Ipswich Town CEO and chairman Mark Ashton has claimed that Kieran McKenna will remain as manager of the club regardless of what happens this season.
The Northern Irishman was able to guide the Blues to promotion from League One in his first full season in charge before taking them straight up to the Premier League by finishing second in the Championship.
The top flight has understandably been significantly harder, with Town sitting in 18th place after 10 games. However, Ashton has stressed that he’ll look to keep McKenna in his role regardless of whether they stay up or not, even as the external noise ramps up.
“It doesn’t even enter my head,” he told BBC Radio Suffolk about the prospect of parting company with McKenna. “It’s madness.
“Rome wasn’t built in a day. We haven’t come on a journey – that’s wrong – we’ve built a rocket ship. He’s been absolutely at the tip of the sword of every decision we’ve made on the football front on that journey.
“We’ve got so much further to go, but there’s going to be blips in the road. This isn’t going to be smooth. We’re in the biggest and best league in the world.
“Let’s just remember where we were two years ago, the games we playing, when we were kicking off League One against Morecambe at home. The stadium was half empty, the seats were dirty, you couldn’t sit in them.
“We can’t forget where we’ve come from, but this isn’t the end. I’ve said this before. It’s just the end of the beginning.
“I just ignore the noise. We’ve got a very talented manager who we worked very hard to re-contract in the summer. I think he made the right choice to stay with us, he made the best choice to stay with us. He’s a friend, he’s a colleague, he’s a top, top manager who’ll go and take this football club further, I’m sure.”
Of course, there was a period over the summer where it looked like McKenna wouldn’t lead the club into the Premier League at all. He was linked with moves to Manchester United, Chelsea and Brighton, with reports from national media outlets claiming that he was on the brink of leaving Portman Road.
That never materialised, and he ended up signing a new long-term contract in Suffolk before the start of the campaign. However, Ashton acknowledged that it was a tough time for him and the manager, even if they came to the right conclusion in the end.
“I wouldn’t say I was worried,” he argued. “It was almost like the two of us were in a bubble for 10 to 14 days. It was a challenge, it was difficult. I think he knows that I care about him as a friend as well as a colleague.
“My job wasn’t really to persuade Kieran to stay, it was to point out the logic. Why we’re the best fit for him right here, right now. Where we could go, how big this football club could be.
“Whilst some people would say that we’re behind other clubs, we’re only behind them in time, with the investment and infrastructure we’re building. Ultimately, I believe he made the right decision.”
In the short-term, the next step for the club is to secure their first win of the season. Town haven’t taken three points in the Premier League since April 24, 2002, when they won 1-0 at home to Middlesbrough shortly before suffering relegation.
It certainly isn’t ideal to be winless in the Premier League after 10 games, a record that usually has quite damning consequences. However, they’ve accumulated more points than both Southampton and Wolves, with the latter also searching for their maiden victory of the campaign.
On top of the impressive performances, that’s more than enough to keep Ashton happy for now.
“It is what it is, you’ve got to trust the process,” he explained. “If we weren’t playing well, if we weren’t playing competitively, then I probably would be concerned – but I’m not concerned.
“I absolutely trust Kieran, I absolutely trust in the players we recruited and I trust the process. This is the strength of a top, top manager.
“I don’t judge my managers on winning or losing games, I judge them on their behaviour. I’ve seen managers before, when they don’t win games, their behaviour becomes erratic.
“Kieran will not change, he’ll stick to the process, he’ll adapt the process, he’ll learn, he’ll grow and we’ll grow together. If we do that, we’ll be competitive as anything come the end of the season.”
One way that the Blues could look to improve their fortunes is by recruiting in the January transfer window. Their track record for making good signings midway through the season is remarkably strong, but Ashton is keen to temper expectations after a busy summer where the club brought in 12 new players.
“History is the best dictator of the future,” he stated. “I don’t think we’ve disappointed in January transfer windows thus far.
“Cash and the spending of cash won’t be the issue. The amount of cash we spend will be dictated by Financial Fair Play [FFP].
“Again, I reiterate, it’s important to understand that we’re starting from a point of disadvantage. Why? Because we’ve been out of the top flight for 20+ years, we’ve only been in the Championship for one year.
“We didn’t build revenue streams, we didn’t build player trading in the Championship. We’ve gone right the way through.
“The two clubs we were promoted with are both on parachute payments and, by the way, still had 50% of their squads from their previous time in the Premier League, so only needed to recruit four or five players.
“We’re behind, behind, behind, and we’re playing catch-up as quickly as we can.
“We’ll be brave and bold, we won’t be reckless, but we can’t spend what the others spend because we don’t have the Financial Fair Play headroom. They do.
“When I joined the club, revenue was around £30 million. We’ll break through £150+ million this year, I’m sure, but it’s still not enough.”
Could there be some departures to balance things out? Well, if nothing else, Ashton was quick to rule out the possibility of top scorer Liam Delap moving on at the start of next year amid links to some of the top clubs in the Premier League.
“Somebody better have some serious zeros on a chequebook and a crowbar to get him out with, that’s for sure,” he chuckled. “We’ve got no desire and no need.
“I’ll only sell players – Kieran will tell you this – when from a football perspective, he tells me it’s right. If he tells me that from a football perspective it’s right, my job is to get the best deal for this football club but be ready with the next players to come in.
“We work as one. You can’t get water between our thought processes.”
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