Ipswich Town Set to Appoint Gary O’Neil as New Head Coach

Ipswich Town are moving quickly to install Gary O’Neil as their next head coach, with the club confident a deal will be tied up in the coming days.

The 43-year-old is being lined up to replace Kieran McKenna, and talks have accelerated to the point where personal terms are understood to be close to agreement. An official approach to BlueCo, the ownership group that controls Strasbourg, is expected to follow, with Ipswich not anticipating any late complications in sealing the appointment.

O’Neil is not short of Premier League experience or of rescue jobs. He first emerged as a top-flight manager with Bournemouth in the 2022/23 season, steadying a side widely tipped for relegation and guiding the Cherries to safety. His work on the south coast drew praise, but he was replaced at the end of that campaign by Andoni Iraola.

Wolves came next. O’Neil took over at Molineux and again showed his ability to organise and punch upwards, only for his spell to end with his dismissal in December 2024. It has been claimed that Wolves sounded him out about a surprise return in November 2025, but he stepped away from that process.

Instead, his career path took him to France. At Strasbourg, O’Neil has rebuilt his reputation in short order. In just six months at the Stade de la Meinau, he steered the club to the semi-finals of the UEFA Conference League and an eighth-place finish in Ligue 1, a run that has clearly caught Ipswich’s eye as they look to maintain momentum after McKenna’s departure.

Ipswich did explore other options. Former Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was also in contention for the Portman Road job, but O’Neil has emerged as the preferred candidate as negotiations have progressed.

He is expected to bring familiar faces with him. Tim Jenkins and Neil Critchley, trusted lieutenants from his Strasbourg backroom team, are set to follow if the move goes through, offering continuity in his methods and a ready-made structure for the training ground.

For Ipswich, it is a bold, modern appointment: a coach with Premier League survival on his CV, European knockout experience in his locker, and a staff already aligned to his ideas. Now it comes down to signatures and formalities — and the final nod from BlueCo — before Portman Road welcomes a very different kind of project leader to the McKenna era.