CEO Mark Ashton says he’s as confident as he can be that new manager Kieran McKenna can succeed where other more experienced bosses have failed at Portman Road.
The 35-year-old former Manchester United first-team coach, was appointed to his first job as a manager on Thursday and gave his first press conference at lunchtime.
"I think I’m as confident as I can be,” Ashton said when asked how sure he was that the Northern Irishman could be a success where the likes of Paul Cook and Paul Lambert had failed.
"He certainly matches the values of myself and the football club - high integrity, high work ethic, high energy and a high level of intelligence.
"In the references that we’ve had from people in the game, everyone speaks extremely highly of him. I’m delighted we’ve been able to capture him and bring him here to Ipswich.”
What was the outstanding attribute or quality which attracted you? "I think it’s a combination. I think his values match ours. That high integrity, that determination, that work ethic, that football intelligence. You put that together and you’ve got someone who can help take this football club substantially forward.
"It’s a mixture of all that and you speak to people in the game and people speak extremely highly of Kieran.
"One of the things that I’ve always done is track young coaches, young potential new managers. I think if you look at what I’ve done in the past, it’s a path that I’ve trodden before and I see that potential in Kieran and we will all be here to support him and hopefully take this football club forward together.”
Ashton outlined how he went about recruiting Town’s new manager: "We said we’d follow a process and we did. We certainly were not talking to anyone while we have Paul [Cook] here, that’s just not how we operate.
"We put together a list of people that we wanted to see and talk to, and in the current world that’s a balance between phone calls, Zoom calls and meeting people in person.
"It became apparent very quickly that Kieran sat right at the top and the front of that list of people and I have to say that when I met him my hopes were realised. I was hoping he was going to be what I thought he was going to be.”
Ashton previously appointed coaches at a similar stage of their careers when he was in charge at Watford, namely Aidy Boothroyd and Brendan Rodgers, who he handed his first senior managerial position, the current Leicester boss, like McKenna a Northern Irishman, having been in charge of Chelsea’s reserves.
"We track young coaches, we monitor young coaches, it’s something I’ve done historically and I was very keen to spend some time with Kieran and learn more about him,” Ashton continued.
"Once we did that, we obviously spoke to our board. We’d spoken to Manchester United and they were extremely professional, Ed Woodward and the hierarchy at Manchester United were absolutely first class and, albeit reluctantly I think, gave us permission to speak to Kieran.
"Once Kieran had made his position to them really clear, that he wanted to take this opportunity, whilst they were ultimately disappointed to lose him, they supported his decision and I’m very grateful to them in the way they dealt with it.”