Ipswich and a managerial punt that has almost got them back in the big time

(PORTMAN) ROAD TO THE PROMISED LAND

The last time Ipswich Town played in the Premier League, they lost 5-0 against Liverpool, with Nicolas Anelka and Michael Owen among the goals. Holly Valance was top of the UK charts with her debut single Kiss Kiss and current Ipswich manager Kieran McKenna was 16 years old, an age when it was not uncommon for teenage boys in his native Fermanagh and beyond to take a furtive but keen interest in the Kylie-lite Bhangra-pop stylings of the artist formerly known as Flick from Neighbours. A lot has happened in the intervening 22 years, not least Holly’s emergence as a card-carrying right winger and Kieran’s decidedly more heartwarming evolution into one of the most talented young managers in the United Kingdom.

Appointed by Ipswich in December 2021 after leaving his position as chief cone putter-outer for José Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjær and that German fella with the glasses at Manchester United, McKenna took charge of a team that was stuck in the middle of League One and had just been knocked out of the FA Cup, a competition they won in 1978 under the legendary Sir Bobby Robson, by even lowlier Barrow. It was quite the fall from grace for the former league and Big Vase winners, who slid ignominiously into the third tier shortly after Mick McCarthy surfed out of Portman Road on a tidal wave of ill will three-and-a-half years previously.

The appointment of McKenna, a young man with a boyband haircut and no managerial experience whatsoever, was quite the calculated punt by Ipswich chief suit Mark Ashton, a man whose LinkedIn claim to have “exceptionally high standards of delivery” would make him sound like a particularly enthusiastic postman or Amazon driver if he hadn’t hit the jackpot with his first, tremendously astute managerial appointment. Having secured a return to the Championship last season, now Ipswich stand on the cusp of the Premier League with back-to-back promotions, a feat achieved only four times previously, by Watford, Southampton, Manchester City and their Old Farm derby rivals from 46 miles down the lane, Norwich City. Following their Tuesday night victory over Coventry, Ipswich need to take just one point from their final game and could scarcely have handpicked a more suitable one in which to get it.

On Saturday, they host a dire Huddersfield Town side that are relegated in all but maths and won’t exactly be roared on towards beating Ipswich by their fans, as to do so would greatly enhance the automatic promotion prospects of bitter Yorkshire rivals Leeds, the only team who can overtake the Tractor Boys in the race for second place in the Championship. Far be it from Football Daily to question the professionalism of Huddersfield’s players, but with their fate already sealed one suspects that rather than go down swinging haymakers, the Terriers may prefer to do so while cocking a collective hind leg in the direction of Elland Road. “I always say to the players: ‘It is not about the destination, it is about the journey,” riddled McKenna on Tuesday. “We have put ourselves in a pretty good position. It’s in our hands.” Three points clear of Leeds but with a significantly inferior goal difference? Check. Playing at home against Championship cannon fodder? Check. And with automatic promotion looking a formality? Check. Surely nothing – and Football Daily means nothing – can go wrong for Ipswich now.

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