Ipswich Town's Managerial Shortlist: Solskjaer and O'Neil Contenders

Ipswich Town are drawing up one of the most intriguing managerial shortlists of the summer – and at the top of it sits Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

Fresh from back-to-back promotions and a long-awaited return to the Premier League, the Tractor Boys suddenly find themselves without the architect of their rise. Kieran McKenna, the coach who dragged the club from League One obscurity to the top flight in whirlwind fashion, has walked away just when the club’s story seemed to be entering its most exciting chapter.

Into that void, Ipswich are considering a name that still carries heavyweight resonance at the very top of the English game.

Solskjaer link brings Old Trafford full circle

According to the BBC, Ipswich are weighing up a move for Solskjaer as they plan their first Premier League campaign in more than two decades. The Norwegian has been out of the limelight since leaving Besiktas last summer and is understood to be keen on a fresh challenge in England.

For Ipswich, the connection is more than convenient. It is symbolic.

McKenna made his name as part of Solskjaer’s coaching staff at Manchester United, serving as assistant during the Norwegian’s three-year spell at Old Trafford. Together they pushed United to a second-place finish in the 2020–21 season, a high-water mark of Solskjaer’s tenure and a line on McKenna’s CV that helped open the door to Portman Road.

Now, with McKenna gone, Ipswich could turn back to the man who once led the staff he learned under. A direct lineage from the dugout at Old Trafford to the touchline at Portman Road.

For Solskjaer, it would be a very different type of job. No daily glare of global scrutiny, no constant noise about rebuilding a fallen superclub. Instead, a newly promoted side, a tight-knit fanbase and a squad that has learned to win when it matters.

O’Neil in the frame as Ipswich weigh their options

Solskjaer is the headline, but he is not the only serious contender.

Gary O’Neil, currently in charge at Strasbourg, is also firmly on Ipswich’s radar. His coaching reputation has risen sharply after impressive spells at Bournemouth and Wolves, where he earned plaudits for organisation, clarity and resilience in difficult circumstances.

There is another thread that pulls O’Neil towards Suffolk. He already has a working relationship with Ipswich chief executive Mark Ashton from their time together at Bristol City. In a summer of high stakes, familiarity and trust behind the scenes matter.

Strasbourg, though, are keen to keep him. O’Neil only moved to the French club in January and has barely begun to put his stamp on the side. Any approach from Ipswich would test his appetite for another quick move, but the lure is obvious: a return to the Premier League, a rising club, and the chance to ride the momentum of consecutive promotions.

Ipswich’s hierarchy know exactly what is at stake. Appoint the right manager now and the surge that started in League One can carry into the top flight. Get it wrong and the feel-good story can unravel in a hurry.

McKenna’s shock exit leaves a sizeable hole

The vacancy exists because McKenna, just 40 and widely tipped for a long career at the elite level, chose to step down in the afterglow of promotion. His decision landed like a punch to the gut for supporters who had imagined him leading Ipswich out on opening day of the Premier League season.

There had been strong links to the Fulham job, but McKenna has been clear that his departure is driven by a need to recharge rather than a specific move elsewhere.

“I feel this is the right time for me to step aside,” he said in his farewell statement. “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.”

Few managers leave a club on such a high. McKenna inherited a side stuck in the third tier and took them, in rapid strides, back to what many at Portman Road still call the promised land. Ipswich became the first team since Southampton in 2012 to clinch successive promotions from the third tier to the Premier League. That kind of ascent does not happen by accident.

His exit, then, is more than a change of coach. It is the end of a remarkable chapter.

A new stage for Solskjaer – or O’Neil

For Solskjaer, Ipswich would represent a chance to reshape his managerial legacy.

Since leaving Manchester United in 2021, he has largely stepped away from the front line, resurfacing only briefly in Turkey. His name has hovered around vacancies – he was even reportedly considered for a return to Old Trafford last season before United opted for Michael Carrick as they sought a different direction – but he has yet to land the kind of project that would allow him to rebuild quietly and on his own terms.

Ipswich could be that project. A club on the rise, not in crisis. Expectations are high, but they are rooted in recent success rather than past glories. The squad is cohesive, battle-tested by promotion races and used to high-pressure fixtures. Whoever walks into that dressing room will inherit a group that knows how to win.

O’Neil, if he emerges as the preferred candidate, would find a similar opportunity: a platform to show his work over several seasons rather than firefighting in survival battles. His track record suggests he thrives in clarity and structure – both of which Ipswich, under Ashton’s stewardship, have tried to build.

The choice now is a defining one. Do Ipswich lean into the romance and experience of Solskjaer, the former Manchester United manager looking for a new stage, or do they back the rising Premier League operator in O’Neil, with his existing ties to the boardroom?

Portman Road has waited years for nights under the Premier League lights. The next man in the dugout will decide whether this return becomes a fleeting visit or the start of a new era.