'A succession plan for the first time in five years... it won't be easy'
- Published
It's 36 hours on and Ipswich Town supporters are still getting their heads round the idea that inspirational coach Kieran McKenna won't be in the home dugout next season.
Of minimum consolation is that the hugely popular McKenna won't take a position in the Portman Road away dugout either - at least for now...
The previous instance of an Ipswich managerial departure not being a sacking or "mutual consent" agreement was Sir Bobby Robson taking the England job in 1982. So millennial or Gen Z Town fans simply don't have a point of reference to process their current emotions.
Whether McKenna's departure before this particular Premier League campaign represents an existential crisis for the club will only be known only this time next year.
He was linked with an exit last time Town secured promotion to the Premier League. Leaving at that point (despite Ipswich going on to be relegated) would certainly have been catastrophic given how pivotal McKenna was to everything at Portman Road at the time.
And while his influence persists, the timing of his departure, with nearly two months until the big kick-off, does allow the club to reflect on approach.
McKenna himself saw the need to adapt his style of play to be less 'swashbuckling' last season after a few hammerings in the previous relegation campaign.
Might it be that the club's ambitious ownership - which has built up the infrastructure around the first-team manager to smooth handover transitions such as this - decides that survival at all costs is the modus operandi? Is now, therefore, a convenient time to bring in a specialist for such an objective?
Either way, Mark Ashton and the Ipswich Town board have to implement a succession plan for the first time in five years. It won't be easy.
Find more from Richard Woodward at the Blue Monday Podcast, external
For more reaction to McKenna's exit, listen to the clip below of Craig Finbow from the Blue Monday podcast speaking to BBC Radio Suffolk or find it on BBC Sounds here
