Manchester United are the latest club reported to be showing interest in Blues boss Kieran McKenna.

McKenna’s success with Town has not gone unnoticed elsewhere and the Northern Irishman, who turned 38 yesterday, is understood to have been spoken to by Crystal Palace before they appointed Oliver Glasner their new manager in February. West Ham and Brighton have also previously been linked.

Now, according to French website Foot Mercato, McKenna’s former club Manchester United have made contact with his representatives as they assess possible candidates to replace Erik ten Hag this summer with a number of national newspapers following the story up.

England boss Gareth Southgate, with whom McKenna watched the Aston Villa-Liverpool match on Monday along with his Australian-born agent Frank Trimboli, has been widely tipped to take over at Old Trafford, but United are still looking at other options with the Town manager said to be among them.

McKenna joined Town in December 2021 from the Red Devils where he had been a member of the first-team coaching staff under Jose Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ralf Rangnick having initially been recruited from Spurs as U18s coach in August 2016.

Asked about potential interest from other clubs and whether his job at Town isn’t done for him yet following the 2-0 victory over Huddersfield which secured the Blues’ promotion to the Premier League earlier this month, McKenna said: “No, I love it here, it’s a fantastic club, I’m so proud to be the manager of this football club and I’ve worked so hard at it every day, so I give so much of myself and [so have] the people around me for the last couple of years. I’m just so focused on enjoying that journey.

“That sort of speculation’s been there for the last two years, to be honest, and I’ve shown loyalty to the club through that and I’m really pleased that I’ve stuck with it and achieved what we’ve achieved. There’s some big and exciting steps to come for the football club.”

Photo: Matchday Images

joyousblue added 15:35 - May 15 I disagree coolhand , he is not proven in the premier , hes been an assistant, but not a manager , he is still learning ipswich will give him all the time he needs utd wont , and we dont have leaking roofs , do you really think after the dross they have employed they would take a chance they will go for proven
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Marinersnose added 16:21 - May 15 McKenna will be linked with numerous jobs and rightly so will the numbers he’s produced so far. Manure are a club in disarray with individuals not putting the work in on the pitch or off it. I’m not a fan but they’re a massive club with too many egotistical players who are trying to call the shots. For me McKenna will give this a big no thanks at this moment in time as he now needs to prove he’s a top manager in the PL which I’m sure he will. His time for a big move will come when he’s ready.

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BobbyBell added 16:25 - May 15 Why leave a dream job to go into a pressure cooker? He has years, even decades of management ahead of him so he can enjoy his early years with us and take on the pressure jobs much later.
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brittaniaman added 16:33 - May 15 It seems that Man U only lent him to us as they want him back so soon. BUT A MINIUM fee of 10 MILLION FOR STARTERS ? With no McKENNA There will be no OMAR either so that will be a double blow to us ??
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toforoge added 16:55 - May 15 Plot twist. He is given England job now. Not as unlikely as I first thought. He plays a style to suit England .he has achieved more than Southgate, who else is there, he is an Ipswich manager!
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toforoge added 16:55 - May 15 Plot twist. He is given England job now. Not as unlikely as I first thought. He plays a style to suit England .he has achieved more than Southgate, who else is there, he is an Ipswich manager!
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dirtydingusmagee added 17:34 - May 15 if Kieran is not interested he will step up and say so ,all the speculation is going to do is unsettle the entire camp. We have a summer transfer window ahead of us the doubts will wreck that . Players above all need to know what is happening , our current squad and any likely new additions . Chelsea already said Omari wold only return with McKenna at helm . Papers will say this and say that to make a story in hope they can claim to be the first to say they were right ..

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Teza added 18:07 - May 15 To All! Please STOP all the hype about KM leaving this summer. Keep calm! He still has a job to finish here at Portman Road. King KM
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Kickingblock added 18:08 - May 15 It's just newspaper hogwash. In this case, frogwash. Writing any nonsense to fill the empty sports no news columns, there'll be three months of it to come.
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HappySnidge added 18:41 - May 15 The added benefit of the Man Utd Manager role is weekly feedback (I was going to say assassination but that could be a bit unfair) from the 4 “know it all but never delivered as Managers" old boys - Keene, Scholes, Ferdinand, and Neville. Not sure why any Manager would bother given how tainted the Man Utd Manager role is.
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Steelmonkey added 18:51 - May 15 Perhaps they need to appoint a Paul Cook before a McKenna to root out the bad apples that inhabit the Man Utd squad. I’m not saying there were any in the town squad but what he did needed doing. If it wasn’t for Cooky we may not be in the position we are now.
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tetchris added 19:03 - May 15 I think Rosenior would be a good replacement and he was unlucky to get the sack from Hull. Good luck to KM if he takes the job as he will need it!
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algarvefan added 19:36 - May 15 To McKenna I would just say Graham Potter. The other mans grass is always greener, stay with the momentum and place you so obviously love and are loved.
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YorkshireBlue1967 added 19:45 - May 15 Personally, I cannot see him leaving after the last two, tremendous, years. They are his players, playing in his style, who will do whatever he asks of them. Man Utd??? - what a mess, full of players who think they are better than they actually are, combined with unrealistic expectations from a deluded set of fans…who think they are better than they actually are! He’s settled and knows what is ahead of him. I would be amazed if he doesn’t give us at least one season. I honestly think that we can finish top half - and what an achievement that would be for him…and for us! Just like the good old days in the 1970’s - winning away at Ild Trafford was an expectation…particularly if Kevin Beattie was fit and in the team! UP THE TOWN

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atty added 08:36 - May 16 This could be a disaster, given the timing of this. He’s a big pull for prospective new players , and any uncertainty could affect our ability to get new players in. If he still means what he said about staying he should issue a statement to that effect. Man U fecking us about again.
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Bluroo added 13:23 - May 16 Does McKenna have a clause in his contract that allows him to speak to other clubs, do we think? I ask because the "I've shown loyalty to this club" implies that he's turned down not just an approach, but an offer (Palace?). Whereas ordinarily having a manager under contract would not entitle another club to speak to a manager, let alone make an offer that needed turning down by the manager, unless the club gave the manager permission to speak. And it would be odd for Ashton to have granted that out of courtesy alone... Also slightly concerning if McKenna went as far as hearing what they had to say... hopefully it was just fact finding to see what a middling Prem team thought he was worth...

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