeed. I think we'll leave that there now, Stu. These are just early contenders for the next town boss. As Stu mentioned, this will be the 20th opponent manager in town's history, the 90-year history in terms of professional football club and stuff like that. And yeah, it's a weird situation to be in because we haven't been here that often, especially since we both cover the club, especially yourself and me as a fan. It doesn't happen that often each time. I think Watford, I think they've had 20 new managers in the last 12 years or something crazy. So this is a very different situation to be in.

21:51Ross Halls:But let us know your thoughts or feelings. Chuck out any other names you think could be good contenders. But this is just early chat from me and Stu talking about potential contenders for the Itchish Town job. Thank you very much for joining me, Stu. Any other business from you, my friend? Well, one name that you just, when mentioning Watford's managerial chair, and one of those has been Rob Edwards in recent years. He's just a shock sacking from Wolves virtually overnight. No one saw that coming. He was commenting on them signing Trippier and Jimenez, and now suddenly they're bringing in a new Portuguese boss there, and he's out of work.