5 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

Spent 10+ years at Tottenham, and is a Manchester United fan.

Perfect for us LOL !

Yes but Jose would have been on the blower by now and turned him into proper Chels!

1 minute ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

If it is RDZ i don't understand why we wouldn't have announced it yet. We're not in any competition and he's left Brighton. 

Makes more sense that he's going Utd and they're keeping it under wraps until after the FA cup final. 

Yes I was thinking the same ... 

With any luck Mudryk "liking" that RDZ instagram post means he's off to United as well LOL

McKenna in ... with Hutchinson to backfill Mudryk !

David Moyes would unironically be a better signing than McKenna if we are thinking of the latter. Ok, they play similar football but the beforementioned have lots of Premier League experience and have won trophies. McKenna doesn't have clear principles and I reckon he'll be exposed early doors if we hired him.

4 minutes ago, OriginalS said:

David Moyes would unironically be a better signing than McKenna if we are thinking of the latter. Ok, they play similar football but the beforementioned have lots of Premier League experience and have won trophies. McKenna doesn't have clear principles and I reckon he'll be exposed early doors if we hired him.

Fair play to you Sindre.

Upwards of a hundred and thirty million Chelsea followers on social media worldwide, and you're probably in an elite group of "one" in proposing Moyes as our next manager LOL

2 minutes ago, OriginalS said:

David Moyes would unironically be a better signing than McKenna if we are thinking of the latter. Ok, they play similar football but the beforementioned have lots of Premier League experience and have won trophies. McKenna doesn't have clear principles and I reckon he'll be exposed early doors if we hired him.

You think a manager can take a team from 12th in league one to the Premier league in two and a half seasons and have no clear principles? pmsl.

18 hours ago, nonotnowjim said:

failed to get us out of the slow and stagnant backwards footba

brother the last time we scored more goals than this season we won the league.

15 minutes ago, OriginalS said:

David Moyes would unironically be a better signing than McKenna if we are thinking of the latter. Ok, they play similar football but the beforementioned have lots of Premier League experience and have won trophies. McKenna doesn't have clear principles and I reckon he'll be exposed early doors if we hired him.

he has experience ..

But playing with depressed fans and depressed players isn't going to help at all ..🙂 

It’s gotta be Tuchel for me.  No Tommy Tuch, no title push 😂.  I’ll show myself out after that one 😂

8 minutes ago, cfr95 said:

brother the last time we scored more goals than this season we won the league.

I think he's still pining for Potter !

What a sh*t shortlist. 

But maybe we need to get used to the idea that a Jurgen Klopp type of manager is the exact opposite of what our board are looking for.

They want a puppet that has no say in most of the things, apart from the tactical and technical stuff on the training ground. And also accepts being scrutinized for that, too, by the army of scouters, directors and data driven connoisseurs.

All these being said, no manager with a pair of balls and personality is going to accept all of this bullsh*t. 

Can't believe that I have come to the point to regret Pochettino, a manager I was ready to drive out of the club by myself a couple of months ago.

Kieran McKenna has given #Chelsea the green light to step up their approach. He is keen on the job. Ipswich Town are thought to be able to command compensation north of £4M for McKenna.

[via @NickPurewal]

I'm at the point where I'm convincing myself McKenna wouldn't be a bad choice.

Scary how quickly it happens 😂


 

1 minute ago, cfr95 said:

I'm at the point where I'm convincing myself McKenna wouldn't be a bad choice.

Scary how quickly it happens 😂


 

I'm at the point where I've convinced  myself he's the *only* choice 🙂 

Just feels wrong to me to get a team promoted twice and not see it out in the PL. Even if Ipswich go straight back down, his stock would still be very high. Strange decision, if he truly wants to leave, stranger yet to jump into this mess of a "project."

People should give McKenna more credit. He got Ipswich to premier league on a tiny budget, he’s clearly a very good coach.

It is a big question mark on wether he can make the step up to a massive club but I will support him all the way.

I would take him over Enzo Maresca, Thomas Frank and pretty much all of other listed candidates. Perhaps not Hoeness but that one doesn’t look like it’s going to happen.

"Kieran McKenna has made a spectacular success of his first managerial role at Ipswich Town. Appointed in December 2021 at the age of 35, the Northern Irishman might have been on the young side for a manager, but he had long been laying foundations for what he would implement at Portman Road.

Forced to retire at 22, McKenna was described by then-Tottenham coach Clive Allen as a determined and intelligent character destined to rise in coaching. McKenna studied sports science at Loughborough University and began his coaching career at Tottenham’s academy, later leading their Under-18s to an FA Youth Cup semi-final. He then spent two years with Manchester United’s Under-18s, winning the Premier League Northern Division title, and eventually assisted José Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjær, and briefly Ralf Rangnick with United's senior team.

When McKenna took over at Ipswich, the club was near the League One relegation zone. Under his leadership, they only lost two of their last 17 games. In his first full season, Ipswich lost just four league games out of 46, winning promotion with 98 points. McKenna continued his success in the Championship, securing a second successive promotion ahead of teams like Leicester City, Leeds United, and Southampton.

McKenna's tactical expertise is a key factor in his success. Initially, he implemented a back three with a double pivot, later transitioning to a 4-2-3-1 formation. In the 2022/23 season, Ipswich had the most possession, most passes, and third-lowest long-ball count in the division, using a short-passing style that built through the thirds. The double pivot was crucial, adapting to support wing-backs and maintain possession.

In the final third, McKenna's team merged their formations, with the left-back advancing high and wide while the left winger moved inside. This created a temporary back three supported by the double pivot. The team's attacking play was characterized by crosses from the full-backs and dynamic movements from forwards, making Ipswich particularly threatening from cut-backs and set-pieces.

Without the ball, Ipswich employed a high-pressing strategy, with wingers pressing opposing full-backs and the team aiming to lock play on one side. The double pivot and number 10 played key roles in screening passes and applying pressure. In the Championship, Ipswich maintained high pressure while also organizing into compact blocks when needed, demonstrating McKenna's ability to adapt his tactics."

 

A lot of emphasis on the importance of the double pivot, lets see if our £220m pairing are up to the task.

Interesting that it says the LB would overlap with the winger inverting. Could work well for us with James/Gusto overlapping and Palmer inverting and Colwill LB forming a makeshift back 3. 

1 minute ago, ross91690 said:

Just feels wrong to me to get a team promoted twice and not see it out in the PL. Even if Ipswich go straight back down, his stock would still be very high. Strange decision, if he truly wants to leave, stranger yet to jump into this mess of a "project."

Is it a mess though? We've rebuilt the squad and outside of a couple of sensible additions we've shown at the back end of the season we can compete.

Management showed with Potter they're willing to stick by a manager regardless of how bad it is, he would have been sacked months before under Roman. Poch was likely only ever a stop gap. 

5 minutes ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

we've shown at the back end of the season we can compete.

So why would you sack that manager and throw all the improvement out the window? Especially when we without a doubt is about to downgrade in the managerial departement wheter its McKenna og Maresca we end up hiring.

 

4 minutes ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

Is it a mess though? We've rebuilt the squad and outside of a couple of sensible additions we've shown at the back end of the season we can compete.

Management showed with Potter they're willing to stick by a manager regardless of how bad it is, he would have been sacked months before under Roman. Poch was likely only ever a stop gap. 

Selling your captain to pay for players who were out injured all season in the same positions? Yes, that's a mess. Conor isn't world class, but he's available, and gives a 7/10 or better most weeks. That is needed in any squad.

1 minute ago, OriginalS said:

So why would you sack that manager and throw all the improvement out the window? Especially when we without a doubt is about to downgrade in the managerial departement wheter its McKenna og Maresca we end up hiring.

 

In my opinion it doesn’t take much to find an upgrade over Poch. I’m going to stick my neck out and say McKenna is an upgrade over him.

1 minute ago, OriginalS said:

So why would you sack that manager and throw all the improvement out the window? Especially when we without a doubt is about to downgrade in the managerial departement wheter its McKenna og Maresca we end up hiring.

 

I wanted to keep Poch towards the end but in hindsight he's the reason we aren't playing in Europe.

If the squad was capable of playing this football why did he insist on playing Enzo next to the striker, leaving Caicedo as a long midfielder, Maatsen in attack, Colwill as an overlapping full back, no idea how to organise a defence, resistance to having a set piece coach come in, dropping young wingers whenever they showed a bit of promise. Its judged as a season, not 7 games. 

You have absolutely no idea McKenna or Maresca will be a downgrade. 

4 minutes ago, ross91690 said:

Selling your captain to pay for players who were out injured all season in the same positions? Yes, that's a mess. Conor isn't world class, but he's available, and gives a 7/10 or better most weeks. That is needed in any squad.

We're selling Reece James? Surprised no papers have picked up on this yet.

 

Trying to assess how much of a predictor of greatness is back-to-back promotions. In recent history:
 - Paul Lambert
 - Nigel Adkins

🙂🙂

The sample is super-small and there are, no doubt, some crucial specifics that differentiate McKenna's circumstances and achievement, but in itself this stat does not seem to guarantee future CL wins...

Having said that, I feel we are not going to get an established genius and the choice between
 -  gambling on a potential genius vs
 -  taking an established non-genius
.. seems like a tricky one, with no right answer.

5 minutes ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

I wanted to keep Poch towards the end but in hindsight he's the reason we aren't playing in Europe.

If the squad was capable of playing this football why did he insist on playing Enzo next to the striker, leaving Caicedo as a long midfielder, Maatsen in attack, Colwill as an overlapping full back, no idea how to organise a defence, resistance to having a set piece coach come in, dropping young wingers whenever they showed a bit of promise. Its judged as a season, not 7 games. 

You have absolutely no idea McKenna or Maresca will be a downgrade. 

Sure, but he did figure it out towards the end and for the second half of the season we were a Top 4 side. Following the trajectory we would have been a top 4 side next season under him and most supporters were genuinely happy with how we looked for most of the final two months.

To throw all that out so hire some Championship manager is absolutely bonkers and you know it too. McKenna's principles will not work well for a top side in the Premier League I can guarantee that.

And yes we have an idea. Just as most of us knew that Potter was a downgrade on Tuchel.

Edited May 23, 20242 yr by OriginalS

2 minutes ago, OriginalS said:

Sure, but he did figure it out towards the end and for the second half of the season we were a Top 4 side. Following the trajectory we would have been a top 4 side next season under him and most supporters were genuinely happy with how we looked for most of the final two months.

To throw all that out so hire some Championship manager is absolutely bonkers and you know it too. McKenna's principles will not work well for a top side in the Premier League I can guarantee that.

And yes we have an idea. Just as most of us knew that Potter was a downgrade on Tuchel.

So why didn't he figure it out in the 6 months prior when most of the average Joe's on this forum could see the glaring issues. 

What principles of his exactly won't work, can you name them? You keep mentioning principles, what the f**k are you even talking about? 

Poch has never won anything, we'd have stagnated into what Tottenham are. Losing the cup final to Liverpool's kids over 120 minutes solidified his reputation as a generational bottle job and was unforgivable. Had he won that cup then finished the season strongly its a completely different conversation.