Wednesday,
Manchester United are the latest club reported to be showing interest in Blues boss Kieran McKenna
McKenna’s success with Town has not gone unnoticed elsewhere and the Northern Irishman, who turned 38 yesterday, is understood to have been spoken to by Crystal Palace before they appointed Oliver Glasner their new manager in February. West Ham and Brighton have also previously been linked.
Now, according to French website Foot Mercato, McKenna’s former club Manchester United have made contact with his representatives as they assess possible candidates to replace Erik ten Hag this summer with a number of national newspapers following the story up.
England boss Gareth Southgate, with whom McKenna watched the Aston Villa-Liverpool match on Monday along with his Australian-born agent Frank Trimboli, has been widely tipped to take over at Old Trafford, but United are still looking at other options with the Town manager said to be among them.
McKenna joined Town in December 2021 from the Red Devils where he had been a member of the first-team coaching staff under Jose Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ralf Rangnick having initially been recruited from Spurs as U18s coach in August 2016.
Asked about potential interest from other clubs and whether his job at Town isn’t done for him yet following the 2-0 victory over Huddersfield which secured the Blues’ promotion to the Premier League earlier this month, McKenna said: “No, I love it here, it’s a fantastic club, I’m so proud to be the manager of this football club and I’ve worked so hard at it every day, so I give so much of myself and [so have] the people around me for the last couple of years. I’m just so focused on enjoying that journey.
“That sort of speculation’s been there for the last two years, to be honest, and I’ve shown loyalty to the club through that and I’m really pleased that I’ve stuck with it and achieved what we’ve achieved. There’s some big and exciting steps to come for the football club.”
