| McKenna could potentially be one of our best ever managers 09:44 - Sep 7 with 4045 views | ChampionsofInnsbruck |
If he were to win promotion from the Championship over the next few years, and kept us in the Premier League, I mean that goes without saying but if we qualified for Europe again as well (I know, dreaming) would he unseat George Burley as our third best manager ever? I can't see why Ipswich cant at least do what say Brighton have done over the next decade if we're run well and managed correctly. I also think we should aspire to win either the League Cup or FA Cup again (I know ... more dreams), because clubs like Leicester, Pompey, Wigan, Swansea and Birmingham have all managed to win those in modern times and we're no worse a club than those.
Dare to dream? |  | | |  |
| McKenna could potentially be one of our best ever managers on 09:50 - Sep 7 with 2760 views | Moriarty |
"If"?
When. |  |
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| McKenna could potentially be one of our best ever managers on 09:54 - Sep 7 with 2756 views | OldFart71 |
I think McKenna will be a great manager, but unfortunately not with Town. No, I don't see him leaving for another two or three seasons but after that ? Therefore I don't see him as being number 3 in the list of Town greats as his biggest achievement will possibly be promotion to the Premier League. Sir Alf and Sir Bobby both won major trophies and Burley got Town to fifth in the Prem. |  | | |
| McKenna could potentially be one of our best ever managers on 09:56 - Sep 7 with 2746 views | WeirdFishes |
I think with McKenna in charge and an ownership group who have their head screwed on emulating Brighton and Brentford is possible.
My main worry is that we lose McKenna before then, if we don’t get promoted this season I don’t think he’ll be here for much longer. |  |
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| McKenna could potentially be one of our best ever managers on 09:56 - Sep 7 with 2748 views | ChampionsofInnsbruck |
| McKenna could potentially be one of our best ever managers on 09:50 - Sep 7 by Moriarty |
"If"?
When. |
Just out of interest, how do we rank our best ever managers?
1. Sir Alf Ramsay
2. Bobby Robson
3. George Burley
4. Bill McGarry
5. John Lyall
Honourable mentions: Joe Royle and dare I say it Mick McCarthy ..
Worst is easier..
1. Paul Hurst
2. Paul Cook
3. Paul Lambert
4. Paul Jewell
5. Roy Keane | | | |
| McKenna could potentially be one of our best ever managers on 10:02 - Sep 7 with 2721 views | ChampionsofInnsbruck |
| McKenna could potentially be one of our best ever managers on 09:54 - Sep 7 by OldFart71 |
I think McKenna will be a great manager, but unfortunately not with Town. No, I don't see him leaving for another two or three seasons but after that ? Therefore I don't see him as being number 3 in the list of Town greats as his biggest achievement will possibly be promotion to the Premier League. Sir Alf and Sir Bobby both won major trophies and Burley got Town to fifth in the Prem. |
The argument about losing McKenna is really down to a few things.
It seems as if McKenna has his head screwed on, and he could potentially earn more money over a longer period and achieve a lot more at Town then he could if he left for one of the mid-Premiership teams, just to be sacked within a year. The merry go round is brutal, some only get a couple of turns before they are cast off for good.
I think if Manchester United, Celtic or Ireland came calling, that would be a different conversation, but he really doesn't strike me as a guy who'd be looking from a short term financial perspective, he's a planner and he could have a legacy in the game if he sticks with Ipswich until that magic offer from the dream job came in. It worked for Sir Bobby Robson, in a different era mind, but he could have gone earlier and achieved a lot less in his career too. | | | |
| McKenna could potentially be one of our best ever managers on 10:07 - Sep 7 with 2693 views | nodge_blue |
He already is one of our best managers ever. I don’t think we need to judge him totally on whether we get to the PL. arguably that task is harder than ever.
I don’t know his win ratio, but it must be right up there. That coupled with our style of play. He has to be one of our best ever already.
Edit ….win ratio in the league is 58 percent. [Post edited 7 Sep 2023 10:09]
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| McKenna could potentially be one of our best ever managers on 10:07 - Sep 7 with 2685 views | blueasfook |
| McKenna could potentially be one of our best ever managers on 09:56 - Sep 7 by ChampionsofInnsbruck |
Just out of interest, how do we rank our best ever managers?
1. Sir Alf Ramsay
2. Bobby Robson
3. George Burley
4. Bill McGarry
5. John Lyall
Honourable mentions: Joe Royle and dare I say it Mick McCarthy ..
Worst is easier..
1. Paul Hurst
2. Paul Cook
3. Paul Lambert
4. Paul Jewell
5. Roy Keane |
All we have to do is not hire managers named Paul. |  |
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| McKenna could potentially be one of our best ever managers on 10:08 - Sep 7 with 2696 views | _clive_baker_ |
As we sit here today, on the face of it, he's got a big club with a big budget out of L1. It's not an easy thing to do, but talk of European football is premature.
The most impressive thing for me probably isn't what he's accomplished yet, but how he's done it. He's demonstrably improved just about every player under him, which is remarkable really. That's what you want from a manager, he's clearly a first class coach and the turnaround he's overseen with us is nothing short of brilliant. You only have to watch us play to see the levels he's got us operating at, some of our patterns of play are outstanding. It's been a continuous improvement since the day he came in and we seem to just get better and better. We'll lose more games this season but it won't be through a lack of effort, organisation, preparation or motivation.
I think he's destined to manage in the Premier league, with or without us, and he'll deserve it when it comes. He's the real deal. If as a manager you can improve your players and get them bought in to your vision you're on to a good thing, we just need to give him those players at a higher base and with a higher ceiling to keep improving. Even the greatest managers will need financial backing if we want to be one of the best 3 sides in the Championship over a sustained period of time.
We're lucky to have him, but I've always said he's lucky to have us too. There aren't many better projects and first steps into management in the country than the one he stepped into at Ipswich, all things considered. Big club, rich history, big fanbase, well backed for the level, a patient fanbase and owners, a lot of upside potential (which he's delivering) and minimal downside from the malaise we were in. |  | | |
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| McKenna could potentially be one of our best ever managers on 10:22 - Sep 7 with 2635 views | Darth_Koont |
| McKenna could potentially be one of our best ever managers on 09:56 - Sep 7 by ChampionsofInnsbruck |
Just out of interest, how do we rank our best ever managers?
1. Sir Alf Ramsay
2. Bobby Robson
3. George Burley
4. Bill McGarry
5. John Lyall
Honourable mentions: Joe Royle and dare I say it Mick McCarthy ..
Worst is easier..
1. Paul Hurst
2. Paul Cook
3. Paul Lambert
4. Paul Jewell
5. Roy Keane |
Bit of a tangent but The Order Of The Pauls is always interesting.
For me, there’s no way that Paul Cook is number 2 in that list. But I think Paul Jewell was our worst manager ever (even though a nice guy) — no manager has spent so much to leave us with a squad that was so unsustainably old, highly paid and headed for relegation.
Agree re: McKenna unfortunately. Getting us promoted to the Prem and semi-established is the realistic limit of our club and even for an outstanding manager. Beyond that, and we’re getting into miracle-worker territory or at least luck comes into play, so he’ll almost certainly need a different platform to develop and match his ambitions working with the very best players and challenging for trophies. We can still dream that’s with us, of course. |  |
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| McKenna could potentially be one of our best ever managers on 10:30 - Sep 7 with 2592 views | Churchman |
| McKenna could potentially be one of our best ever managers on 09:56 - Sep 7 by ChampionsofInnsbruck |
Just out of interest, how do we rank our best ever managers?
1. Sir Alf Ramsay
2. Bobby Robson
3. George Burley
4. Bill McGarry
5. John Lyall
Honourable mentions: Joe Royle and dare I say it Mick McCarthy ..
Worst is easier..
1. Paul Hurst
2. Paul Cook
3. Paul Lambert
4. Paul Jewell
5. Roy Keane |
Lyall was better than McGarry who left within months of the 68/69 season starting.
Too soon to put McKenna in any sort of top 5, but one day maybe.
Agree with the honourable mentions. Magilton did ok too. One person always overlooked is Scott Duncan who took the club into the football league, managed it for a long time, including coming out of the difficult war years. He even did a stint as Club Secretary when Ramsey took over as manager. A great man.
Bottom 5 is a bit of a no brainer, but Milburn runs them close and Duncan was poor too. [Post edited 7 Sep 2023 10:31]
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| McKenna could potentially be one of our best ever managers on 10:37 - Sep 7 with 2553 views | ArnieM |
Obviously I’m from a past era, definitely a “Robson Babe” , and whilst I love KMcK to death, and concur he’s the best manager we’ve had in a long, long while, I think he’s going to have to go some t9 better Sir Bobby Robson. Under him we were in Europe for 10 consecutive seasons, second only to the great Liverpool sides of the day. In those days to qualify for Europe you had to finish in the top of the top English league . Money in those days didn’t skew the game so much as it does now. You started the season genuinely asking, “I wonder who will be champions this season?” There we’re the wealthy clubs of course, Liverpool, Chelsea, Man Utd, Everton, but the transfer market was fairly even.
Under Robson , the year we won the UEFA cup he used something like 15 players or something ridiculously close to that number. The players played 69 games that season. We beat some of the biggest Clubs in Europe . Every single player ba4 Paul Cooper, was an International for his Country. And we competed with the likes of Man Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool in front of just 20 odd thousand each week at PR. We didn’t have the big gates we are getting now. We didn’t have huge away followings in those days. We were a small provincial club, sparing with the really big hitters. And we played a brand of football that was waaay ahead of the majority of that old Division One. Robson was way ahead of his time. And he should have won so much more at this Club than he did. The year Villa won the title we’d beaten them three times that season. They never got the credit for being champions tbh because everyone in football knew who the real deal was. It was us!
Times are different now I know, and sadly mine6 has killed the game we all love. It distorts it. It’s a very uneven playing field which is stacked heavily towards the big 5 . It’s almost impossible for smaller clubs to seriously challenge them now. So if McKenna does manage to win anything , he will have done a brilliant, brilliant job. I’m right behind him in his quest….. |  |
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| McKenna could potentially be one of our best ever managers on 10:44 - Sep 7 with 2494 views | nodge_blue |
| McKenna could potentially be one of our best ever managers on 09:56 - Sep 7 by ChampionsofInnsbruck |
Just out of interest, how do we rank our best ever managers?
1. Sir Alf Ramsay
2. Bobby Robson
3. George Burley
4. Bill McGarry
5. John Lyall
Honourable mentions: Joe Royle and dare I say it Mick McCarthy ..
Worst is easier..
1. Paul Hurst
2. Paul Cook
3. Paul Lambert
4. Paul Jewell
5. Roy Keane |
I think that's harsh on Paul Cook. He brought in a lot of good players. He clearly was rated by several who had previously played for him like Morsy. He just upset the apple cart so much that he never really got momentum going. | |
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| McKenna could potentially be one of our best ever managers on 10:45 - Sep 7 with 2493 views | BasingstokeBlue |
| McKenna could potentially be one of our best ever managers on 09:56 - Sep 7 by ChampionsofInnsbruck |
Just out of interest, how do we rank our best ever managers?
1. Sir Alf Ramsay
2. Bobby Robson
3. George Burley
4. Bill McGarry
5. John Lyall
Honourable mentions: Joe Royle and dare I say it Mick McCarthy ..
Worst is easier..
1. Paul Hurst
2. Paul Cook
3. Paul Lambert
4. Paul Jewell
5. Roy Keane |
Purely by win percentage, our managers (since joining the Football League in 1938) rank thus:
Kieran McKenna
Alf Ramsey
George Burley
John Duncan
Bobby Robson
Joe Royle
Bill McGarry
Scott Duncan
Jim Magilton
Bobby Ferguson
Mick McCarthy
Paul Jewell
Roy Keane
John Lyall
Paul Lambert
Paul Cook
Jackie Milburn
Paul Hirst |  |
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| McKenna could potentially be one of our best ever managers on 10:54 - Sep 7 with 2443 views | Ryorry |
| McKenna could potentially be one of our best ever managers on 09:56 - Sep 7 by ChampionsofInnsbruck |
Just out of interest, how do we rank our best ever managers?
1. Sir Alf Ramsay
2. Bobby Robson
3. George Burley
4. Bill McGarry
5. John Lyall
Honourable mentions: Joe Royle and dare I say it Mick McCarthy ..
Worst is easier..
1. Paul Hurst
2. Paul Cook
3. Paul Lambert
4. Paul Jewell
5. Roy Keane |
Roy Keane only 5th worst? I’d put him in 2nd worst just for his arrogant anger towards other personnel at the Club. He was a one-man masterclass in how not to treat others + terrible man-management. |  |
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| McKenna could potentially be one of our best ever managers on 10:57 - Sep 7 with 2422 views | HighgateBlue |
| McKenna could potentially be one of our best ever managers on 10:45 - Sep 7 by BasingstokeBlue |
Purely by win percentage, our managers (since joining the Football League in 1938) rank thus:
Kieran McKenna
Alf Ramsey
George Burley
John Duncan
Bobby Robson
Joe Royle
Bill McGarry
Scott Duncan
Jim Magilton
Bobby Ferguson
Mick McCarthy
Paul Jewell
Roy Keane
John Lyall
Paul Lambert
Paul Cook
Jackie Milburn
Paul Hirst |
I appreciate you are only being factual, but my my, John Duncan ahead of Sir Bob. That's a humorous stat!
Lyall below Keane and Jewell is also unfortunate, but one can more readily see why. |  | | |
| McKenna could potentially be one of our best ever managers on 11:00 - Sep 7 with 2389 views | Ryorry |
| McKenna could potentially be one of our best ever managers on 10:08 - Sep 7 by _clive_baker_ |
As we sit here today, on the face of it, he's got a big club with a big budget out of L1. It's not an easy thing to do, but talk of European football is premature.
The most impressive thing for me probably isn't what he's accomplished yet, but how he's done it. He's demonstrably improved just about every player under him, which is remarkable really. That's what you want from a manager, he's clearly a first class coach and the turnaround he's overseen with us is nothing short of brilliant. You only have to watch us play to see the levels he's got us operating at, some of our patterns of play are outstanding. It's been a continuous improvement since the day he came in and we seem to just get better and better. We'll lose more games this season but it won't be through a lack of effort, organisation, preparation or motivation.
I think he's destined to manage in the Premier league, with or without us, and he'll deserve it when it comes. He's the real deal. If as a manager you can improve your players and get them bought in to your vision you're on to a good thing, we just need to give him those players at a higher base and with a higher ceiling to keep improving. Even the greatest managers will need financial backing if we want to be one of the best 3 sides in the Championship over a sustained period of time.
We're lucky to have him, but I've always said he's lucky to have us too. There aren't many better projects and first steps into management in the country than the one he stepped into at Ipswich, all things considered. Big club, rich history, big fanbase, well backed for the level, a patient fanbase and owners, a lot of upside potential (which he's delivering) and minimal downside from the malaise we were in. |
We were made for each other, it was written in the stars. I think the KM->Mourhino->SBR connection is an under-estimated part in his coming here too. | |
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| McKenna could potentially be one of our best ever managers on 11:01 - Sep 7 with 2374 views | HighgateBlue |
| McKenna could potentially be one of our best ever managers on 10:44 - Sep 7 by nodge_blue |
I think that's harsh on Paul Cook. He brought in a lot of good players. He clearly was rated by several who had previously played for him like Morsy. He just upset the apple cart so much that he never really got momentum going. |
It's always a bit of a double edged sword to note that a previous manager brought in good players who are now doing well, because it might promote his abilities as a scout or wheeler dealer, but it doesn't say much about his abilities as a coach and/or tactician.
I think with Cook the main point is that we were a big team with a big budget for league one. The principal crude test of a manager in my view is whether he had us punching above or below our weight. And Cook definitely had us punching below our weight. He seemed like a nice chap, he brought in the likes of Morsy, for which we can be grateful for a long time. But I think he must be judged on his results, and they didn't cut the mustard. | | | |
| McKenna could potentially be one of our best ever managers on 11:10 - Sep 7 with 2346 views | ChampionsofInnsbruck |
| McKenna could potentially be one of our best ever managers on 10:22 - Sep 7 by Darth_Koont |
Bit of a tangent but The Order Of The Pauls is always interesting.
For me, there’s no way that Paul Cook is number 2 in that list. But I think Paul Jewell was our worst manager ever (even though a nice guy) — no manager has spent so much to leave us with a squad that was so unsustainably old, highly paid and headed for relegation.
Agree re: McKenna unfortunately. Getting us promoted to the Prem and semi-established is the realistic limit of our club and even for an outstanding manager. Beyond that, and we’re getting into miracle-worker territory or at least luck comes into play, so he’ll almost certainly need a different platform to develop and match his ambitions working with the very best players and challenging for trophies. We can still dream that’s with us, of course. |
Paul Hurst for me, should never been near this job.
The reason I rate Paul Cook worse than Lambert is, you can't say Cook wasn't backed. He got everything he wanted, and was funded very well, well enough to get out of League One. He appointed his mates as coaches, and tactically just all over the place. Lambert however, was working with an aging, demoralised squad, kids and anything scraped off the bottom of other clubs shoes. He didn't handle the job well, and had a meltdown near the end, but he took over the ship as it was already going under.
Paul Jewell I agree was a terrible manager and would have taken us down had he stayed on, the players he signed were frankly wasters and scumbags and the football made Mick's look Barca-esque by comparison. | | | |
| McKenna could potentially be one of our best ever managers on 11:14 - Sep 7 with 2328 views | ChampionsofInnsbruck |
| McKenna could potentially be one of our best ever managers on 10:54 - Sep 7 by Ryorry |
Roy Keane only 5th worst? I’d put him in 2nd worst just for his arrogant anger towards other personnel at the Club. He was a one-man masterclass in how not to treat others + terrible man-management. |
I did not rate Roy Keane, but he doesn't rank as bad as the others because we at least managed to get to a cup semi-final with him running things. The structure wasn't here for him to succeed at that time anyway, reading his book we were a total joke behind the scenes, missing out on players he wanted and then signing players for over the odds without even telling him. | | | |
| McKenna could potentially be one of our best ever managers on 11:22 - Sep 7 with 2294 views | Blueschev |
| McKenna could potentially be one of our best ever managers on 11:01 - Sep 7 by HighgateBlue |
It's always a bit of a double edged sword to note that a previous manager brought in good players who are now doing well, because it might promote his abilities as a scout or wheeler dealer, but it doesn't say much about his abilities as a coach and/or tactician.
I think with Cook the main point is that we were a big team with a big budget for league one. The principal crude test of a manager in my view is whether he had us punching above or below our weight. And Cook definitely had us punching below our weight. He seemed like a nice chap, he brought in the likes of Morsy, for which we can be grateful for a long time. But I think he must be judged on his results, and they didn't cut the mustard. |
I think the complete overhaul of the squad carried out by Cook was desperately needed, and it was always going to take time for the culture of mediocrity at the club to be shaken off. Mckenna was fortunate insomuch as that job had been done prior to his arrival, and he inherited a very talented squad for League One.
That doesn't detract from his achievements here so far though, he has us playing fantastic football, and as others have highlighted, improved seemingly every player in the squad. I believe we'll be a premier league club before he moves on from us. |  | | |
| McKenna could potentially be one of our best ever managers on 11:22 - Sep 7 with 2293 views | ibbleobble |
| McKenna could potentially be one of our best ever managers on 10:22 - Sep 7 by Darth_Koont |
Bit of a tangent but The Order Of The Pauls is always interesting.
For me, there’s no way that Paul Cook is number 2 in that list. But I think Paul Jewell was our worst manager ever (even though a nice guy) — no manager has spent so much to leave us with a squad that was so unsustainably old, highly paid and headed for relegation.
Agree re: McKenna unfortunately. Getting us promoted to the Prem and semi-established is the realistic limit of our club and even for an outstanding manager. Beyond that, and we’re getting into miracle-worker territory or at least luck comes into play, so he’ll almost certainly need a different platform to develop and match his ambitions working with the very best players and challenging for trophies. We can still dream that’s with us, of course. |
If MM gets praise for his recruitment as he should, then so should Cook given he signed half this Championship squad to give KM and Pert the tools they need. No way Cook should even be in the list of Paul’s despite his failures. Lambert and Jewell are shoe-ins for me. Lambert wins for being a manipulative c nut. | | | |
| McKenna could potentially be one of our best ever managers on 11:37 - Sep 7 with 2236 views | SlippinJimmyJuan |
Is it 19 full time managers in total? If so then my top 5 and bottom 5 probably looks like:
1. Robson
2. Ramsey
3. Burley
4. McKenna
5. Lyall
--------------------
15. Cook
16. Lambert
17. Keane
18. Hurst
19. Jewell
Not much point in me doing the mid pack as have no idea what it was like under some of them. | |
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| McKenna could potentially be one of our best ever managers on 11:41 - Sep 7 with 2217 views | Blueschev |
| McKenna could potentially be one of our best ever managers on 11:22 - Sep 7 by ibbleobble |
If MM gets praise for his recruitment as he should, then so should Cook given he signed half this Championship squad to give KM and Pert the tools they need. No way Cook should even be in the list of Paul’s despite his failures. Lambert and Jewell are shoe-ins for me. Lambert wins for being a manipulative c nut. |
I think Lambert is the worst of the Pauls. His tenure has zero redeeming features. A pathetic "attempt" to avoid relegation. Terrible football, terrible recruitment, zero plan, arrogance beyond belief, and a club at the lowest point in it's existence. The way our fan base largely tolerated it was nee normal. | | | |
| McKenna could potentially be one of our best ever managers on 11:42 - Sep 7 with 2211 views | Lion |
| McKenna could potentially be one of our best ever managers on 09:56 - Sep 7 by ChampionsofInnsbruck |
Just out of interest, how do we rank our best ever managers?
1. Sir Alf Ramsay
2. Bobby Robson
3. George Burley
4. Bill McGarry
5. John Lyall
Honourable mentions: Joe Royle and dare I say it Mick McCarthy ..
Worst is easier..
1. Paul Hurst
2. Paul Cook
3. Paul Lambert
4. Paul Jewell
5. Roy Keane |
That is such a hard question to answer! I know what Sir Alf done was incredible, but I can't have him above Bobby, look at his longevity..
1. Sir Bobby
2. Sir Alf
3 George Burley
4. John Lyall
5 is tough, i would have to go with Joe Royle
If KM does incredibly well and stays with us, he could get to number 3 and if he ever can get the level of success to get in the top two, well..... he would truly be a God. | |
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| McKenna could potentially be one of our best ever managers on 11:50 - Sep 7 with 2182 views | Lion |
| McKenna could potentially be one of our best ever managers on 11:42 - Sep 7 by Lion |
That is such a hard question to answer! I know what Sir Alf done was incredible, but I can't have him above Bobby, look at his longevity..
1. Sir Bobby
2. Sir Alf
3 George Burley
4. John Lyall
5 is tough, i would have to go with Joe Royle
If KM does incredibly well and stays with us, he could get to number 3 and if he ever can get the level of success to get in the top two, well..... he would truly be a God. |
Oh and worst ever, without a doubt has to be Paul Hurst, surely. He should never have even got an interview, im so glad the dark days are over and we have our club back! | |
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