Former Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjær has been speaking about Town manager Kieran McKenna and his assistant Martyn Pert, who were members of his staff at Old Trafford.
McKenna was already with the Red Devils when Solskjær took over as manager in December 2018 having previously worked alongside Jose Mourinho.
"Kieran is another who I want to be successful and I’m glad he got Ipswich Town promoted in his first full season in management and not just because my brother-in-law is a massive Ipswich fan!” Solskjær told The Athletic for an article discussing his old United coaches, including Middlesbrough’s Michael Carrick as well as McKenna and Pert.
"Ipswich played a friendly in Kristiansund in the 1960s [a 7-0 win in May 1965 under Bill McGarry] and his grandad became an Ipswich fan and it comes from there.
"Kieran was a surprise to me when I got to United. Michael, I already knew. We’d been coached by Sir Alex [Ferguson], from the old school. Kieran was not. He’s the most thorough and analytical, step-by-step, process-driven coach that I’ve worked with.
"He makes it so easy for the players to see and understand what we wanted from them. He’d do that the day before a game and his memory was also fantastic, his eye for detail too.
"One of his strong points was defensive organisation and I let him be in charge of that in training. I learned from him about defensive shape and how not to concede. So I wasn’t surprised that he went nine games without conceding this season. Not one goal. Then they conceded one horror goal, before carrying on keeping clean sheets.
"Kieran would have unit meetings with the players and go through videos. He was more focused on when the team didn’t have possession, whereas Michael was about when the team did have possession. They gave the players the detail I wanted them to have before a game.”
Solskjær and Carrick attended Town's game at Doncaster in February 2022 and McKenna has said he regularly speaks with his former colleagues with the former England midfielder a close friend.
Regarding Pert, who he brought on to his Old Trafford staff in December 2019, Solskjær added: "He’s working with Martyn Pert. One of the first things I look for when I take someone on is integrity. Martyn and I did the Pro Licence coaching badge together.
"When I got the Cardiff job, he was there with Malky Mackay. I thought ‘I’d really like to work with Martyn.’ But after a few days, he came to me and said: ‘I can’t do this. I’d love to work with you but my loyalty is with Malky.’ I liked that about him. No bullshit. It wasn’t right for him and I respected that.
"So when I had the chance to bring him to United, I did. I never forgot. He’d been around in different levels and in different countries. He speaks several languages so for me to have a coach who could communicate with players in their mother tongue was important. Michael, Kieran and I didn’t speak Spanish or Portuguese, though I wish I did, and sometimes you get that extra detail when it’s in their own language.”