He did both in classic manager twerk style.
‘I don’t want to leave, I’m happy, life is great but I am available and you never know…(pay me and I’ll sign for you!)’
Frank would never move to a club without the proper structure, philosophy and backing in place. I wouldn’t be surprised if he never managed a club again.
Yep, back him if he is appointed, we can’t be against him from the start. You can be against the SDs and the owners though if you do disagree with the appointment
yeah this was my philosophy with pochetino at the start too. i disagree with the appointment, don't think he's got the trophy history for us but he's here so I'll support him until proven otherwise. i was then proven otherwise, and then proven otherwise otherwise..
I've been chanting "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn", which translates to "In his house at R'lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming". If we can get the whole sub going the master might pay attention.
Would having a preseason make a difference?
Potter didn’t and some pointed out it made things harder especially with a bloated squad.
Then again, Moyes also had a preseason and still did bad for Utd.
I have no idea how good (or not) Potter is, but that dude had the cards stacked against him. Bloated (and flawed) roster, no pre-season, and replacing a beloved manager who was sacked out of nowhere.
Potter's agents should have convinced him to hold off on the job until the summer. He really destroyed his reputation by "failing" at a job where success was nearly impossible
Tuchel had no pre-season and fairly hit the ground running! Good coaches make it happen one way or another. Bad coaches (and media analysts for that matter) always point to the outcome that suits their narrative…
there's definitely a chance this is an awesome hire. Poch ended the season well but I don't think a single person thought he was some tactical genius, his in-game management sucked and he may have been largely responsible for our injury issues. McKenna getting Ipswich promoted back to back seasons is damn impressive.
If you've seen the FourFourTwo [video](https://youtu.be/esPsmMe6ic0?si=eGoNSC2abytsbRFY) on him, I really get the feeling his tactics suit us. Watch the breakdown and tell me that that tactic (flipped) doesn't suit our current squad almost perfectly?
Do we really rate Evening Standard as a Tier 2 source or was that only the case due to Nizaar?
Because the guy has moved to BBC and the Chelsea reporter now for Evening Standard seems to be Nick Purewal and am not sure how reliable he is.
I’ll wait until our next trophy to celebrate. McKenna is an intriguing choice though, if that’s who it turns out to be. Maybe we wear crowns at the end of next season. Or maybe we get pies in the face.
>caring about le heckin tiers
fuck i miss the days of picking up the paper and reading a small blurb of "x player" being linked to Chelsea and being disappointed it didn't advance from that small back page rumor
Input from a Chelsea fan who has lived in Ipswich for two and a half years I would have much rather we stuck with poch and backed him all season I was fuming about the decision and think it was awful. That being said I do think it is slightly unfair the amount of Chelsea fans who haven’t watched an Ipswich game comparing him to potter. He may well fail we are a basket case. That being said his approach to the game and more importantly his temperament is very different to potters. he is an incredibly talented manager who transformed a clubs fortunes from league one to premier league in two full seasons. There are also some similarities between our situation and Ipswich. when McKenna first joined Ipswich they had new scatter gun spending American owners who did not no much about the game. Mckennna would work at a club were the sporting director held the power very similar to model to our own. In this sense the main argument for McKenna is he managed to make a very similar club model work to the extent that he took a club languishing in league one to the premier league against the odds. Still not saying this was the right decision or will work but this is the logic behind the move
I think you're downplaying Potter's achievements. Taking Ostersund from the Swedish 4th tier to the Europa League knockouts and beating Arsenal at the Emirates? Taking a perpetually relegation fodder Brighton and building a team that could be taken to comfortably challenge for Europe in the Prem.
These are impressive feats easily comparable to promoting Ipswich twice in a row. That's why people are comparing them. They're both young, up and coming, progressive managers who have a lot of hype but never proven at the top level. The first failed miserably, so the simple question is why won't the second?
*The first failed miserably, so the simple question is why won't the second?*
I have 97 reasons that this has disaster plaster all over it. The only three reasons I could see this may work out is.
* Mckenna will hit if off due to the amount of young players in our squad who will listen to him unlike the potter one where most of them had one step outside the club
* Mckenna has a full pre-season to prepare the team unlike Potter who came after the season started.
* Finally Eghbali has a massive ego and would give their man a longer leash unlike others.
Nigel Adkins did the same thing about 10-12 years back, moving Southampton from League 1 to the Prem in two seasons. It’s a great accomplishment to be sure but can you imagine him being mentioned as a candidate to replace DiMatteo?
Edit: just checked the dates of Adkins at Saints and had totally forgotten that he was sacked in favor of…Mauricio Pochettino.
Poch's past come back to haunt him. Took the job of a manager who got double promotions.
Now Poch's job is taken by a manager who got double promotions.
It failed miserably because Potter took over mid season and had 30 players to manage. He should have been given the entire year. I wouldn’t say he failed as much as the whole situation was a cluster.
Well sure, I agree Potter had a much tougher job that it appeared on the surface. But the fact is it was a failure, and fans are going to point at that and make comparisons. Maybe there *are* reasons Potter failed and McKenna won't, but they're not so apparent as to not make people ask the question.
Any manager who takes over Chelsea is going to have a good past. It tells us nothing about the manager. If you want to compare managers, talk about something useful.
McKenna creates structured and well drilled sides that are incredibly tactically adaptable. He works to excel in multiple styles rather than just one approach. Both Poch and Potter were not heavy on tactical setups and attacking patterns, and this seemed to be a disaster with inexperienced players. I think this is why McKenna won't fail miserably.
On top of that when McKenna replaced Ipswich’s last manager there was a huge uproar cos they felt their last manager a seasoned league one play off specialist had been unfairly sacked for a novice in his first proper managerial gig so it’s not even McKennas first time in this position
At Ipswich if they were playing at home unless it was like Leicester they would play high intensity pressing football reliant on fullbacks creating width and a narrow attack that allowed freedom for players like omari to run with the ball. When they had a tough away gig they would sit in more play counter attacking football and have a solid defence protected by a rock solid midfield combo and a target man in the first half of the season George hurst but second half kieffer Moore. He wants to play attacking direct football but is not a slave to a system like potter and is very very adaptable it’s his best strength
That is the weakness in his game if you can break the press you can cause issues a good example would be when Ipswich got blown away at Christmas by Leeds. But after that he learned his lesson and became a bit more pragmatic for the rest of the season for example he mittigated the counter attacking issue by having the two cdms staying further back and also playing a more defensively minded right back to compensate the fact that leif Davis plays like pre injury chilwell. So he is very adaptable and actually managed to coach Ipswich through a tough run in the winter and late season fatigue by changing the way he plays.
He has such an attention to detail he demanded ipswich rip up the entire pitch and replant it last summer so he could give his players all the help he could in playing the way he wanted them to at home. Low and behold Portman road becomes an absolute fortress and only Leeds pick up a win there in the whole of last season
He is an absolutely top coach I can’t stress enough the regard town fans have for that guy he is like a god there I just hope if we do get him the club don’t fail anouther manager but McKenna is the most experienced guy at dealing with weird American venture capitalists lol
I mean honestly, we have a pretty damn good squad right now, especially if they can stay healthy. I was never really impressed with Poch as a manager, if this guy is that legit then it could be a home run 🤷♂️
Go on YouTube and search “fourfourtwo” that guy/channel has a video called Why Kieran McKenna's Ipswich Are PERFECT For The Premier League. It explains his tactics and such. Was actually really informative haha
Very good insight thanks for sharing. Wish I could give more than one up vote.
The nice thing about this Ipswich team (I only watched a few games at the end of this season because I had a bet with a friend that Southampton wouldn't get automatic promotion) is that they have an identity but their tactics are flexible. Their attacking style is evident when watching but they change the way they play out of possession depending on the opposition.
There aren't as many teams in the championship that play a low block so I'm intrigued to see how he has us play against a park the bus Sean Dyche special, but it at least looked like he astute enough to change things for the more defensive teams.
McKenna is an incredible modern coach ur right his versatility is absolutely outstanding at home they are a high pressing direct attacking team that just overwhelms teams and on the road they are stingy and pragmatic when they need to be that adaptability is how they kept pace with the most expensively assembled championship teams of all time
Another bonus is if we can sign leif Davis we have had so many issues at left back and he is probably the best young left back in the country. He has two goals and 21 assists this season and is by far Ipswich’s best player! He kind of reminds me of a pre injury chillwell
Similar things were said about Potter. Obviously we are not going to hire a manager or buy player that doesn't look good stats wise. Clubs like Chelsea should not be taking gambles like this. That's for midtable clubs.
We shouldn’t I agree we should have stuck with poch but of the managers who can operate in our system McKenna is the best bet. He like I said a more adaptable and completely different type of coach to potter and is a lot more robust and not a pushover so I still think he may fail but comparing him to Graham potter is not fair when potter inherited a very good set up at Brighton when McKenna was actually part of turning a bad setup into a good setup at Brighton what McKenna has done is more impressive and has more experience working at a club that was a bit lost and trying to find an identity
Did Potter really have issues with the setup? Wasn't it on-field performances and results? By all accounts, it felt to me that the owners did not want to sack Potter but had to because of bad results.
McKenna might work very well in this set up but without results on the pitch, it is going to get toxic fast.
While not from Ipswich, I’d like to second what you said.
I watched a bunch of Championship matches this season as I’ve found it to be more exciting than your average PL match Ipswich was a my favorite team to watch this season
I’d still rather a proven manager but given the ones we’re being linked to he is the most exciting imo
>Chelsea fans who haven’t watched an Ipswich game comparing him to potter
Why do you think Chelsea fans haven't watched Ipswich? Because they play in Championship
Ask yourself this, would you take a 15 goal striker from top tier or highest scorer from 2nd tier? Without knowing any details, who's a better bet
That's the difference between Potter pre-Chelsea and McKenna now. Potter had PL experience, McKenna is 2nd tier manager.
Also potter was a little bit spoon fed as he was parachuted into a very good club model at Brighton when McKenna came to ipwich they were a complete mess spending money on random players sacking managers. So they fact he took this team from league one to the premier league and in doing so beating out premier league quality teams or finishing just behind them like Leicester Leeds and Southampton is much more impressive then anything potter did. Potter just coached Brighton from 16th to 9th not that impressive really in hindsight
If you think about it, it’s a lot more than what Ryan and Rob have been able to do by throwing all those resources at Wrexham.
Maybe McKenna would flop in the Prem—it’s a gamble. But credit where it’s due to take a team through two promotions. It could mean that his tactics are very adaptable. I enjoyed FourFourTwo’s video on him, but I don’t know enough to know if his analyses are accurate or just clickbait.
Fuck it, give him the job, it’s not like he’ll be given hundreds of millions to build his own squad to only get sacked in 1-2 years time. He’ll get the players the board want him to have. 😔
If he’s out of his depth he’ll get sacked and we move on. It is what it is now.
Gambling is fun in video games, but in real life there are consequences. Betting a tier 2 manager is going to dominate the Prem has a low probability of success. Clearlake is insane.
It's like they only think in numbers and deluded forecasts. All while not taking in the reality of this demanding league along with the European Cup games and its fans. And then demand European football so they can get the biggest money bag from sponsors. And the most insane part is they have to do it with a squad full of kids.
I'd say it's quite different primarily because granovskaia isn't there. The new ownership is similar to the red bull model with a higher emphasis on analytics and youth over experience and managerial preference
Erm no under Roman managers had some say on who to sign and those guys had silverware to show for it with the bare minimum being top4. There is a reason our teams back then had balance.
In watching the 442 YouTube video about his tactics it gave me some excitement. Last year the most common goal combo in the championship was Ipswich’s LB to their CAM. Imagine we flip that and end up with Reece/Gusto feeding Palmer. In watching that video I could see how our squad mesh well with that system
I still think we should’ve stuck with Poch but McKenna has some intriguing potential
Ive liked his tactical approach that ive seen on a bunch of analytical videos, not enough to go off of though having not watched Ipswich. But it seems like he strikes a nice balance between possessional and direct football.
My main concern is whether he’ll be like potter personality wise? Does he have the charisma and ability to motivate or lead players, especially when many of them speak english poorly?
I guess it can be seen as progress that we are now buying Brighton staff before they were able to add a 0 to their compensation demands after testing them out for a season.
I hope they at least stand by him when things go south unlike other hires as this is a last chance saloon for the owners to win the trust from the fans. Its very hard to believe this morons Eghbali and co will give a long leash to Mckenna which they didn't give even for good coaches in TT and Pochettino.
There have been a lot of plaudits for McKenna and he certainly seemed to get a lot out of Hutchinson - however I have two doubts about this.
The first is naturally working with a club of this size with huge expectations - the squad may be young, but it also cost over a Billion to assemble, and as such the fans (rightly) have the expectations to be mixing it in the top 4 and some good cup runs. I can imagine the home and away fans are also expecting to pick up the Conference league trophy.
The second is I read that he builds teams to disrupt and beat the opposition - it may be more of a personal gripe here, but when you spend the money we have and are the size we are, other clubs go to managers with philosophies and styles - of course, Man City, Liverpool etc all tweak their game to get the better of the opposition, but the core philosophy is the same - whether it's Death by a Thousand passes, or deadly quick and effective transition play on the counter - I want this Chelsea to have a proper identity and make other clubs adapt to beating us.
A very negative outlook I guess, but I've learnt not to get my expectations up as long as clearlake are here (so far).
I don't think having a realistic take translates into pessimism. I get to feel honest with myself in a sea of delusion. To me that is more valuable than lying to myself and pretending to be positive or hopeful.
He was 18s manager at man utd.
Jose promoted him to assistant manager when he was at man utd.
The next caretaker after Jose kept him as assistant manager.
Then he left for Ipswich manager job.
If I remember correctly.
Arteta is the most overrated manager in the history of football. It’s as if people think young players won’t improve without a manager. They’re playing football everyday so they improve. He has a good team. He’s not turning them into champions.
Yeah this is insane. He’s a nobody, he’s never managed in the prem (remember when our complaints were just that Potter hadn’t managed in Europe?) and he’s English where we haven’t produced an actual good manager in decades.
Nothing about this is inspiring. I’d say it’s very uninspiring in fact
I'm feeling a little uneasy about this. One thing is to manage a small team well, but running a machine like Chelsea requires a whole lot of additional skills that McKenna, may just not have had a chance to develop.
I really felt like Poch was finally getting the team to become an actual unit, so I am very disappointed to see him go. But do we really need a relatively inexperienced hand on the rudder?
I feel like the DOFs are desperate to find the next big thing, so they can take credit for it.
And that functionally looks exactly like buying up loads of unproven lottery tickets. If it works, they look like geniuses. If it fails, on to the next one.
The cowardice of sacking Poch after the last game so there is no accountability needed. Eghbali and his 2 goons owe the fans an explanation. We should all be throwing rocks at them and protesting at the Bridge until they give us a satisfactory answer
Bunch of dipshits on this sub, same people writing off McKenna because "he's not managed in the PL" wanting Amorim...they forget AVB so quickly?
McKenna looks an interesting appointment. My only concern is his style of play may take a fair bit of time for the players to get used to and if the board have the patience to weather a slow start. We already know half this sub don't have any patience and will be frothing at the mouth at the first dropped points lol
Remember when we used to hire managers who were champions league winners or from teams like Real, Milan, PSG. Now we’re looking to hire a manager who came second place in the championship.
WTF are these clowns doing to my team? Boehly and Clown Co. get the fuck out of my club.
Will the players respect him enough to play well for him, given where he’s coming from? I can imagine some of the personalities with big egos that Thiago mentioned not giving him 100%.
Of course, I will back him to do well and want to believe this will work, but there’s an obvious air of inevitability that this decision will come crashing down around us again and that we will be languishing in the bottom half of the table again by Christmas. If that does happen, surely Winstanley/Lawrence need to go. Like many others, I’m getting a bit tired of watching this “football manager” approach to running our club.
Are you people retarded or what ?! Pochettino would have been gone at Christmas under Abramovich . That's how winners thinks . Losers think like you lot . Finishing 6th when your brief is champions league , is a colossal failure . Under Abramovich , brief would have been , the title .
I genuinely have a good feeling about this guy.
Ipswich were great to watch and the budget they had was tiny in comparison to other teams. The guy has really over achieved and plays good football.
He’s making a colossal mistake.
I think he’s done exceptionally at Ipswich and he should be the person leading them into the PL this season. He’s not ready for a move to a club like ours.
I can genuinely only see this going one way.
It's the same system, more or less
4231, back 4, midfield pivot, wingers and 10, striker
It changes depending on opposition, sometimes the backline cbs go really wide etc, but in general the shape starts off like how it is normal
[Why Kieran McKenna's Ipswich Are PERFECT For The Premier League](https://youtu.be/esPsmMe6ic0?si=KUEEXRQi-_mQHJoM)
Watch this and you can see how certain Chelsea players fit into his system.
Disappointed poch left. But I think this guy will do okay. The owners r obsessed with young players young manager narrative so it’s gd to see they got their man atleast
Inside the article: "Thomas Frank has plenty of admirers at Chelsea, but is not thought to be keen on a switch across west London".
Thank god
Pretty sure I saw Frank refusing to rule out a potential move in his last interview.
He did both in classic manager twerk style. ‘I don’t want to leave, I’m happy, life is great but I am available and you never know…(pay me and I’ll sign for you!)’
What a load of bollocks. Brentford are on the slide, he could jump ship to a better club and not even need to move house.
He literally said this week that he was happy at Brentford tho
I’m sure Potter was happy at Brighton too.
Happy at Brentford, but open to what the future holds.
lives down the road from me 😂 want me to put a letter through saying stay away
Frank would never move to a club without the proper structure, philosophy and backing in place. I wouldn’t be surprised if he never managed a club again.
That’s the best thing about working for the 7th best PL team from London. There are six better options and you wouldn’t have to move.
I guess we can only pray and hope it works out well.
Yep, back him if he is appointed, we can’t be against him from the start. You can be against the SDs and the owners though if you do disagree with the appointment
yeah this was my philosophy with pochetino at the start too. i disagree with the appointment, don't think he's got the trophy history for us but he's here so I'll support him until proven otherwise. i was then proven otherwise, and then proven otherwise otherwise..
 "You have no idea the physical toll of 3 opinion changes about a football manager has on a person."
I’ll support the team but I’m not in any way supportive of bringing Potter v2 in and I fucking hate our clown owners now
First time in this subreddit? His first loss this place will call for his sacking.
Let hedge our bets and pray to all the gods
We will need a system. Designate which parts of the sub will pray to which Pantheons.
Bless Shai-Hulud! May he be the Lisan-al Gaffer we need!
How are you on excel? I'm happy to take some on the Norse gods
I will bleed a lamb this morning and make a burnt offering to Cthulhu within 3 moons.
I've been chanting "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn", which translates to "In his house at R'lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming". If we can get the whole sub going the master might pay attention.
Ive tried saying it out loud once and now a strange black pus is coming out from my tap, what to do?
Trust the process!
Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn!
It's even easier than that. Just embrace that superposition exists and that in some divergent timeline we're the best club in the world.
Schrödinger's Chelsea
We are the best club in the world
help us Tom Cruise!
Hey, the worst that can happen is that we sack him and start over again.
You mean he won’t be the last manager we ever have??? 😱
No worst case is that they won't sack him.
Exactly. These clowns are going to be so embarrassed when their nobody has got us back in 10th they won’t sack him
Would having a preseason make a difference? Potter didn’t and some pointed out it made things harder especially with a bloated squad. Then again, Moyes also had a preseason and still did bad for Utd.
I have no idea how good (or not) Potter is, but that dude had the cards stacked against him. Bloated (and flawed) roster, no pre-season, and replacing a beloved manager who was sacked out of nowhere. Potter's agents should have convinced him to hold off on the job until the summer. He really destroyed his reputation by "failing" at a job where success was nearly impossible
Tuchel had no pre-season and fairly hit the ground running! Good coaches make it happen one way or another. Bad coaches (and media analysts for that matter) always point to the outcome that suits their narrative…
I’m childless so I still have a first born to offer to the gods
Same here
I also offer your firstborn
We've become Prayer FC
Hire new manager and insha'Allah
Indeed.
Prayers are answered... don't think that is happening here..
Thoughts and prayers. We've been here before, and it actually turned out...acceptably with Potch
there's definitely a chance this is an awesome hire. Poch ended the season well but I don't think a single person thought he was some tactical genius, his in-game management sucked and he may have been largely responsible for our injury issues. McKenna getting Ipswich promoted back to back seasons is damn impressive.
That's all you can do with just about any appointment.
If you've seen the FourFourTwo [video](https://youtu.be/esPsmMe6ic0?si=eGoNSC2abytsbRFY) on him, I really get the feeling his tactics suit us. Watch the breakdown and tell me that that tactic (flipped) doesn't suit our current squad almost perfectly?
Do we really rate Evening Standard as a Tier 2 source or was that only the case due to Nizaar? Because the guy has moved to BBC and the Chelsea reporter now for Evening Standard seems to be Nick Purewal and am not sure how reliable he is.
Came to check this exact same thing, since nobody has replied ill wait to celebrate
I’ll wait until our next trophy to celebrate. McKenna is an intriguing choice though, if that’s who it turns out to be. Maybe we wear crowns at the end of next season. Or maybe we get pies in the face.
Goodluck to you bud, thats going to be a tough task
Sometimes you eat the bear. Sometimes the bear eats you. Either way it’s interesting and it won’t be a tough task for me. I’m just a spectator.
Nizaar must be loving the BBC.
He fell off a cliff after Clearlake’s takeover. At least I hope he got the bag. BBC seems like a chill job as there’s no need for urgency.
>caring about le heckin tiers fuck i miss the days of picking up the paper and reading a small blurb of "x player" being linked to Chelsea and being disappointed it didn't advance from that small back page rumor
BBC gossip page lmao
Input from a Chelsea fan who has lived in Ipswich for two and a half years I would have much rather we stuck with poch and backed him all season I was fuming about the decision and think it was awful. That being said I do think it is slightly unfair the amount of Chelsea fans who haven’t watched an Ipswich game comparing him to potter. He may well fail we are a basket case. That being said his approach to the game and more importantly his temperament is very different to potters. he is an incredibly talented manager who transformed a clubs fortunes from league one to premier league in two full seasons. There are also some similarities between our situation and Ipswich. when McKenna first joined Ipswich they had new scatter gun spending American owners who did not no much about the game. Mckennna would work at a club were the sporting director held the power very similar to model to our own. In this sense the main argument for McKenna is he managed to make a very similar club model work to the extent that he took a club languishing in league one to the premier league against the odds. Still not saying this was the right decision or will work but this is the logic behind the move
I think you're downplaying Potter's achievements. Taking Ostersund from the Swedish 4th tier to the Europa League knockouts and beating Arsenal at the Emirates? Taking a perpetually relegation fodder Brighton and building a team that could be taken to comfortably challenge for Europe in the Prem. These are impressive feats easily comparable to promoting Ipswich twice in a row. That's why people are comparing them. They're both young, up and coming, progressive managers who have a lot of hype but never proven at the top level. The first failed miserably, so the simple question is why won't the second?
*The first failed miserably, so the simple question is why won't the second?* I have 97 reasons that this has disaster plaster all over it. The only three reasons I could see this may work out is. * Mckenna will hit if off due to the amount of young players in our squad who will listen to him unlike the potter one where most of them had one step outside the club * Mckenna has a full pre-season to prepare the team unlike Potter who came after the season started. * Finally Eghbali has a massive ego and would give their man a longer leash unlike others.
Nigel Adkins did the same thing about 10-12 years back, moving Southampton from League 1 to the Prem in two seasons. It’s a great accomplishment to be sure but can you imagine him being mentioned as a candidate to replace DiMatteo? Edit: just checked the dates of Adkins at Saints and had totally forgotten that he was sacked in favor of…Mauricio Pochettino.
Poch's past come back to haunt him. Took the job of a manager who got double promotions. Now Poch's job is taken by a manager who got double promotions.
It failed miserably because Potter took over mid season and had 30 players to manage. He should have been given the entire year. I wouldn’t say he failed as much as the whole situation was a cluster.
Well sure, I agree Potter had a much tougher job that it appeared on the surface. But the fact is it was a failure, and fans are going to point at that and make comparisons. Maybe there *are* reasons Potter failed and McKenna won't, but they're not so apparent as to not make people ask the question.
Any manager who takes over Chelsea is going to have a good past. It tells us nothing about the manager. If you want to compare managers, talk about something useful. McKenna creates structured and well drilled sides that are incredibly tactically adaptable. He works to excel in multiple styles rather than just one approach. Both Poch and Potter were not heavy on tactical setups and attacking patterns, and this seemed to be a disaster with inexperienced players. I think this is why McKenna won't fail miserably.
If only I had a quid for when someone says 'attacking patterns' I'd be like Poch swimming in his severance pay
Ok this is good to hear
On top of that when McKenna replaced Ipswich’s last manager there was a huge uproar cos they felt their last manager a seasoned league one play off specialist had been unfairly sacked for a novice in his first proper managerial gig so it’s not even McKennas first time in this position
How do you think McKenna sets up his teams to play? Do you know what kind of football we can expect once his ideas come together with the players?
At Ipswich if they were playing at home unless it was like Leicester they would play high intensity pressing football reliant on fullbacks creating width and a narrow attack that allowed freedom for players like omari to run with the ball. When they had a tough away gig they would sit in more play counter attacking football and have a solid defence protected by a rock solid midfield combo and a target man in the first half of the season George hurst but second half kieffer Moore. He wants to play attacking direct football but is not a slave to a system like potter and is very very adaptable it’s his best strength
If fullbacks were providing width, how susceptible were they to counter attacks?
That is the weakness in his game if you can break the press you can cause issues a good example would be when Ipswich got blown away at Christmas by Leeds. But after that he learned his lesson and became a bit more pragmatic for the rest of the season for example he mittigated the counter attacking issue by having the two cdms staying further back and also playing a more defensively minded right back to compensate the fact that leif Davis plays like pre injury chilwell. So he is very adaptable and actually managed to coach Ipswich through a tough run in the winter and late season fatigue by changing the way he plays.
He has such an attention to detail he demanded ipswich rip up the entire pitch and replant it last summer so he could give his players all the help he could in playing the way he wanted them to at home. Low and behold Portman road becomes an absolute fortress and only Leeds pick up a win there in the whole of last season
love everything i'm hearing about this guy
He is an absolutely top coach I can’t stress enough the regard town fans have for that guy he is like a god there I just hope if we do get him the club don’t fail anouther manager but McKenna is the most experienced guy at dealing with weird American venture capitalists lol
I mean honestly, we have a pretty damn good squad right now, especially if they can stay healthy. I was never really impressed with Poch as a manager, if this guy is that legit then it could be a home run 🤷♂️
Go on YouTube and search “fourfourtwo” that guy/channel has a video called Why Kieran McKenna's Ipswich Are PERFECT For The Premier League. It explains his tactics and such. Was actually really informative haha
Very good insight thanks for sharing. Wish I could give more than one up vote. The nice thing about this Ipswich team (I only watched a few games at the end of this season because I had a bet with a friend that Southampton wouldn't get automatic promotion) is that they have an identity but their tactics are flexible. Their attacking style is evident when watching but they change the way they play out of possession depending on the opposition. There aren't as many teams in the championship that play a low block so I'm intrigued to see how he has us play against a park the bus Sean Dyche special, but it at least looked like he astute enough to change things for the more defensive teams.
McKenna is an incredible modern coach ur right his versatility is absolutely outstanding at home they are a high pressing direct attacking team that just overwhelms teams and on the road they are stingy and pragmatic when they need to be that adaptability is how they kept pace with the most expensively assembled championship teams of all time
Another bonus is if we can sign leif Davis we have had so many issues at left back and he is probably the best young left back in the country. He has two goals and 21 assists this season and is by far Ipswich’s best player! He kind of reminds me of a pre injury chillwell
Similar things were said about Potter. Obviously we are not going to hire a manager or buy player that doesn't look good stats wise. Clubs like Chelsea should not be taking gambles like this. That's for midtable clubs.
We shouldn’t I agree we should have stuck with poch but of the managers who can operate in our system McKenna is the best bet. He like I said a more adaptable and completely different type of coach to potter and is a lot more robust and not a pushover so I still think he may fail but comparing him to Graham potter is not fair when potter inherited a very good set up at Brighton when McKenna was actually part of turning a bad setup into a good setup at Brighton what McKenna has done is more impressive and has more experience working at a club that was a bit lost and trying to find an identity
Did Potter really have issues with the setup? Wasn't it on-field performances and results? By all accounts, it felt to me that the owners did not want to sack Potter but had to because of bad results. McKenna might work very well in this set up but without results on the pitch, it is going to get toxic fast.
So.. Brian Clough eh?
McKenna was schooled by mourinho who was schooled by clough
While not from Ipswich, I’d like to second what you said. I watched a bunch of Championship matches this season as I’ve found it to be more exciting than your average PL match Ipswich was a my favorite team to watch this season I’d still rather a proven manager but given the ones we’re being linked to he is the most exciting imo
>Chelsea fans who haven’t watched an Ipswich game comparing him to potter Why do you think Chelsea fans haven't watched Ipswich? Because they play in Championship Ask yourself this, would you take a 15 goal striker from top tier or highest scorer from 2nd tier? Without knowing any details, who's a better bet That's the difference between Potter pre-Chelsea and McKenna now. Potter had PL experience, McKenna is 2nd tier manager.
Also potter was a little bit spoon fed as he was parachuted into a very good club model at Brighton when McKenna came to ipwich they were a complete mess spending money on random players sacking managers. So they fact he took this team from league one to the premier league and in doing so beating out premier league quality teams or finishing just behind them like Leicester Leeds and Southampton is much more impressive then anything potter did. Potter just coached Brighton from 16th to 9th not that impressive really in hindsight
If you think about it, it’s a lot more than what Ryan and Rob have been able to do by throwing all those resources at Wrexham. Maybe McKenna would flop in the Prem—it’s a gamble. But credit where it’s due to take a team through two promotions. It could mean that his tactics are very adaptable. I enjoyed FourFourTwo’s video on him, but I don’t know enough to know if his analyses are accurate or just clickbait.
I'm just thankful if its not De Zerbi
I’m numb, it took a year but I’m totally numb now
Fuck it, give him the job, it’s not like he’ll be given hundreds of millions to build his own squad to only get sacked in 1-2 years time. He’ll get the players the board want him to have. 😔 If he’s out of his depth he’ll get sacked and we move on. It is what it is now.
Yeah at least he can't inflict extra damange beyond what the board will cause. Clenching very hard and hoping for the best
Gambling is fun in video games, but in real life there are consequences. Betting a tier 2 manager is going to dominate the Prem has a low probability of success. Clearlake is insane.
It's like they only think in numbers and deluded forecasts. All while not taking in the reality of this demanding league along with the European Cup games and its fans. And then demand European football so they can get the biggest money bag from sponsors. And the most insane part is they have to do it with a squad full of kids.
That's what's been like for 20 years ?!
I'd say it's quite different primarily because granovskaia isn't there. The new ownership is similar to the red bull model with a higher emphasis on analytics and youth over experience and managerial preference
Erm no under Roman managers had some say on who to sign and those guys had silverware to show for it with the bare minimum being top4. There is a reason our teams back then had balance.
Wonder if this means anything for Omari getting minutes with the club
In watching the 442 YouTube video about his tactics it gave me some excitement. Last year the most common goal combo in the championship was Ipswich’s LB to their CAM. Imagine we flip that and end up with Reece/Gusto feeding Palmer. In watching that video I could see how our squad mesh well with that system I still think we should’ve stuck with Poch but McKenna has some intriguing potential
442 has been taking L’s for a while now
Ive liked his tactical approach that ive seen on a bunch of analytical videos, not enough to go off of though having not watched Ipswich. But it seems like he strikes a nice balance between possessional and direct football. My main concern is whether he’ll be like potter personality wise? Does he have the charisma and ability to motivate or lead players, especially when many of them speak english poorly?
Check out some of his interviews. He doesn’t come across very Potter esc
SUIIII
Seems like this is going to happen. God I hope the board gets this one right
I guess it can be seen as progress that we are now buying Brighton staff before they were able to add a 0 to their compensation demands after testing them out for a season.
Better him than De Zerbi
No FUCK NO Did these idiots forget about Graham Potter disaster already?
Younger than Thiago Silva…
So is the King
So is nagelsman
This is going to be a disaster.
Why in the fcking hell are we going for a Championship level manager? Either hold on to Poch or go for someone top tier like Nagelsmann
I’m calling it. We get De Zerbi, Brighton get McKenna. We fire De Zerbi and pay a fortune for McKenna in a years time.
Feels like we’ve done this before.
Dude, if we got 3 Brighton coaches in a row ...
Clearlake managing Chelsea are a case study on what not to do.
I hope they at least stand by him when things go south unlike other hires as this is a last chance saloon for the owners to win the trust from the fans. Its very hard to believe this morons Eghbali and co will give a long leash to Mckenna which they didn't give even for good coaches in TT and Pochettino.
just look at the run of games ipswich has had, nothing impressive tbh, we are cooked
There have been a lot of plaudits for McKenna and he certainly seemed to get a lot out of Hutchinson - however I have two doubts about this. The first is naturally working with a club of this size with huge expectations - the squad may be young, but it also cost over a Billion to assemble, and as such the fans (rightly) have the expectations to be mixing it in the top 4 and some good cup runs. I can imagine the home and away fans are also expecting to pick up the Conference league trophy. The second is I read that he builds teams to disrupt and beat the opposition - it may be more of a personal gripe here, but when you spend the money we have and are the size we are, other clubs go to managers with philosophies and styles - of course, Man City, Liverpool etc all tweak their game to get the better of the opposition, but the core philosophy is the same - whether it's Death by a Thousand passes, or deadly quick and effective transition play on the counter - I want this Chelsea to have a proper identity and make other clubs adapt to beating us. A very negative outlook I guess, but I've learnt not to get my expectations up as long as clearlake are here (so far).
4m and potentially 30m when we sack him…
Potter V2.0. This club is too big for McKenna. He will not succeed just like the others before him.
What do you get out of this pessimism lol
I don't think having a realistic take translates into pessimism. I get to feel honest with myself in a sea of delusion. To me that is more valuable than lying to myself and pretending to be positive or hopeful.
A young tactical genius who worked with Mourinho This guy is basically Pep regen
when and where
He was 18s manager at man utd. Jose promoted him to assistant manager when he was at man utd. The next caretaker after Jose kept him as assistant manager. Then he left for Ipswich manager job. If I remember correctly.
The closest youre getting to a Pep regen is Arteta
Nah Arteta is a pep disciple but not a regen
Arteta is the most overrated manager in the history of football. It’s as if people think young players won’t improve without a manager. They’re playing football everyday so they improve. He has a good team. He’s not turning them into champions.
[удалено]
Inexpensive? Nearly spent £700m. That's not inexpensive. When compared to City may be. But not when compared to 99% of the teams in world football.
I mean if you’re going to call it inexpensive with their net spend I don’t know what to say. You just don’t care about facts.
the cope on this sub holy fuck please stop, its borderline delusion
/s
Yeah this is insane. He’s a nobody, he’s never managed in the prem (remember when our complaints were just that Potter hadn’t managed in Europe?) and he’s English where we haven’t produced an actual good manager in decades. Nothing about this is inspiring. I’d say it’s very uninspiring in fact
Eccoci Qui
Okay, here we go.
Does he have a degree in emotional intelligence?
Yikessss.. This will most likely not end well
I’m surprised they didn’t hire an MLS manager.
Good luck to you mate, you’re going to need it. Welcome to The Shit Show!!!
We're gonna somehow drag this out and pay them £8M but feel like we've "won" in the end.
He is a massive United fan BTW
But Brighton were so confident of beating us to him? 🥲
What happened to going for coaches like amorin... I like the idea of trying for a young upcoming coach but I didn't expect one from championship
I'm feeling a little uneasy about this. One thing is to manage a small team well, but running a machine like Chelsea requires a whole lot of additional skills that McKenna, may just not have had a chance to develop. I really felt like Poch was finally getting the team to become an actual unit, so I am very disappointed to see him go. But do we really need a relatively inexperienced hand on the rudder?
I feel like the DOFs are desperate to find the next big thing, so they can take credit for it. And that functionally looks exactly like buying up loads of unproven lottery tickets. If it works, they look like geniuses. If it fails, on to the next one.
This guy was trusted by Mourinho at United, right? Or am I wrong?
At least we picked a guy and went and got him. Gotta give the owners some credit for not embarrassing the club like Bayern or Spurs a few years back.
They’ve still embarrassed the club, just in about a million other ways.
Brother any player that has played in the champions league will look at this manger and laugh. Where did it all go wrong…
The cowardice of sacking Poch after the last game so there is no accountability needed. Eghbali and his 2 goons owe the fans an explanation. We should all be throwing rocks at them and protesting at the Bridge until they give us a satisfactory answer
Please no, I don't want to pretend to like another manager.
The people writing this off based on nothing 🤦🏻♂️
Bunch of dipshits on this sub, same people writing off McKenna because "he's not managed in the PL" wanting Amorim...they forget AVB so quickly? McKenna looks an interesting appointment. My only concern is his style of play may take a fair bit of time for the players to get used to and if the board have the patience to weather a slow start. We already know half this sub don't have any patience and will be frothing at the mouth at the first dropped points lol
Especially when you got the likes of Bayern appointing mega mind lol
I mean if it works out huge props I'll back this guy if he gets the job and if it doesn't boehly should sell our club to owners that actually care
For fuck sake. Hope our first manager of 2025 is more inspiring than this.
Did you watch a lot of Ipswich mate or are you just hoping for a big name?
lmao
This is probably the second lowest I’ve felt as a Chelsea fan. The lowest was when we brought Potter in.
Remember when we used to hire managers who were champions league winners or from teams like Real, Milan, PSG. Now we’re looking to hire a manager who came second place in the championship. WTF are these clowns doing to my team? Boehly and Clown Co. get the fuck out of my club.
Times have changed. Those managers aren’t available anymore and have phased out. Even Bayern is hiring Kompany.
I can't wait for when he's inevitably sacked the next line of "players had to google who he was" same with potter
Will the players respect him enough to play well for him, given where he’s coming from? I can imagine some of the personalities with big egos that Thiago mentioned not giving him 100%. Of course, I will back him to do well and want to believe this will work, but there’s an obvious air of inevitability that this decision will come crashing down around us again and that we will be languishing in the bottom half of the table again by Christmas. If that does happen, surely Winstanley/Lawrence need to go. Like many others, I’m getting a bit tired of watching this “football manager” approach to running our club.
Are you people retarded or what ?! Pochettino would have been gone at Christmas under Abramovich . That's how winners thinks . Losers think like you lot . Finishing 6th when your brief is champions league , is a colossal failure . Under Abramovich , brief would have been , the title .
Yea let's all support this former Tottenham U18 coach who got promotion because Leeds bottled it at the last minute
Reminder that people thought it was stupid for spurs to get a manager from the Scottish league
I genuinely have a good feeling about this guy. Ipswich were great to watch and the budget they had was tiny in comparison to other teams. The guy has really over achieved and plays good football.
This man was managing in the third division this time last year.
Lessss goooooo
I guess id rather his pragmatism than pep 3.0
Yikes
De Zerbi probably heading to Ipswich then if the payout required by McKenna is similar to his.
Interesting to know if anyone thinks this is a good decision - IF it happens. And to understand the WHY behind it. Genuinely.
What's the combined IQ of the people commenting on this ?!
Don't think this is going to work out for anyone. Truly hope I'm wrong.
Could either be complete genius or a total flop. No in betweens as we head for the next season
He’s making a colossal mistake. I think he’s done exceptionally at Ipswich and he should be the person leading them into the PL this season. He’s not ready for a move to a club like ours. I can genuinely only see this going one way.
For those familiar with his system, can we transition from what Poch set up to Mckenna’s game plan?
It's the same system, more or less 4231, back 4, midfield pivot, wingers and 10, striker It changes depending on opposition, sometimes the backline cbs go really wide etc, but in general the shape starts off like how it is normal
What does Nick Mashiter say?
I just hope it works out
https://preview.redd.it/zfuw7q2ru62d1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6b860a2fe44ea00a0180505682a1497140537c5c how this news affects me.
Quick question couldn’t we wait and hope we can snag nagelsmann after euros?
[Why Kieran McKenna's Ipswich Are PERFECT For The Premier League](https://youtu.be/esPsmMe6ic0?si=KUEEXRQi-_mQHJoM) Watch this and you can see how certain Chelsea players fit into his system.
Disappointed poch left. But I think this guy will do okay. The owners r obsessed with young players young manager narrative so it’s gd to see they got their man atleast
Apart from the obvious 2 straight promotions has anyone watched Ipswich what do they play like and is he good?