Ipswich Town set price for Kieran McKenna amid Crystal Palace speculation
The former Manchester United manager would cost a potential new club up to £4m to leave Portman Road, according to Alan Nixon
Ipswich have been a standout team in the Championship so far this season, with their form putting them in the automatic promotion queue.
This follows the club’s promotion to the second tier of League One in May
McKenna guided the team to a second-place finish last season, returning Ipswich to the Second Division after a four-year absence.
It was previously reported that Premier League side Crystal Palace had put McKenna on their shortlist of potential new managers
While Roy Hodgson is doing well at the London club, the Eagles are preparing for some time after the 76-year-old is likely to retire soon.
However, Palace may not be the only club interested in signing McKenna in the near future.
While no other team has emerged as a potential next destination, the team’s incredible form in the Championship will certainly attract attention.
In this case, the Ipswich hierarchy saw it coming and paid a heavy price on their heads.
Interested parties would have to pay up to £4m to convince the Suffolk side to let the 37-year-old leave Portman Road, if he so wishes.
Otherwise, Ipswich would not have parted ways with one of their main assets so easily.
The record fee paid to sign a coach was when Bayern Munich paid over £20 million to sign Julien Nagelsmann from RB Leipzig.
Chelsea paid a similar fee for Brighton’s Graham Potter, but £4m is still a significant figure for a coach working in the Championship.
McKenna will soon celebrate two years with Ipswich after joining the club in December 2021.
He previously coached at Man United, first in the youth team and then in the teams of Jose Mourinho and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
McKenna worked alongside Middlesbrough manager Michael Carrick before both men became head coaches in their own right.
Ipswich is currently second in the rankings, just two points behind leaders Leicester City and eight points ahead of third place Preston North End.
McKenna has played a key role in making Ipswich a promotion challenger this season, so his departure will be a big loss.
A fee of £4 million won’t make the difference between promotion and staying in the Championship.
But it would allow the club to spend money to find a replacement for him, which could also help.
There are only a handful of other managers Ipswich could recruit who could continue to lead the club forward in the race for automatic promotion to the Premier League, so it would be a huge loss if he left the club.