How McKenna has led the team to the verge of consecutive promotions

With Easter approaching, Ipswich Town finds themselves in a situation that few could have predicted at the beginning of the season: they are competing for both a championship shot and promotion to the Championship.

In a far shorter amount of time, the aforementioned statement would have been almost absurd in addition to seeming idealistic.

League One match on Saturday, March 20, 2021: Portsmouth 2-1 Ipswich Town.

In front of locked doors at Fratton Park, where games are being played without spectators due to COVID-19 lockdown regulations, newly appointed Ipswich manager Paul Cook watches his team give up a first-half lead against a former team.

Cook’s third loss in his opening five games puts the Tractor Boys two points outside the play-off spots while Pompey, who are now in seventh place after signing Danny Cowley as their manager, advances.

Three years later, the footballing situations of all the aforementioned names are drastically altered.

Due to revolutionary developments both on and off the field, Ipswich as a club find themselves in a very different equation and as a very different potential.

At its core are a team playing thrilling, visually striking football under the direction of a young manager with astute tactical judgment, as well as takeovers, makeovers, investment partnerships, managerial and playing staff changes, and the brand support of a global pop music icon.

With eight Championship games to play, they sit a point behind leaders Leeds United and second-placed Leicester City and in arguably their best position for nearly 20 years to win promotion back to the Premier League.

All this less than a year after being pushed right to the wire to guarantee automatic promotion from League One in their rookie manager’s first full season in senior management.

So how has it gone so right for Ipswich under Kieran McKenna?

As his side face two pivotal Championship games across the Easter weekend, both live on Sky Sports, away to Blackburn on Friday and then at home to fellow promotion contenders Southampton on Monday, fans can be forgiven for getting carried away with the pace of progress.

“In Kieran McKenna, I think tactically, you’ve got the best manager in the league,” said Joe Fairs from the Blue Monday Podcast.

Others are unable to tolerate the way we play because of the way he sets up the team. Despite the fact that many of the players are from League One and have never competed at the highest level of the Championship, McKenna is an exceptional tactician who also excels as a man-manager, having kept everyone motivated.”

Following McKenna is a group of similarly progressive and forward-thinking recruiters, performance analyzers, and coaches that you wouldn’t normally see in the Portman Road hallways.

After charismatic chief executive Mark Ashton nurtured the club’s “collegiate style,” McKenna’s appointment in December 2021 saw the coaching and performance teams finally collaborate.

“Leif Davis, the left defender, is probably in that ballpark when you look at the players at McKenna’s disposal this season and you talk about which ones might get themselves a Premier League move,” Fairs said to Sky Sports.