In an entirely predictable turn of events, Football 365 last night reported the worrying news that Keiran McKenna is going to accept the Manchester United job and rejects offers from Chelsea and Brighton.
United are his “number one preference,” and the 38 year old is going to head back to the club where he was U18 manager just a few years ago, before a meteoric rise with Ipswich. It’s a big let-down for the sporting directors, who seem as the coach who ticks all their boxes.
Chelsea have the advantage of having already sacked their coach, but that won’t last long – reports today across the papers leaked the news that Erik Ten Hag would be sacked after this weekend’s FA Cup final, regardless of the result.
A top option off the board
You can think what you like about the sacking of Mauricio Pochettino, it’s happened now and the next manager is the new focus. McKenna was quite clearly among the owners’ top choices, if not number one. So losing him to Man U is not good news – although it could easily have been predicted.
McKenna is a United fan after all, and while the Red Devils are in something of a state at the moment – so we are. At least their new ownership has yet to prove itself to be as chaotic as ours has already shown itself to be.
The board of FC Bayern is convinced:
❇️ Thomas Tuchel let the negotiations for a new contract in Munich collapse because he already has the job at Manchester United secured pic.twitter.com/hIVaEMSdaQ— Christian Falk (@cfbayern) May 24, 2024
In order to make the former United coach turn down his old team we were going to have to present a pretty massive upside to him. Right now it’s more of a toss up.
There is still some hope though – reports in Europe are saying that United want Thomas Tuchel. That might yet leave McKenna for us – although that then opens up the much broader question of whether he’s a good choice.