Blues forward Sone Aluko says he’s thoroughly enjoying working under new manager Kieran McKenna.

McKenna took charge at Portman Road on December 16th and has seen the Blues to seven wins and a draw from his first 10 games, with Town ninth now only four points away from the play-offs.

Aluko, 33, is the most senior member of the squad with the Blues his ninth club, so is perhaps best placed to assess the new boss’s qualities in his first job as a club manager.

“So far he’s been brilliant, I’ve really enjoyed it,” Aluko told TWTD. “He’s ambitious, so that always suits me. When I came to the club the dream was ‘OK, we’re going to the Championship and then we’re go there and compete again’.

“We had to bring in a coach that matched that or otherwise there would have been some disconnect with the squad, a disconnect with the club.

“So he’s come in, the clubs he’s been at, he’s not come from Manchester United to be a League One coach, he clearly wants to manage higher and with the attention to detail he’s got, he’s fantastic on the training pitch, I’ll be very surprised if he doesn’t do that in his career.

“I’ve really enjoyed it, it’s always fun on the training ground, I’ve enjoyed long chats with him, I’ll pick his brain about tactics, about what he thinks. Even if it’s not a game involving us, like a Premier League match, I’ll ask him what he thinks of a game.

“He’s very knowledgeable about the game, he enjoys speaking about football and the tactical side of things, so for me it’s been a lot of fun.

“At my age and at this stage of my career, a big thing for me is enjoying your football. This career’s not a 50-year career, it’s not a long career, so the years you get to enjoy you should really cherish those, so it’s been fantastic.”

Is it unusual for a manager to be that approachable? “I’ve had some that are very approachable, some that like the distance from the players a little bit.

“It’s not unusual, but also he’s a younger manager. With me, our age gap is only two years, so that helps with the relatability.

“I’ve had some managers who have been fantastic with me but who like the distance, but they both work, to be honest.”

Prior to the MK Dons match, McKenna spoke about he and Liam Manning being part of a new guard of bosses who have come through from the academy system. Is there a difference with managers who have come through that route?

“If you’ve worked with an academy you’ve dealt with younger players and younger players are different to what younger players were 20 years ago,” Aluko continued. “The culture’s different from when I was an academy player to what academy players are now.

“There are all sorts of other things, like social media, so people have more access to players. Players to have more access to different voices, so you’ve got to manage all of that so you’ve got to be able to relate to the players.

“But also you have to be yourself, you have to authentic to whatever you are. A player’s going to know if you’re not an authentic manager, so you’ve got to be yourself.

“The best managers, whether you’re really relatable, young and you have long conversations or you’re more of a distant manager, who is like ‘I’m going to pick the team, do the tactics and my coaches have to do everything else’, you just have to be authentic to what you are otherwise the players will see through it eventually and it could be a long season for you if that happens.

“Like I said, he’s himself, that’s the best thing I can say about him, he is who is he is. Very detailed, he knows what he wants, he knows the style of football he wants to play and he knows how to communicate. He’s a very good communicator.”

Wes Burns recently talked about how training sessions under McKenna weren’t particularly long at around an hour and a half and Aluko says the Blues boss keeps things varied.

“Most clubs now have pretty much the same length of session,” he reflected ”His flow really well, so you won’t do the same thing for 45 minutes, it’ll change and you have to be thinking constantly, switched on in the session, you can’t just coast through.

“With some managers you know what’s coming on each day and halfway through the season you kind of know that on this day we’re going to be doing this drill.

“He has a lot of drills, so on the pitch he’s very good. You can’t work with the very best in the world and not keep them focused. They’ll eventually get frustrated, so with us it’s been brilliant, sessions are tests, you’ve got to learn something new or he wants you to try something different. Like I say, it’s been fun, I’ve really enjoyed it.”

Aluko revealed recently that he was a Manchester United supporter as a youngster so has the fan in him come out when talking to McKenna about working with the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo?

“It was more growing up, I kind of lost that once I became a professional, to be honest, once I was 18, 19.” he said. “I can’t really say I support Man United now, but obviously I’m going to ask him about his time at Man United, ‘What was it like working with [Jose] Mourinho?’, the big players, what it was like managing certain players.

“Even at Spurs, ‘What was [Mauricio] Pochettino like?’. His pathway to where he is now, because he retired very early, has been very different to the career that I’ve had where I’m playing into my thirties.

“It’s been interesting to see how he adapted and how he changed. Even though he’s a young manager, he’s got a lot of experience, so it doesn’t come across that he’s a new manager. He comes across like he’s been doing this for a length of time, 10, 12, 13 years, so he has a lot of information to pick from.”

McKenna is assisted by Martyn Pert (above), who followed him from Manchester United, and Charlie Turnbull (below), who moved to the Blues as head of analysis from Fulham but also has a role on the training field.

“All of them on the pitch, they’re all out there helping us with different aspects of the training session,” Aluko said when asked about the duo.

“Charlie does analysis as well, so the video analysis he helps us with, so just analysing what the next team’s going to do or what we did well in the previous game, what we didn’t do so well, how we can affect the next team.

“From all of them there’s a lot of attention to detail. Obviously, Martyn was with the gaffer before at Man United. Charlie was actually at Fulham when I was at Fulham working in the academy so we didn’t really cross paths but we know a lot of the same people.

“It’s worked really well, seamlessly. They’re all hard-working, all with a great attention to detail.”

Photos: Matchday Images

Monkey_Blue added 17:40 - Feb 21 Some backhanded swipes at the previous manager in a way most aren't so honest about
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ghostofescobar added 17:41 - Feb 21 There's a really positive feel around KM: players feedback, results, it just feels good at the moment. I may be wrong, but I reckon that we may end up thinking we were lucky to have had KM coach us. Let's hope so, as that means he will have done good things with ITFC.
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SussexTractor added 17:44 - Feb 21 Aluko is a very skilful, intelligent footballer and one of the best passes of the ball at Portman Road. The positive comments on the internal set up of ITFC from the most senior professional, reflects a much more competent and capable structure throughout the club which is delivering excellent results on the pitch.
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Bazza8564 added 18:13 - Feb 21 Aluko for me was an astute signing, someone who to be fair did well and was improving before PC left. At 33 many will think of him as very much at the end of his career, but I see him playing at a decent level for at least 3 more years yet, and I hope (I think he has a one year deal) he is retained for longer. The passion he clearly has for the game and the real intellect with which he speaks are clear indications of a very thoughtful intelligent guy, a set of qualities which should serve him well in the new world of ITFC

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Mariner1974 added 18:24 - Feb 21 Like many of our own players who had been cut adrift (Woolfie/ Jackson & co), someone we had written off before he'd even kicked a ball for us. Has proved he still has loads to offer, and almost as importantly, seems to be an intelligent guy that the youngsters can learn from. Not just here to wind down his career.
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Gforce added 18:39 - Feb 21 Definitely one of Cooks better signings,has proven to be a very consistent performer,would be first choice for me,in the number 10 role. Really hope the club offers him a new deal,whatever league we're in next season.
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PortmanTerrorist added 18:51 - Feb 21 OK a little swipe at PC, but as I have said many times, did anyone think PC was someone you wanted to be the face/voice of ITFC in the Championship or Prem? We have owners who understand marketing alongside success on the pitch, and whether it works or not McKenna is a perfect fit. Add to that it does sound like PC knew his own limitations, but that McKenna's ambition knows no bounds.....given we have sold the Club's ambition to our new recruits, he is the Manager the players and Club need.

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Europablue added 18:55 - Feb 21 Monkey_Blue To be fair, it's difficult to compliment the new guy without comparing!
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Mariner1974 added 18:55 - Feb 21 Definitely not the voice...Imagine having to listen to Cook on MOTD, barking away. It was bad enough that we let someone like Mick McCarthy in with his accent.
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Mariner1974 added 18:57 - Feb 21 Sean Dyche has got that role...he's the Mick McCarty/ Paul Cook of the Prem. Cookie would out trump the lot of them though. Everyone would have been reaching for the subtitles button at 10.30pm on a Saturday. Not that he'd have ever got us there or is ever gonna manage a club in the Prem
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KiwiTractor added 19:12 - Feb 21 Agree Bazza, I think Sone has done enough to earn himself a new contract. Give him another year, with a year option for the club ...... before other clubs start sniffing round him.
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Bert added 23:03 - Feb 21 We are learning more about our club everyday. Ok, it's easier to put players up for interview when things are going well but our manager has made himself accessible to players and fans. This really does feel like a new era.
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