Ipswich Town Considers Solskjaer as McKenna's Successor

Ipswich Town’s fairytale rise has hit its first jolt of turbulence. Kieran McKenna, the architect of back-to-back promotions, has walked away just weeks before leading the club back into the Premier League. Now the board are weighing a bold, headline-grabbing response: turning to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

According to BBC reports, Ipswich are considering the former Manchester United manager as they plot life in the top flight. Solskjaer has been out of the limelight since leaving Besiktas last summer, but those close to him suggest he is eager for a fresh challenge in England, a chance to reshape his managerial story away from Old Trafford’s harsh glare.

The connection to Ipswich is more than convenient. It is personal.

From Old Trafford to Portman Road?

McKenna, who confirmed his departure after steering Ipswich from League One back to the Premier League, served as Solskjaer’s assistant at Manchester United. The pair worked closely during a three-year spell that included United’s second-place finish in the 2020–21 season. Any move for Solskjaer would feel like a continuation of that lineage: the mentor stepping into the space vacated by his former assistant.

For Ipswich supporters, still basking in the glow of promotion, the vacancy at Portman Road cuts deep. McKenna was supposed to lead them into the top division, not leave them staring at a summer of uncertainty. At 40, and with his reputation soaring, he chose instead to step down.

Although he had been heavily linked with the Fulham job, McKenna has been clear that his decision is rooted in the need to recharge after an exhausting, transformative spell.

“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 said in his farewell statement.

Few could argue with the scale of his impact: he dragged Ipswich from the depths of League One back to the “promised land” of the Premier League.

That progress now needs a guardian.

Solskjaer… or O’Neil?

Solskjaer’s name naturally dominates the conversation. This would be his first job in English football since leaving United in 2021. After a spell out of the game, he briefly resurfaced in Turkey with Besiktas, but slipped quickly back into the shadows. At one point last season he was even discussed internally as a possible short-term option for a return to Old Trafford, only for the club to go with Michael Carrick as they sought a different path.

Ipswich offers something very different: a club on the rise, a fanbase re-energised, expectations high but not yet suffocating. It is a stage on which Solskjaer could prove he is more than a caretaker of chaos at a superclub.

He is not, though, the only name on the list.

Gary O’Neil, currently in charge at Strasbourg, is also under serious consideration. His reputation in England has grown sharply thanks to impressive spells at Bournemouth and Wolves, where he showed he could organise, galvanise and keep teams competitive in difficult circumstances.

There is another thread tying him to Suffolk. O’Neil already has a working relationship with Ipswich chief executive Mark Ashton from their time together at Bristol City. That familiarity matters when a club is trying to protect momentum rather than rip everything up and start again.

Strasbourg are keen to keep him. He only arrived in January and has barely had time to put down roots. But the pull of a Premier League return, especially at a club riding the crest of a wave like Ipswich, is powerful. Every coach understands how rare it is to walk into a newly promoted side that already knows how to win.

Protecting the momentum

Under McKenna, Ipswich became the first team since Southampton in 2012 to secure consecutive promotions from the third tier to the Premier League. That statistic alone underlines the scale of what the new manager will inherit.

This is not a rescue job. It is a continuation project.

The squad is used to pressure. Used to must-win games. Used to defying predictions. The hierarchy at Portman Road know they cannot afford a misstep now. Appoint the wrong manager and the club’s hard-earned momentum can evaporate in a single winter.

That is why they are thinking big.

Solskjaer brings global recognition, Premier League experience and a history of working with younger players. O’Neil offers tactical clarity, recent survival know-how and an existing rapport with the chief executive. Two very different profiles, one shared brief: keep Ipswich competitive in the Premier League without losing the identity McKenna built.

The decision will shape not just a season, but potentially the next phase of the club’s modern history. Ipswich have fought too hard to get back to the top to drift now. Who they hand the keys to next will tell everyone exactly how ambitious they really are.