Ipswich Town Turns to Solskjaer as McKenna Departs
Ipswich Town’s return to the Premier League was meant to be the start of a long journey under Kieran McKenna. Instead, it has opened with a jolt – and the prospect of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer stepping back into English football on one of its most intriguing touchlines.
According to BBC reports, Ipswich are weighing up a bold move for the former Manchester United manager as they prepare for life back in the top flight. Solskjaer has been out of the game since leaving Besiktas last summer, quietly waiting, watching, and – by all accounts – itching for the right challenge in England.
This one carries a certain symmetry. And a sting.
McKenna, the architect of Ipswich’s stunning rise from League One to the Premier League, has confirmed his departure just weeks after sealing promotion. The 40-year-old, who served as Solskjaer’s assistant at Old Trafford, has walked away at the very moment the club he rebuilt steps back into the spotlight.
The lineage is striking: the mentor potentially following the protégé, the apprentice leaving a project that now tempts his former boss.
Solskjaer is, of course, the headline name. Three years at Manchester United, a second-place finish in the Premier League in 2020–21, and the constant glare of Old Trafford scrutiny have ensured that. Ipswich would hand him something very different: a club on the rise, a fanbase reawakened, and a stage where every decision is not instantly dragged into a global storm.
But he is not the only name in the frame.
Gary O’Neil, currently in charge at Strasbourg, is also under serious consideration by the Ipswich hierarchy. His stock has risen sharply after impressive spells at Bournemouth and Wolves, where he built a reputation as a sharp, modern coach who can steady chaos and squeeze more out of less.
There is another thread tying him to Portman Road. O’Neil already has a working relationship with Ipswich chief executive Mark Ashton from their time together at Bristol City. That familiarity counts when a club is trying to move quickly without losing its identity.
Strasbourg, for their part, are understood to be keen to keep him. O’Neil only arrived in January, and prising him away would be no formality. Yet the pull of a Premier League dugout is powerful, and the chance to lead a newly promoted side with real momentum is the kind of offer that tests even the firmest commitments.
That momentum is precisely what Ipswich’s decision-makers are desperate to protect. Under McKenna, the club became the first side since Southampton in 2012 to climb from the third tier to the Premier League with back-to-back promotions. Portman Road, once subdued and anxious, has been roaring again.
Which is why this vacancy cuts so deep.
For supporters, McKenna’s exit is a gut punch. Many had imagined him leading Ipswich out on the opening day of the Premier League season, the culmination of a journey that began in the depths of League One. Instead, they are left processing the loss of the man who dragged the club out of obscurity and back into the “promised land” of the top division.
McKenna has been heavily linked with other roles, including Fulham, but he has been clear about his reasons for stepping away. In his departing statement, he said: “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.”
He leaves behind not just a promotion-winning team, but a transformed environment. Ipswich are no longer a sleeping giant; they are a live threat.
For Solskjaer, if Ipswich make their move, this would be a chance to reshape his managerial story. Since leaving Manchester United in 2021, he has taken a break, had a brief spell in Turkey, and watched as his name occasionally resurfaced around Old Trafford. At one stage last season, he was reportedly considered for a return, only for the club to choose Michael Carrick as they sought a different direction.
Ipswich offers a different kind of scrutiny. Still intense, still unforgiving, but rooted in a club culture that has been rebuilt from the ground up rather than one burdened by a decade of expectation and disappointment.
O’Neil, too, would find a very different challenge to his previous Premier League roles. This would not be a firefighting mission or a survival scramble from day one, but an attempt to harness and extend a surge of belief already coursing through the squad.
Whoever steps in inherits a group that knows how to handle pressure. These players have already come through two promotion races, handled must-win games, and delivered when the stakes were highest. They are battle-tested, but unproven at this level. The right manager could turn that combination into something dangerous.
The wrong one could see it all unravel.
Ipswich now stand at a crossroads that few newly promoted clubs face. They have momentum, a modern structure, and a fanbase that believes again – but they have lost the man who stitched it all together. Solskjaer or O’Neil would arrive not to start a revolution, but to keep one rolling.
The question is simple, and brutal: who do Ipswich trust with the keys to the project that has already defied gravity twice?
