| Has McKenna leaving screwed us? 21:03 - Jun 22 with 2178 views | Mullet |
O'Neil is obviously Ashton's man and pick, and if he fails Ashton goes (presumably). But he plays a very different brand of football to McKenna too.
Or does it mean we can justify a big clearout more easily now?
There's going to be some very hard calls when it comes to players out of the door anyway, thanks to us going up. Does it mean Ashton should have done any more to keep him here? I'm not sure he could.
So has McKenna walking out on us done us a favour, or left us with too much to do in one window? I really can't decide right now. |  |
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| Has McKenna leaving screwed us? on 21:12 - Jun 22 with 2064 views | grow_our_own |
"Does it mean Ashton should have done any more to keep him here?" - erm...yeah. Ashton could have refrained from infuriating KM & the players during Farage-gate, and causing discord at the club. Ashton's player research and negotiating could have been much better - KM refused what was served to him at Xmas. These are potentially existential issues for a manager. Not surprised KM walked. Gutted he did.
KM never did another shared interview with Ashton after Farage-gate. Pretty much ran away downstairs in the open-top bus when Ashton was interviewed. [Post edited 22 Jun 21:20]
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| Has McKenna leaving screwed us? on 21:16 - Jun 22 with 1973 views | itfc2021 |
it's probably a bit of both to be honest.
McKenna leaving has unquestionably created MORE work in what was already going to be a massive summer. Promotion was always going to force some difficult decisions because there are players in this squad who have been brilliant for us but may not fit where the club wants to get to next. A new manager coming in with a different style only makes those conversations happen sooner.
At the same time, if O'Neil really is the man the club believes gives us the BEST chance of competing at the next level, then maybe now is the right time to make those hard calls. Every manager leaves eventually. The important thing is whether the club itself is now STRONG enough to keep progressing when that happens.
I think the club hierarchy has alot riding on this appointment, Ashton included. McKenna was an unbelievable success story and replacing somebody like that is never easy. If O'Neill succeeds then it strengthens the argument that the MODEL is bigger than any one individual. If he fails then naturally people will start looking at the people who made the decision.,
As for whether Ashton could have done more to keep Mckenna, I'm not really convinced. . Once a manager has decided he wants a different challenge there is only so much you can do. We can speculate about contracts and money but if somebody's mind is already made up then thats usually that.
For me the bigger question isn't whether McKenna leaving has done us a favour or left us with too much to do. It's whether the STRUCTURE we've built over the last few years is actually as strong as we all hope it is. Previous Ipswich sides would've probably fallen apart after losing somebody of his importance. This version of the club should be alot more resiilient ... but we're definately about to find out. | | | |
| Has McKenna leaving screwed us? on 21:17 - Jun 22 with 1970 views | Mullet |
| Has McKenna leaving screwed us? on 21:12 - Jun 22 by grow_our_own |
"Does it mean Ashton should have done any more to keep him here?" - erm...yeah. Ashton could have refrained from infuriating KM & the players during Farage-gate, and causing discord at the club. Ashton's player research and negotiating could have been much better - KM refused what was served to him at Xmas. These are potentially existential issues for a manager. Not surprised KM walked. Gutted he did.
KM never did another shared interview with Ashton after Farage-gate. Pretty much ran away downstairs in the open-top bus when Ashton was interviewed. [Post edited 22 Jun 21:20]
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Whilst Ashton should have walked the second he lied to us, I'm not sure Farage gate was as big of an issue for McKenna. The players didn't exactly down tools for him etc.
Clearly, the release clause has forced him leaving us in the lurch as we refused to move on it (and rightly so) but it's not lost on me it might have actually left us in a weaker position at Ashton's whim.
I guess the real question is can O'Neil and the recruitment team strike the right balance given what we have in the building now? | |
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| Has McKenna leaving screwed us? on 21:18 - Jun 22 with 1923 views | GlasgowBlue |
I think there will be less loyalty to players like Davis, who didn't have the best season in the Premier League. So if he isn't playing well he won't be guarenteed to start.
That goes for all the players. A new manager will find it easier to make the tough calls. |  |
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| Has McKenna leaving screwed us? on 21:22 - Jun 22 with 1848 views | GlasgowBlue |
| Has McKenna leaving screwed us? on 21:12 - Jun 22 by grow_our_own |
"Does it mean Ashton should have done any more to keep him here?" - erm...yeah. Ashton could have refrained from infuriating KM & the players during Farage-gate, and causing discord at the club. Ashton's player research and negotiating could have been much better - KM refused what was served to him at Xmas. These are potentially existential issues for a manager. Not surprised KM walked. Gutted he did.
KM never did another shared interview with Ashton after Farage-gate. Pretty much ran away downstairs in the open-top bus when Ashton was interviewed. [Post edited 22 Jun 21:20]
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Farage was at the end of March. Literally six weeks before the end of the season where we were playing weekend/ midweek every bloody week.
What chance would they have had to do a puff piece in that time? And did they ever do joint interviews with just six weeks of a season left?
I think you are reading far too much into it. | |
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| Has McKenna leaving screwed us? on 21:29 - Jun 22 with 1703 views | SitfcB |
| Has McKenna leaving screwed us? on 21:12 - Jun 22 by grow_our_own |
"Does it mean Ashton should have done any more to keep him here?" - erm...yeah. Ashton could have refrained from infuriating KM & the players during Farage-gate, and causing discord at the club. Ashton's player research and negotiating could have been much better - KM refused what was served to him at Xmas. These are potentially existential issues for a manager. Not surprised KM walked. Gutted he did.
KM never did another shared interview with Ashton after Farage-gate. Pretty much ran away downstairs in the open-top bus when Ashton was interviewed. [Post edited 22 Jun 21:20]
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Give it up ffs. |  |
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| Has McKenna leaving screwed us? on 21:34 - Jun 22 with 1627 views | jas0999 |
KM will be back in a job sooner rather than later. No doubt.
In meantime, any remaining sentiment is gone. Yes. There will be a clear out! | | | |
| Has McKenna leaving screwed us? on 21:51 - Jun 22 with 1404 views | mellowblue |
| Has McKenna leaving screwed us? on 21:18 - Jun 22 by GlasgowBlue |
I think there will be less loyalty to players like Davis, who didn't have the best season in the Premier League. So if he isn't playing well he won't be guarenteed to start.
That goes for all the players. A new manager will find it easier to make the tough calls. |
Agree. New manager with absolutely no personal loyalty to the squad will find it easy to do a demolition job. As long as the new manager has a strong idea of what is needed. | | | |
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| Has McKenna leaving screwed us? on 21:58 - Jun 22 with 1329 views | JakeITFC |
McKenna leaving makes the team and club noticeably worse but he has in no way screwed us. The man absolutely earned the right to leave on his own terms (and it’s not like the club were given no notice, he’s been linked with a move away basically since he joined). |  | | |
| Has McKenna leaving screwed us? on 22:02 - Jun 22 with 1275 views | PioneerBlue |
| Has McKenna leaving screwed us? on 21:12 - Jun 22 by grow_our_own |
"Does it mean Ashton should have done any more to keep him here?" - erm...yeah. Ashton could have refrained from infuriating KM & the players during Farage-gate, and causing discord at the club. Ashton's player research and negotiating could have been much better - KM refused what was served to him at Xmas. These are potentially existential issues for a manager. Not surprised KM walked. Gutted he did.
KM never did another shared interview with Ashton after Farage-gate. Pretty much ran away downstairs in the open-top bus when Ashton was interviewed. [Post edited 22 Jun 21:20]
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| Has McKenna leaving screwed us? on 22:04 - Jun 22 with 1248 views | Guthrum |
I'm not so sure O'Neil is vastly different to the direction McKenna was moving tactics last season, i.e. less dominance of possession, more defensive solidity, with rapid breaks (or long balls into channels) to get goals. Perhaps GON is more centrally minded, rather than KMK's use of wide players, but the raw principles are the same.
I don't think it so markedly changes the players we are looking for this summer. We still obviously need a couple of strikers (who can score), an attacking midfielder, another centre-back and a 'keeper, all of Prem quality. That's before thinking of strengthening or cover in other areas.
Many of the departures also pick themselves, particularly the fringe players who were out on loan. |  |
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| Has McKenna leaving screwed us? on 22:08 - Jun 22 with 1167 views | PioneerBlue |
Agree KMck leaves on his own terms and that is that whether its truly for a rest of any other reason people wish to infer. It is literally a part of MAs role to select a manager right for the moment. Im sure 99.9% would have liked to see KMck give it another go at the PL, its a massive high risk moment but a surgical change in football approach is not something KMck was going to introduce: this might be an opportunity rather than a risk and only time will tell. | |
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| Has McKenna leaving screwed us? on 22:14 - Jun 22 with 1095 views | BackToRussia |
"Screwed us", "walked out on us"? Why are you making out he's betrayed us, rather than left us in a better position than we could have imagined 2 years ago, let alone 4/5 years? It's embarrassing frankly. |  |
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| Has McKenna leaving screwed us? on 22:32 - Jun 22 with 947 views | Moriarty |
I don’t lay blame with McKenna in respect of his departure. If he was still our manager, the task of staying up would have remained considerable.
If O’Neill succeeds in keeping us up, he’ll have performed incredibly well, and we’ll then have the pretty football brigade’s hit single climbing the charts.
If we’re fodder, especially big spending fodder, O’Neill and Ashton will be playing pass the parcel, and only one winner there. The background music will be “what if McKenna was still here” but that won’t dislodge Ashton. And whereas relegation didn’t mean a manager sacking last time on the merry go round, it will this time.
I’ll welcome O’Neill, based on the fact that he is our manager. I wouldn’t bet on his long term security however.
There’s a line in an O’Casey play where a character, recently married, is told that the wonder of a woman soon wears off. Ditto new managers, especially those not packing too much wonder when they arrive. By the end of the week, we’ll be talking about new player arrivals. See above re wonder.
Staying up is very hard to do. |  |
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| Has McKenna leaving screwed us? on 22:49 - Jun 22 with 843 views | BanksterDebtSlave |
| Has McKenna leaving screwed us? on 21:29 - Jun 22 by SitfcB |
Give it up ffs. |
Or they might be completely accurate, you have literally no idea but yeah K.M. walking out at the worse possible moment is completely in character! |  |
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| Has McKenna leaving screwed us? on 23:12 - Jun 22 with 725 views | Nthsuffolkblue |
McKenna wasn't bigger than the club and was always going to leave at some point in some manner.
The real issue is that Ashton has no real accountability. When O'Leary left that accountability should have been kept to a new Chairman and many said as much at the time. Since then Ashton has made a number of faux pas. Farage may have been the highest profile one but it is far from his only one. It has been a bad mistake for Gamechanger to have allowed Ashton to become so integral to the club. I am not sure whether they would sack Ashton if/when O'Neil fails. The argument was we cannot afford to be without Ashton when McKenna was here. We certainly cannot now. We would then be managerless again and relying on Ashton to provide the only stability.
In many ways I feel for O'Neil because he has almost been set up to fail. Of course, I hope he doesn't and he does a wonderful job here. |  |
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| Has McKenna leaving screwed us? on 23:14 - Jun 22 with 715 views | darkhorse28 |
Here or gone makes no difference. This is a poor 25.., 10-15 points at this level. Either way we’d need a rebuild. I suspect that’s one reason why he’s gone.., the last two rebuilds haven’t worked at all (in terms of this level).
Fine in the EFL. But not at this level. And if we’d had the same people and process as before, we’d have really struggled to do much better than 22 points.
People say about that group being league one legacy, but just Leif played for us at that level, we changed everything else, and we need to bring in 7 or 8 this time again.
It’s hard with or without a new manager. At least GON may be able to add value to talent ID in markets he’s closer to than McKenna.
McKennas legacy is one of the best at any club in the EFL, nobody can argue, but at this level, a poor season, and leaving a squad equally or maybe even less prepared than before.
I think we have Mars that most people would say can make the step up, I don’t think we have a single other player in the 25 that even our own supporters are confident will make it (long term).
That’s not great when we’ve spent so much. We never seemed to have a plan.., McKenna wanted young players with talent, he could coach, but clearly didn’t think HE would be relegated.
That’s a woeful strategy if you can’t retain those players longer than one season.., there wasn’t a long term vision and plan beyond being 100% we’d stay up last time, based on spending, profiles and his salary.
That’s was a bizarre base case considering we’d been in league one and had to rebuild entirely. | | | |
| Has McKenna leaving screwed us? on 08:31 - Jun 23 with 367 views | Mullet |
| Has McKenna leaving screwed us? on 22:14 - Jun 22 by BackToRussia |
"Screwed us", "walked out on us"? Why are you making out he's betrayed us, rather than left us in a better position than we could have imagined 2 years ago, let alone 4/5 years? It's embarrassing frankly. |
I think you projecting is doing all that in your head. “Why are you not saying things that align with me and make me happy” is not exactly the great foundation for a thread on a football forum.
In what way has he not walked out on us?
Given we all appreciate him and there is apprehension towards O’Neil why is there not a potential we could be “screwed” without him? Either he’s as essential and messianic as some people are making out or he’s not.
Turning all that into what you have is odd to say the least. | |
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| Has McKenna leaving screwed us? on 08:48 - Jun 23 with 284 views | lazyblue |
As usual ridiculous first sentence | | | |
| Has McKenna leaving screwed us? on 08:56 - Jun 23 with 241 views | itfcjoe |
| Has McKenna leaving screwed us? on 21:58 - Jun 22 by JakeITFC |
McKenna leaving makes the team and club noticeably worse but he has in no way screwed us. The man absolutely earned the right to leave on his own terms (and it’s not like the club were given no notice, he’s been linked with a move away basically since he joined). |
I think the timing has really hurt us, but don't hold against McKenna because of all he's done.
I guess another issue is all the powers that be at club would rightly give KM as much time as possible to see if he changes mind etc, which again has hurt us, but was the right way to go about. We needed to ensure the decision was made with a clear(er) head but also that gap between end of season and now has made it worse |  |
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| Has McKenna leaving screwed us? on 09:22 - Jun 23 with 124 views | JakeITFC |
| Has McKenna leaving screwed us? on 08:56 - Jun 23 by itfcjoe |
I think the timing has really hurt us, but don't hold against McKenna because of all he's done.
I guess another issue is all the powers that be at club would rightly give KM as much time as possible to see if he changes mind etc, which again has hurt us, but was the right way to go about. We needed to ensure the decision was made with a clear(er) head but also that gap between end of season and now has made it worse |
He wanted to leave end of last year (the relegation season) and was persuaded to stay, and then told the club again at the end of this season - think you’re right that the club probably gave him space to breath and fully make up his mind but this wasn’t a big shock dropped on them at the last minute.
Ipswich should have had contingency planning in place for his departure (and whilst due process has been followed I imagine O’Neil was high up on that list rightly or wrongly) and therefore I don’t really think any of the onus of potential blame should lay anywhere near McKenna’s door. He 100% hasn’t left us in the lurch. | | | |
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