Ipswich Town stars fear manager Kieran McKenna may leave for rivals despite second promotion to the Premier League

Ipswich Town players are concerned Kieran McKenna may be poached by a Premier League rival after leading them back to the top flight.

Following relegation last season, the Tractor Boys secured an immediate return from the Championship under McKenna, who has now won three promotions with the club.

McKenna is under contract until June 2028 and any club who wanted to hire him would have to pay significant compensation. Yet he retains a strong reputation in the game.

The 39-year-old was on the shortlist for the Chelsea job when Enzo Maresca was hired in summer 2024 and he also attracted interest from Brighton. Crystal Palace are seeking a new manager this summer and McKenna is known to have admirers at Selhurst Park.

McKenna has shown no wish to leave Ipswich but promoted managers face a similar struggle: how to make a team competitive in the top flight while also ensuring the club is financially stable. 

In 2024-25, Ipswich spent more than £130million but gathered only 22 points from 38 games. They then made profit of about £26million on transfers last summer after selling Omari Hutchinson to Nottingham Forest and Liam Delap to Chelsea.

After sealing his third promotion in four seasons with the club with a 3-0 win over QPR last Saturday, McKenna said: ‘It means a lot. It’s probably been the hardest one, if I’m honest. It’s brilliant. I know how hard we’ve had to work to turn it around. As a club we had such a climb and a steep fall. We’ve had to rebuild this team under difficult circumstances and we deserve to be where we are.

‘It was special to do it back-to-back with basically the same group of players, I don’t think it will ever be repeated again with the way finances are going. 

‘This one has been a big challenge. I know how hard we have had to work for it and that it could have gone in completely different direction so I’m proud we kept it together and get it over the line.’