Speculation regarding Blues boss Kieran McKenna’s future continues with Brighton, Manchester United and Chelsea all reportedly showing interest in the Town manager.

On Saturday, McKenna emerged as the early favourite to succeed Roberto de Zerbi at Brighton and remains the frontrunner in the betting at 6/4 at time of writing.

However, the departing De Zerbi is reported to have recommended fellow Italian and former colleague Francesco Farioli as his successor.

The highly rated Farioli, De Zerbi’s goalkeeper-coach at Benevento and Sassuolo in Italy, is currently boss of Nice and led them to fifth in Ligue 1 this season.

Elsewhere, according to the Evening Standard, Chelsea have sounded out McKenna and Sporting Lisbon boss Ruben Amorim's representatives as potential contingencies should Mauricio Pochettino move on this summer.

The ex-Spurs manager is set to hold talks as part of an end-of-season review in the days to come with his future in question.

The Manchester Evening News claims the Red Devils, who were first linked with McKenna last week, have also spoken to the Blues boss’s people regarding a return to Old Trafford should Erik ten Hag depart in the close season.

Should any of those clubs - or someone else - make a move for the Northern Irishman, it’s reported that the compensation due to Town has increased from £4 million to £6 million following the Blues’ promotion to the Premier League.

Asked about other clubs showing interest in the Northern Irishman by Sky News at the end of last week, Blues CEO Mark Ashton responded: “Those are challenges that success will always bring. I’d certainly rather have the challenges of success than the challenges of failure.

“But Kieran’s been great. He signed a new long-term contract last summer and he’s been in the office, he hasn’t had a day off, he’s been working by my side tirelessly on recruitment and planning and analysis and tactics for next season.”

He added: “He’s been key to us, not only is his tactical and technical ability quite incredible but his values and the way he treats people and the way we work as a team has been key and I’m sure Kieran will be excited about pitting his wits against the best coaches in the world.”

Quizzed about potential interest from other clubs and whether his job at Town isn’t yet done 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.”

McKenna is expected at Tuesday night’s LMA Awards where he is a strong contender for the Championship honour and perhaps the overall award won by George Burley in 2001.

The Blues boss has already been named the EFL Manager of the Season.

Photo: TWTD

gosblue added 20:15 - May 21 How many of the 92 league managers are guaranteed to be in a job come August and how many will still be in a job come Xmas? Why would McKenna give up job security and family stability for the managerial merry-go-round? If he gets the backing that we think he is going to get, we can give it a right good go.
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PimsNumber1 added 21:02 - May 21 Spot on mariner 1974
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HALLSJ added 21:38 - May 21 Well, with Poch now gone, there is Chelsea with Omari , and Brighton. Wish Ashton & or McKenna would put our concerns to bed
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Bert added 22:15 - May 21 We can only hope that our club has positioned itself sufficiently well to make KMcK think very, very hard about his decision.
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DannyITFC added 22:19 - May 21 Personally I can’t see him going for a while yet when he is part of a fast moving project at Ipswich. Once he’s hit the ceiling at Town and proved himself at Premier League level, then yes I can see him going to a top 6 team or even the England job but that’s a while off yet. I do think however that Mark Ashton and Kieron McKenna would do well to release a statement of intent clearing up all these rumours as it can’t be doing the club too many favours with potential transfer targets maybe influenced by whether KM will be the manager next season when considering a move to Ipswich.

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Lightningboy added 22:45 - May 21 I really don't see why the club or Kieran should have to release any sort of statement about all of this speculation and as i've said previously - what is now major sh1t stirring - it's not very professional by twtd's standards and they're going to look a bit foolish in the coming days,weeks,months when all this nonsense blows over. I get that they want "headlines" on here but fanning the flames of this rubbish is spoiling what should be an exciting time at our club...such a shame.

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OliveR16 added 17:51 - May 22 Lightningboy - I think it is fairly clear now that McKenna intends to cash in his success with a big move. It is not TWTD's fault. It is modern football, and he is a creature of modern football, he is not a reincarnation of Robson or Ramsey. I imagine Ashton is already sounding out the Rob Edwards et al. of the football world.
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Help added 21:12 - May 22 I am a glass half full man, but even this ongoing continued speculation is beginning to wear me down.
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