I was United’s secret coaching staff weapon… now I might become their manager

Loughborough University football team’s players were celebrating after winning a game.

They entered the dressing room in high spirits and began to hit the showers, but a passionate Kieran McKenna was trailing behind one player and following into the inner sanctum.

McKenna couldn’t wait to speak to the player and give him feedback. He wanted to discuss something he’d spotted and stood alongside him as he showered, fully dressed, while the recipient of his message gratefully nodded along and listened carefully to the information.

“It was a Tuesday night, we’d won and Kieran was standing next to the guy in the shower and coaching him,” Professor Chris Cushion tells the Manchester Evening News.

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“He said something like ‘maybe next time, drop off a little bit’. The lad was washing his hair, going ‘that’s really helpful, thanks boss.’ That just shows you his intensity and desire.

“Kieran was compelled to tell the player that information and it could have probably waited, but he went clothed into the shower to tell him how to improve next time. To be fair, the players never told him to naff off, they always thought it was really helpful and were thankful.”

Some 10 years have now passed since McKenna graduated from Loughborough. This season, he secured a second successive promotion with Ipswich Town, into the Premier League as he further enhanced his reputation as one of the game’s most exciting and tactically brilliant young coaches.

The Loughborough coaching alumni included McKenna, former United coach Eric Ramsay and Matt Prestridge, who has been a Premier League first-team coach at Sheffield United.

“We had a group who were really committed to coaching and learning their craft. They’ve all gone on to get brilliant jobs in football,” says Cushion, who still works at the prestigious sports-focussed university.

“To see them doing so well, it makes you very proud, seeing them become successful coaches and having an impact on the game. I’ve been coaching for 30 years and even at the time, you could see Kieran’s talent and with opportunity, you could see he would go far. He stood out.”

McKenna studied for a sports science degree at Loughborough and pursued a career in coaching after cruelly being forced to retire as a player due to injury at just 22.

“He was a very talented midfielder and unfortunate with his hip injury,” Cushion says. “He was a professional at Tottenham and they really liked him. Their admiration for him was such there would always be a job for him when he finished uni and he threw himself into the coaching space.”

After graduating from university with first-class honours and returning to Tottenham, the opportunity to join Manchester United arose and McKenna was appointed as the club’s Under-18 manager, before being promoted by Jose Mourinho to the first-team coaching staff.

Following Mourinho’s departure, he was retained by Solskjaer and also worked with interim manager Ralf Rangnick before accepting his first job in management with Ipswich.

Since leaving United, McKenna has steered Ipswich away from the bottom of League One, won promotion to the Championship and into the Premier League in two and half seasons.

The Tractor Boys’ rise has been remarkable and McKenna – who will be the youngest Premier League manager next season by a stretch having just turned 38 – deserves all the plaudits.

His work with Ipswich means he’s regarded as one of football’s biggest coaching prospects, but his success hasn’t been a surprise to Cushion, who saw his talent from day one.

“He was a student of the game, very invested in understanding it and tactical ways of playing,” Cushion adds. “He’d develop strategies and think how to counter and put team shapes together.

“Even then he was very tactical and I think you can see that now in how Ipswich play, incredibly organised with and without the ball. The way he talks in his interviews about his style of play, there’s no doubt in my mind he’s got that organised and the players understand that.

“He was really keen to develop individually, always thinking about improvement and had a real passion for the game, an infectious enthusiasm, which was almost obsessive.

“There would be moments after a game when he’d be there with a player and there was an intensity to him, trying to make players better, but it was always well received.

“You can imagine some would tell you to go away – they didn’t with Kieran. He had the whole package, his interpersonal skills, his relationship with the players, thinking about systems. You could he would be successful. I’m just pleased he’s had the opportunities and he’s grabbed them with both hands.”

Why was McKenna’s potential so obvious at Loughborough?

“He always had attention to detail and we did a lot of tactical work at the university.

“We massively went into the tactical side of the game and forced the squad and student coaches to think about it, to the extent that when Eric Ramsay was coaching at Swansea, I spoke to him and he told me we actually did more tactical work at Loughborough.

“But obviously Kieran has gone on to work with great managers and built on that, but you can see it in how Ipswich set up, there is a clear game plan in and out of possession and I can already picture the sessions, the planning, the video and I can see it all happening with him.

“I supervised his dissertation and he did a project around understanding his own coaching behaviour. He analysed himself in quite a quantitative way and spoke to players and other coaches.

“Kirean had reflective conversations about his coaching and was genuinely always interested in what he was like as a coach, trying to evolve and study how to get better.”

When asked if that level of self-awareness was common, Cushion responds: “Around 20 per cent of coaches have that level of self-awareness – many think they do but definitely don’t.”

McKenna left a profound impression on the players he coached at Loughborough and among them was Rory Fallon, now manager of Wythenshaw Town in Manchester.

“Kieran started initially coaching the second team,” Fallon tells the MEN. “Because there are so many good footballers at Loughborough, you have to send in your CV before and attend pre-season, but I just rocked up at fresher trials and started in the second team.

“When were in the second team, we played the first team in a friendly and absolutely battered them. They couldn’t get the ball of us because Kieran’s coaching was just so good.

“He created such a good atmosphere within a team and within a few months, I moved up to the first team and Kirean followed. He just transformed the team from there onwards.”

Fallon spent time with Manchester City and Aston Villa’s academies when he was younger and earned a football scholarship at Loughborough, where he met McKenna.

He forged a non-league playing career, winning promotions with FC United of Manchester and Trafford FC, but the coaching he received at university was unique.

“I’d been at professional clubs as a kid, being coached by good coaches all the way through, but Kieran was just different,” Fallon says. “He’d pick up little things and what he was particularly good at was focusing on individuals and improving you.

“There even times when I’d be at a training session, maybe in a bad mood, and he’d be able to pick up on that so he really understood people as well, which I’d never come across.

“His sessions were so well planned and the way he could communicate with the players was outstanding. It was just his enthusiasm for football – it was unbelievable. Although he was a little bit older than us, he was a friend away from the pitch and came out with the guys.

“However, when it came to training or matches, you respected him. We used to train at 7am in the morning and I remember missing a couple of sessions once and he pulled me for a chat. He said it wasn’t acceptable and that if I did it again, I’d be off the team, so he also had that side.”

McKenna clearly has an intensity that complements his man management skills. “He’d build up a good relationship with people and be able to get his point across,” says Fallon.

“He might say this himself, but I think he knew his path was to become a top coach and you could see it would happen, everybody at the university knew it as well.

“I could really feel it, he was still very young, but you could sense he would go on to great things because he had something about him that separated him from every other coach.

“I did say at the time, I thought he’d become a Premier League manager and that’s easy to say flippantly, but it was a genuine belief. I knew he had the skills to reach the top.”

Cushion has followed McKenna closely since his Loughborough graduation and recalls a spell during his time at United when his coaching was scrutinised.

Solskjaer was sacked in November 2021 following a dreadful string of results and the spotlight turned on the Norwegian’s coaching staff in the weeks preceding his dismissal.

There were accusations McKenna was out of his depth and underqualified to coach at United, which has aged like sour milk given his success at Ipswich.

“I found it interesting,” Cushion says. “Manchester United have had their troubles over the years and people were talking about their coaching, particularly under Solskjaer, but you look at it and I don’t think coaching is the problem. There are deeper issues at the club.

“People would say the team isn’t coached and I’d think ‘well you’ve never met Kieran then’ if you’re saying that. I would imagine everything he did with the players had a purpose.

“It’s not just playing five a side and keep ball, everything will have a purpose and be about the organisation and game plan. At the time, I did chuckle to myself when people said the team wasn’t being coached and I thought just meet Kieran. That wasn’t the problem.

“When he joined from Tottenham, I’ve got friends who are United fans and they were like ‘who is this bloke’ and I would say ‘you don’t have to worry about him, he is really good at what he does’.

“Jose Mourinho isn’t a mug, you don’t give opportunities to people who can’t do it. When he moved into those positions, you thought yeah, this lad is definitely going places.”

Speaking last year, Solskjaer said he ‘learned from McKenna’ during his time as United manager, being particularly impressed with his defensive tactical knowledge.

McKenna would have unit meetings with players and go through videos during Solskjaer’s reign and his coaching focus was on when United didn’t have possession.

McKenna, a boyhood United fan, thoroughly enjoyed his time at the club and coached some of the world’s best players, including Paul Pogba, Raphael Varane and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Now, he’ll need every ounce of his experience to keep Ipswich in the Premier League next season. “Securing back-to-back promotions was an outstanding achievement, but it goes to show what a well-coached, well-organised team can do,” adds Cushion.

“I’m a Norwich fan, which makes it awkward for me because I want Kieran to be successful. But I watch Championship and League One football and think ‘I’ve got no idea what this team is trying to do’.

“Whereas the top six of the Championship are organised and know what they’re trying to do and that makes a massive difference. Ipswich have recruited well, have good players and staff, who are full of confidence and rightly so. The challenge will be next season, right?”

Ipswich is McKenna’s first job in management but that hasn’t stopped him from being linked to replacing Erik ten Hag, who could be sacked after the FA Cup final.

Becoming United manager would represent a huge step up but Cushion thinks McKenna would be up for it.

“I’ve got no idea where his ambitions lie and you’d have to ask him, but he is an ambitious guy. You can imagine there will be so-called bigger clubs looking at how well he’s done with Ipswich and whether they survive in the Premier League will depend on recruitment.

“My heart says maybe they could do a Brentford and have enough, I see a lot of similarities between them, as they are well organised, bought well and established themselves.”

Fallon, who was coached by McKenna at Loughborough and supports United, says: “I think he has potential to be a good fit for United. You look at the way he’s got that Ipswich team playing, they play an attractive style and I don’t think he’s going to change in that regard.

“The only thing is he’s still only had two years in management, so taking on the United job is a huge ask for anybody, but I think he’s got all the credentials to take it on.

“I look at the other candidates at the moment and think why not? He’s been at the club before, came right through the U18s, then spent time with Mourinho and Solskjaer, so I think that’s important, understanding United and he does having worked there previously.”

Maybe there will be a fairytale return for McKenna at United in the future. He’s certainly a coach on the up.