Town chairman and CEO Mark Ashton says the club will move swiftly to appoint a new manager, Kieran McKenna having stepped down after a hugely successful four-and-a-half-year spell yesterday.

Ashton brought McKenna to the club in December 2021 and paid tribute to the first Blues boss to win three promotions and the first to win two to the top flight, not just for his work on the field but also off it.

Turning to the job of replacing the Northern Irishman, Ashton says the club will aim to work quickly to identify and appoint the new man.

“We have to move forward at pace and, let’s be really clear, that will happen at pace,” he told TownTV.

“We have a season to prepare for, we need to appoint a new manager and we will need to move into the football player market as regards players coming in and players going out. So we need to move swiftly.”

It’s understood the Blues will look to make the appointment within a fortnight, perhaps as soon as next week.

Quizzed on the timeframe, Ashton added: “Imminent, but it will be thorough. The process will probably be very similar to the process that we ran when we recruited and appointed Kieran.

“It’ll be very detailed, it’ll be very thorough, but we do need to move swiftly and fans need to be assured that we’re on top of this and we will make the right decision for this football club as soon as we can.”

Asked for his message to fans, he added: “We’ve built this club over five years on consistency, trying to do the right thing all of the time.

“Kieran’s been a major part in that and whilst there will be sadness, a wise man once said to me, ’don’t be sad, celebrate the fact that it happened’.

“And I think we need to celebrate the fact that Kieran McKenna came to us as an unknown manager, untested and proven, and it’s been a pleasure and delight to see him grow into a Premier League manager.

“And it’s right, it’s his time, he’s earned the right to move on in the way he wants to move on, but this club has to move forward.

“And I’ve said this time and time again, we are so much more effective, so much more powerful as a football club when we move together as one.

“So, whilst people will be upset and will be worried and will be nervous, we’ll do the right thing by the football club, we’ll make the best appointment we can and if we move together as one, we’ll attack the Premier League.”

Cardiff City boss Brian Barry-Murphy has been one of two big movers in the betting over the course of the day with the 47-year-old Irishman priced as low as 4/1 by some bookies.

The former midfielder saw the Bluebirds to promotion to the Championship last season following spells in charge of Rochdale and Manchester City’s development squad.

Norwegian Kjetil Knutsen, boss of Champions League overachievers Bodo/Glimt, has also come into the reckoning with some bookmakers listing him as low as 3/1.

However, the 57-year-old, who has never managed outside Norway, has appeared to suggest he will stay with his current club having been linked with Celtic this summer.

Former Wolves and Bournemouth boss Gary O’Neil remains an odds-on favourite at 8/13 with one of his Molineux successors, Rob Edwards, who was sacked by the relegated Midlanders earlier today, priced at 6/1.

Edwards may well come into Ashton’s thoughts having been on the list of potential replacements for McKenna when there was speculation regarding his future in the summer of 2024, as was England assistant coach Anthony Barry.

Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s odds have come in with the former Manchester United manager at 4/1, with one-time Blues loanee Liam Rosenior at 5/1.

Photo: TWTD