Ipswich and a managerial punt that has almost got them back in the big time
Scenes in the away end at Coventry as Ipswich move to within a point of a return to the Premier League. Photograph: Ryan Browne/Shutterstock
(PORTMAN) ROAD TO THE PROMISED LAND
The last time Ipswich Town played in the Premier League, they lost 5-0 against Liverpool, with Nicolas Anelka and Michael Owen among the goals. Holly Valance was top of the UK charts with her debut single Kiss Kiss and current Ipswich manager Kieran McKenna was 16 years old, an age when it was not uncommon for teenage boys in his native Fermanagh and beyond to take a furtive but keen interest in the Kylie-lite Bhangra-pop stylings of the artist formerly known as Flick from Neighbours. A lot has happened in the intervening 22 years, not least Holly’s emergence as a card-carrying right winger and Kieran’s decidedly more heartwarming evolution into one of the most talented young managers in the United Kingdom.
Appointed by Ipswich in December 2021 after leaving his position as chief cone putter-outer for José Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjær and that German fella with the glasses at Manchester United, McKenna took charge of a team that was stuck in the middle of League One and had just been knocked out of the FA Cup, a competition they won in 1978 under the legendary Sir Bobby Robson, by even lowlier Barrow. It was quite the fall from grace for the former league and Big Vase winners, who slid ignominiously into the third tier shortly after Mick McCarthy surfed out of Portman Road on a tidal wave of ill will three-and-a-half years previously.
The appointment of McKenna, a young man with a boyband haircut and no managerial experience whatsoever, was quite the calculated punt by Ipswich chief suit Mark Ashton, a man whose LinkedIn claim to have “exceptionally high standards of delivery” would make him sound like a particularly enthusiastic postman or Amazon driver if he hadn’t hit the jackpot with his first, tremendously astute managerial appointment. Having secured a return to the Championship last season, now Ipswich stand on the cusp of the Premier League with back-to-back promotions, a feat achieved only three times previously, by Watford, Southampton and their Old Farm derby rivals from 46 miles down the lane, Norwich City. Following their Tuesday night victory over Coventry, Ipswich need to take just one point from their final game and could scarcely have handpicked a more suitable one in which to get it.
On Saturday, they host a dire Huddersfield Town side that are relegated in all but maths and won’t exactly be roared on towards beating Ipswich by their fans, as to do so would greatly enhance the automatic promotion prospects of bitter Yorkshire rivals Leeds, the only team who can overtake the Tractor Boys in the race for second place in the Championship. Far be it from Football Daily to question the professionalism of Huddersfield’s players, but with their fate already sealed one suspects that rather than go down swinging haymakers, the Terriers may prefer to do so while cocking a collective hind leg in the direction of Elland Road. “I always say to the players: ‘It is not about the destination, it is about the journey,” riddled McKenna on Tuesday. “We have put ourselves in a pretty good position. It’s in our hands.” Three points clear of Leeds but with a significantly inferior goal difference? Check. Playing at home against Championship cannon fodder? Check. And with automatic promotion looking a formality? Check. Surely nothing – and Football Daily means nothing – can go wrong for Ipswich now.
LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE
Join Scott Murray from 8pm BST for hot minute-by-minute Big Cup semi-final, first-leg coverage of Borussia Dortmund 2-2 PSG and before that, at 7pm, Michael Butler will be on hand for Liverpool 0-2 Chelsea in the WSL.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“The whole town could come to a game” – Wrexham owners Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds are not getting ahead of themselves, nope, as they announce plans to expand the capacity of the Racecourse Ground to somewhere between 45,000-55,000, which means there really would be a seat for every one of the 44,785 people who live in the Welsh city.
FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS
Oh joy, oh dizzy rapture. Southampton’s forward line of 2014 gets a mention! As usual, you’re taking the [snip – Bad Word Ed] but what the hell do we care. Surely, this was the only team who had an 8-0 trollocking captured in Lego? Streets won’t forget!” – Joe Lowry.
Did you guys give the letter o’ the day prize for Tuesday’s edition to Pete Welsh because you didn’t really feel like reading the whole thing? Reminds me of my in-law who doesn’t really feel like reading dense literature, therefore referring to all of them as ‘his favourite classic’. Just saying …” – Karen Asad.
Send letters to [email protected]. Today’s winner of our prizeless letter o’ the day is … Joe Lowry.
RECOMMENDED LISTENING
Join Max Rushden, Barry Glendenning and the rest of the Football Weekly pod squad as they chew over the first Big Cup semi-final, Ipswich’s big step towards a Premier League return and, erm, Mr Blobby.
RECOMMENDED LOOKING
To celebrate two decades of images captured by its team of photographers – Simon Gill, Colin McPherson and Paul Thompson – the independent, and self-proclaimed half decent football magazine, When Saturday Comes, has published a photobook entitled At The Match. The photography captures the jubilation and despair of the ritual of attending games in the UK and Ireland. Here’s a choice selection of images from it. We’ll have a copy of the book to give away in Friday’s email.
NEWS, BITS AND BOBS
Former Tottenham and Wales winger Terry Medwin has died at the age of 91.
Medwin won 30 caps for Wales and was part of Spurs’ 1960-61 double-winning side and victorious 1962 FA Cup team.
Four Premier League-era players and the family of Joe Kinnear are part of the legal action against football authorities over brain injuries sustained from playing the game.
Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti explained why Jude Bellingham wasn’t his usual dynamic self in the 2-2 Big Cup draw at Bayern. “Tired”, he yawned. “He will get back to his best. I think he was [knacked], which affected him, but today he wasn’t at his best.”
Twenty-seven clubs have called for FA Cup replays to be preserved in a letter to the culture secretary, Lucy Frazer. The clubs have signed up to a call from the campaign body Fair Game for an amendment to the Football Governance Bill. “The Premier League’s influence in this decision is yet another example of football’s growing divide that has seen the gaps between and within divisions grow at all levels,” said the letter.
In other fan activism news, the FSA has vowed to fight hard if the Premier League’s “Game 39” nonsense is revived. “We defeated Game 39 in 2008 and we’d attack any attempted revival with a full-blown, two feet off the ground, studs to the knee tackle,” roared an FSA statement.
Emma Hayes reckons Chelsea only have a “small chance” of retaining their WSL title despite having two games in hand on leaders Manchester City. “We are not in the driving seat, we don’t have the goal difference, we have to catch up,” she said before the match at Liverpool.
Because we just haven’t discussed this enough, Howard Webb has admitted that VAR should have intervened to award Nottingham Forest a penalty at Everton during the Great Luton Conspiracy. “We would have preferred an intervention on this situation for the referee to go to the screen to make a judgment for himself,” tooted Webb.
And the Manchester United suit clearout continues with interim CEO Patrick Stewart and chief financial officer Cliff Baty shuffling themselves through the door marked Do One at the end of the season.
PIQUÈ VISION
“We have Neymar owning a team from Brazil, we have Francesco Totti with an Italian team. Eden Hazard will play for a Belgian team. The idea is this World Cup will be very disruptive and for two weeks – before the Euros – there is no other football, so everyone will want to watch” – Gerard Piqué, the man who brought us the Balloon World Cup, announces summer plans for an international version of his Kings League tournament, where influencers (oh dear) play alongside former footballers and cards can be played to activate particular events in matches and pretty much anything goes. Here’s a flavour: goals count double at certain points in a match; teams can pick which opposing player is withdrawn to the sin-bin; penalty cards can be played to, erm, get a penalty; shootout cards can be played to activate one-on-ones with the opposing goalkeeper; there will be star player armbands – yup, no captain here; wildcards can be played to steal opponents’ cards (?!!). Let’s hope Fifa doesn’t get any ideas.
STILL WANT MORE?
Xabi Alonso was moulded by the greats and Leverkusen reflect his education, writes our World Cup-winning colleague Philipp Lahm.
Here’s Sid Lowe on Toni Kroos, Real Madrid’s enduring pass master.
The Everton crisis explained: how did it get to this point? By Simon Goodley.
Julia Ranney on how the NWSL became the most innovative league in the world.
“When it was game over, it was difficult to accept”: Robert Pires on finding life after football.
And what is the biggest cumulative football attendance for a cup tie? The Knowledge knows.
MEMORY LANE
Striker Gary Birtles is unveiled at Manchester United in 1980. We’re not sure why he is trying out the club’s lawn mower at Old Trafford and, in any case, our eyes are more drawn to his spectacularly bright red shoes.