Boss Kieran McKenna says everyone at Town speaks highly of Liam Manning, whose MK Dons side the Blues face at Stadium MK on Saturday, with the pair part of a new breed of young managers who have cut their teeth in academy football.
Manning came through the academy ranks at Playford Road as a midfield player but moved on in 2005 without breaking into the first team
After spells playing in non-league and in Iceland, the 36-year-old rejoined the Blues as a coach, working with the U13s up to the U18s.
In 2015 he left Playford Road to join West Ham initially coaching their U15s to U18s. While with the Hammers he progressed to becoming head of coaching and then in charge of their U23s.
From the East Londoners, he joined MLS side New York City, part of the City Football Group [CFG] of clubs, as their academy director, then in August 2020 was named head coach of Belgian second tier club Lommel, another CFG side, before taking the MK job in August.
Manning's staff features former Town defenders David Wright and Chris Hogg, who both also spent time working at Playford Road, and one-time Blues keeper Lewis Price.
McKenna, 35, says he and Manning have faced one another in academy football. "I’ve come across him quite a few times especially when he was in and around the West Ham academy when I was at the Tottenham academy at that stage.
"I know him from academy circles. Not very well but well enough and through some mutual colleagues and mutual friends.
"Obviously he’s always been highly thought of as a coach and has had a good career progression as a coach as well.
"He’s had a good impact at MK this year going into a club where they already had a very well established style of play and culture there, but I think he’s taken the team on to another level and is doing a good job.”
Manning during his time as a Town academy coach
Manning’s football philosophy is one which will have largely been instilled at Playford Road working under the likes of Bryan Klug but McKenna says that that will afford him little insight into what to expect from the Dons this weekend.
"Not necessarily on his philosophy, I think there are no secrets now, we have every game that they’ve played this season from wide angle, we’ve seen them live, we’ve seen them on video. I think we know them really, really well as a team,” he said.
"Everyone here speaks highly of Liam. Bryan Klug I know well from my time at Tottenham and I have good conversations with him here.
"Everyone speaks highly of Liam from his time here but I think there are no inner secrets at this stage in football, it’s so accessible to watch other teams play and understand what they’re about.
"I think come Saturday, Liam having a previous connection with Ipswich, I don’t think will have any impact on the game.”
Asked whether he and Manning are part of a new guard in senior football management, younger bosses who have progressed through from academies, McKenna said: "Yes, I can’t speak across the whole leagues in England, I don’t know what the statistics are, but I think that is something that will grow in this country over the next few years.
"I think there’s such good work done at academy level throughout the clubs in England. The developments at the academies over the last 10 years probably has been at a really high level.
"Obviously that’s with players and the number of players coming into Premier League teams at a younger age and the number of young players going into the England national teams.
"But also with coaches. There are probably more coaches, more opportunities for coaches to develop themselves to a really high level through the academy system and progress their careers on from there.
"I think it has been a little bit behind in this country over the years in terms of younger coaches coming into the senior game and getting opportunities.
"You can see it in countries like Germany over the last 10 years in the Bundesliga, there have been a host of coaches who have gone into big, big clubs in their 30s and gone on and had good successes and built up really successful careers.
"I can only say that I know there are some fantastic young coaches out there who are working in academies, and older coaches working out there in the academy system.
"I think the importance of developing players and developing teams is also vitally important at academy level. I think there’s a big crossover there, a big crossover of skillsets that can travel into the first-team game.
"I was very appreciative of Manchester United giving me opportunities initially in the senior game having come through the academy there and come through the academy at Tottenham.
"But then appreciative of Ipswich giving me this first opportunity as a manager and I think it’s something that hopefully we’ll see a little bit more in the future and it can be a good thing for the English game in general, I think.”
Are those younger coaches bringing in a different style of football? "I don’t think that’s necessarily an age thing. I’ve worked with some really good older coaches, who have a really progressive and proactive and modern style of football, so I don’t think it’s necessarily an age thing to justify why you play a certain style of football.
"I think the level of football in this country, certainly at the highest level, at Premier League level, has really gone up over the last few years.
"I think the technical and physical level, the speed of the game, the number of passes, the tactical level of the game, the systems that are used and the complexity of some of the coaching systems that go on now probably has gone up quite a lot over the last few years.
"And I think that’s something that I believe in, something I’ve worked within and I think, looking at the league that we’re in and from my experience in League One, there are some teams that play really good football in the league, that play a modern style of football and a really proactive style of football.
"That’s obviously something that I’ve looked to bring to Ipswich Town. I want to develop how we play. I think developing our style is a massive part of my job over the medium term and over the longer term because I think that’s eventually going to hopefully help the club to be successful in the higher divisions of English football.
"I think it’s a good question. I think the style of football at the top levels of the game in England has really developed over the last few years and I think there’s an inevitability that that will filter throughout the divisions and that’s something that we’re looking to bring into our club at the moment.”