After bringing Ipswich Town back to the top flight, players are worried that Kieran McKenna would be signed by a Premier League competitor.
Under McKenna, who has now won three promotions with the team, the Tractor Boys immediately returned from the Championship after being relegated the previous season.
McKenna’s contract expires in June 2028, and any club hoping to recruit him will have to pay a hefty salary. He still has a solid reputation in the game, though.
The 39-year-old drew interest from Brighton and was on the shortlist for the Chelsea position when Enzo Maresca was appointed in the summer of 2024. McKenna is believed to have supporters at Selhurst Park, and Crystal Palace is looking for a new manager this summer.
Although McKenna has shown no desire to leave Ipswich, promoted managers deal with a similar dilemma: how to maintain the club’s financial stability while simultaneously making a team competitive in the top tier.
Despite spending over £130 million, Ipswich only managed 22 points from 38 games in 2024–2025. After selling Liam Delap to Chelsea and Omari Hutchinson to Nottingham Forest, they generated a profit of almost £26 million on moves last summer.
On Monday, Kieran McKenna enjoys the praise of supporters during Ipswich’s open-top bus tour.
McKenna stated, “It means a lot,” following the team’s 3-0 victory over QPR last Saturday, which secured his third promotion in four seasons. To be honest, I think it’s been the hardest. It’s very clever. I am aware of how difficult it has been for us to make things better. We experienced such a climb and a precipitous descent as a club. We deserve to be where we are because we had to rebuild this team in the face of adversity.
“I don’t think it will ever be repeated with the way finances are going, but it was special to do it back-to-back with basically the same group of players.”
This one has been quite difficult. I’m glad we managed to stay together and cross the finish line because I know how hard we had to work for it and that it could have gone in a totally different path.
