Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna resigns weeks before start of Premier League season
A soon-to-be Premier League manager has stepped down from the top job just weeks before the start of the season to "take a break ... and dedicate time to my family".
Kieran McKenna has guided Ipswich Town to three promotion campaigns in just four years, with the latest seeing the Blues bounce back to the top flight at the first attempt as they finished second in the Championship behind champions Coventry City.
In a statement, the club said: "Kieran has made the decision to take time away from football management having been at the forefront of one of the most successful eras in Ipswich Town history.
Kieran McKenna will leave a lasting legacy at Ipswich Town, as Andy Ward explains
"Kieran’s fierce dedication and unmatched work ethic represents all the club stands for and he departs with the best wishes and gratitude of all at Ipswich Town for a contribution that has created memories which will last a lifetime. "
Just last month McKenna joined players and thousands of fans as they turned Ipswich blue during a bus parade through the town to celebrate their latest promotion.
In recent weeks, he has been linked with a possible move to fellow Premier League side Fulham, but the 40-year said he was not resigning to take up a new post.
Kieran McKenna said: “It is with a mixture of gratitude, pride, sadness and contentment that I have decided to step down from the honour of managing this historic football club.
“When you have the connection that we have built at this club there is never a good time to say goodbye. However, having achieved a second promotion to the Premier League last season, with another memorable final day in our stadium, and after reflection over the last couple of weeks, I feel this is the right time for me to step aside. I do so with great pride at the incredible progress we have made and with huge hope and optimism for the future of the club.
“To manage this club has been an absolute privilege. Over the last five seasons we have been on an incredible journey that has brought so many of the best experiences in my professional and personal life.
“After giving so much to the role over the previous five seasons, I now look forward to taking a break from management and dedicating some time to my family, who have been with me every step of my career so far."
McKenna won 105 of his 222 games in charge of the Tractor Boys, with the club scoring more than 400 goals under his management.
Club chairman Mark Ashton described McKenna’s achievements with Ipswich as “simply incredible”.
“Achieving three promotions in four seasons, in what is your first role as a manager, is an achievement which means Kieran is now rightly discussed in the same breath as the legends of this club,” he said in a statement.
“The mark he, his staff and his players have made on Ipswich Town and its community will live forever. It has captured a generation. “Like so many, I am of course gutted that our journey together has come to an end, but I understand and respect the decision he has made after five incredibly intense years.
“Kieran will be greatly missed but he and his family leave us with our immense gratitude for all he has done. He will always be welcome at Portman Road.”
Kieran McKenna will go down as one of the greatest Ipswich Town managers, says editor of fan site.
Phil Ham, a fan and the editor of TWTD, a website dedicated to the team, told ITV News Anglia: "I think there's a great deal of disappointment and sadness that he's moved on, and appreciation for the job that he's done because really when he came in in December 2021, we couldn't have imagined that we'd have had the four and a half years that we've had. "Fans will look back very fondly on the McKenna era, as they would look back on the George Burley years, the Bobby Robson years and the Sir Alf Ramsey years."
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