Ipswich Town legend Mick Mills has insisted that Kieran McKenna has a Pep Guardiola-like belief in his own methods and style of football.
McKenna took charge of Ipswich in December 2021, his first job in football management, and managed to steer them to an eleventh place in League One.
He achieved promotion to the Championship the following season and Ipswich are now in line for back-to-back promotions as they are sitting at the top of the second tier of English football with six games left in the campaign.
Mills conceded that ahead of McKenna’s arrival things were grim at Portman Road and pointed out that once he came in, the Ipswich boss never made any excuses and had an instant impact on the team.
The Ipswich legend insisted that he made his players believe in what he wanted to do and never lost faith in his methods or veered away from his style like Guardiola never does.
Mills said on BBC Radio Suffolk: “They were dark days really.
“Now you look back, they were really dark days and then we got a bit of fresh air when Kieran McKenna arrived.
“He came, he didn’t make excuses that they all do – the players are not fit enough, they are not my players and I need a few transfer windows to get going – nothing.
“I think he was like sort of gifted because of the fixtures to have six or seven days on the training ground before he played a match.
“We then slowly but surely realised that his strength is on the training ground – working the players the right way and to basically make them believe how to play football.
“He changed the complex of how we play completely, he never has stopped believing his way like sort of Pep Guardiola.”
Ipswich could become the first team since Norwich City to achieve back-to-back promotions to the Premier League since 2011.
