Ipswich Town's Managerial Search: Solskjaer and O’Neil Contenders
Ipswich Town are drawing up one of the most intriguing managerial shortlists of the summer, with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer emerging as a serious contender to lead the club back into the Premier League spotlight.
The Norwegian, out of work since leaving Besiktas last summer, is being considered by the Portman Road hierarchy as they plan for life in the top flight. For Solskjaer, who spent three turbulent yet memorable years at Old Trafford and guided Manchester United to a second-place finish in 2020-21, it would be a return to English football on very different terms – away from the glare, but under no less pressure.
McKenna’s shock exit leaves a void – and a link
The vacancy itself still feels raw in Suffolk. Kieran McKenna, the architect of Ipswich’s extraordinary rise from League One to the Premier League in just two seasons, has stepped down only weeks after sealing promotion. Supporters had imagined him leading the club out on opening day, not walking away with the job only half done.
McKenna’s decision, he insists, is about energy, not ambition.
"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. The 40-year-old leaves as the man who dragged Ipswich from the third tier back to the top division, a transformation that has reset expectations around Portman Road.
His departure does something else, too. It opens a direct line back to Solskjaer. McKenna served as an assistant under the Norwegian at Manchester United, part of the backroom staff during that second-place Premier League finish. If Ipswich turn to Solskjaer now, the club would be swapping one branch of that Old Trafford coaching tree for another.
Solskjaer’s second act?
For Solskjaer, this would be more than a nostalgic reunion with a former assistant. It would be a chance to rebuild his reputation in a different environment, far from the relentless swirl that surrounded every decision at United.
Since leaving Old Trafford in 2021, he has taken a step back, then briefly resurfaced in Turkey with Besiktas. Reports suggested he was even discussed as a candidate for a return to United last season, only for the club to choose Michael Carrick instead as they sought a new direction.
Ipswich would present a different type of test. This is not a superclub expecting instant silverware. This is a newly promoted side, the first since Southampton in 2012 to climb from the third tier to the Premier League in back-to-back seasons, desperate to hold their ground and keep the momentum alive.
The squad has already proved it can handle pressure. Survival, though, is a different kind of fight.
O’Neil in the frame
Solskjaer is the headline name, but not the only one under serious consideration. Gary O’Neil, currently in charge at Strasbourg, is also firmly on Ipswich’s radar.
O’Neil has quietly built a strong reputation in the Premier League. He steadied Bournemouth, then impressed at Wolves, earning praise for his tactical clarity and calm under fire. Crucially, he already knows Ipswich chief executive Mark Ashton from their time together at Bristol City, a relationship that carries weight in any appointment.
Strasbourg, who only brought O’Neil in back in January, are understood to be keen to keep him. The project in France is ambitious, and they do not want to lose another bright young coach just as he is settling in.
The pull of the Premier League is different, though. A chance to lead a promoted club, to shape its identity at the highest level, to work again with a familiar chief executive – that combination will not be easy to ignore.
A pivotal decision at Portman Road
Inside Portman Road, the message is clear: this cannot be a reset. The club’s decision-makers want a manager who can protect and extend the surge McKenna started, not rip it up and start again. Two promotions in two seasons have changed the club’s trajectory. The next appointment will determine whether that rise continues or stalls.
Solskjaer brings name recognition, big-club experience and a history of managing under intense scrutiny. O’Neil offers a more modern, data-driven profile, with recent success in firefighting roles in the Premier League.
Both would inherit a dressing room used to winning, used to pressure, and used to being written off.
Ipswich have fought too hard to get back to the top to simply make up the numbers. Whoever walks into that dugout next will discover very quickly that survival alone is not the only story this club wants to tell.
