Townsend pundit, on McKenna & Town

[hallamblue]

I think he's pretty much hitting the nail on the head here.....


Ex-Premier League star turned pundit Andy Townsend says he thinks Kieran McKenna should stay at Ipswich Town even if the club are relegated.

The Blues would have to pull off a great escape to survive in the top tier now, sitting nine points behind Wolves - effectively ten due to goal difference - with just nine games left.

Having led the Blues to back-to-back promotions McKenna was a wanted man last summer, being linked to the top jobs at Chelsea, Brighton and Manchester United, before signing a new deal.

And Townsend says he'll be in demand again even if Town are relegated this summer - but he'd advise him to stay in Suffolk.


Andy Townsend thought Town would stay up at the start of the season - but now believes they're doomed

"It'll be interesting to see what happens with Kieran McKenna because I thought they'd survive".

"At the start of season I said I fancied Ipswich to do it. And I really did.

"It's only now, and we're talking March, that I think they've run out of gas and I don't think they're gonna be able to cope now and survive. I don't think you can switch it on.

"It has happened before when Leicester did it with Nigel Pearson, but it was back in December, January when they really started to get it going from an almost impossible position. I think it's just too late now.

"They're going to have to go on a top four run to get out of it now and I just don't see that.

"Does Kieran stay? I think there'll be one or two that would probably take him.

"If I was him, unless it's a top seven or top eight club that comes in for him - and I can't see the vacancy in that sort of area right from the here and now - I would stay where he is.

"I think he gets them back up. But obviously he would then be making everyone at Ipswich very aware that he doesn't want to be doing this every five minutes, if he sees himself better than that, he sees himself as having bit more than that and the club have got to up the ante a little bit in order for him to stay."


Townsend also spoke of the need for newly-promoted teams to adapt in the Premier League, with last season's promoted sides heading for an immediate return to the Championship for a second straight campaign.

"Too many teams get promoted into the Premier League and try and play the beautiful game, try and play their way through the lines, try and show the rest of the footballing world how potentially good they can be.

"Go back to Leeds United under Marcelo Bielsa. When they got promoted, they were a hard running, aggressive running team, and I remember watching them and watching all the analysis about how many men they got in the box, how many times they crossed it, how many last third entries they had, all the important numbers.

"The numbers are rolling around at the back and across the back and the goalkeeper playing it out, I always consider them as less relevant numbers.

"You'll have people, statisticians in the game that would totally disagree with me, that's fine.

"But I think too many newly promoted teams now are trying to show the rest of the world how good they can be.


The Blues need a superb finish to save themselves.....

"Coaches like to protect their reputation far more today than they ever did years ago and they don't adapt quick enough and they don't adjust.

"For any of the teams coming up next season, whether it's Leeds, Sheffield United, or whoever it's gonna be, those teams need to come up and they need to stick to some principles that they have - but when the s*** hits the fan, they've got to be able to adjust.

"They've got to be able to change a dynamic in what we're all seeing, Southampton and Leicester and right now Ipswich, they're not doing that.

"They don't disrupt the opposition enough. They don't make life difficult for the opposition. They make life difficult for themselves. They're playing without confidence. They're losing matches.

"They concede the ball on their own third, 30 yards from their own goal far too much and they don't disrupt opponents at the top of the field like that Bielsa team did with Leeds back in the day.

"Teams have got to do that far more. When they get promoted, they don't walk in with a squad full of unbelievable world-class Premier League players.

"They walk in with a lot of honest, really good players and they buy one or two bits around them, but they've got to make sure, whether it's intensity, whether it's making them the fittest team or whatever but they've got to disrupt opponents far better than they do currently.

"Not enough of the teams that get promoted do that."

[ITFC2024]

I agree with all of that!

[shabba]

The simple answer is he will stay, because nobody will pay the £15m plus to get him out of his contract and we won’t pay the £15m plus to sack him.

[Mauswara]

I think we may have more of a struggle to hold onto him than we think. I hope we do.

[shabba]

I think we may have more of a struggle to hold onto him than we think. I hope we do.

I doubt any club is willing to spend out £15m on him. Other options have emerged IMO, such as the Bournemouth, Brighton and palace managers - I’d imagine all are ahead of KM now in terms of pecking order for a big club, and a smaller prem club wouldn’t splash £15m plus on KM

[hallamblue]

KM isn't ready for a big club....

[The Odious Mr Rossi]

I think we may have more of a struggle to hold onto him than we think. I hope we do.

I doubt any club is willing to spend out £15m on him. Other options have emerged IMO, such as the Bournemouth, Brighton and palace managers - I’d imagine all are ahead of KM now in terms of pecking order for a big club, and a smaller prem club wouldn’t splash £15m plus on KM

No other PL club would be interested in him, regardless of cost, given his PL record.