Every club of a certain size that has the misfortune of dropping into League One now wants to do an Ipswich. Birmingham City have taken a step on that path by handing Chris Davies his first management role after an excellent coaching career at the highest level.
Ipswich have been handsomely rewarded since appointing Kieran McKenna back in December 2021. In each of McKenna’s full seasons in charge, Ipswich have topped 90 points and won automatic promotion.
The Tractor Boys became the first team to win back-to-back promotions from League One to the Premier League since Southampton achieved it in 2012. Blues’ owners Knighthead are hoping Davies can become their McKenna – a managerial novice whose coaching nous has allowed him to outwit his more experienced counterparts.
Blues are aiming to bounce back to the Championship in one season, though, and Davies only has pre-season to prepare. Ipswich needed four years and McKenna had the second half of the 2021/22 campaign to lay foundations.
That time proved to be crucial to McKenna, as Ipswich follower and YouTuber Benjamin Bloom explained on the Keep Right On Podcast: “There was a certain amount of tidying up that needed doing. Funnily enough, the first thing he did was play three at the back and sort the defence out.”
A solid defence was McKenna’s bedrock but Ipswich married that up with an excellent scoring record in the season where they won promotion back to the second tier. The numbers are extraordinary: 46 games, 28 wins, 14 draws, four defeats, 101 goals and just 35 conceded. Ipswich had the best defence and the best attack – and they still didn’t win the league.
Such was the pace Plymouth Argyle, League One’s eventual winners in 2023, and Sheffield Wednesday set, Ipswich required a stunning sequence of results to pip the Owls to second. Ipswich won 13 of their final 15 matches, drawing the other two, to finish on 98 points.
It was after a drab draw at Bristol Rovers’ Memorial Stadium in mid-February when McKenna realised what was needed to get out of League One. Bloom said: “It’s kind of Valentine’s Day of that season, Ipswich go to Bristol Rovers and draw 0-0, Sam Morsy is having a bit of a pop back at the away fans who are not being very polite at the end of the game, and we’re looking at it thinking we’ve got to be careful we don’t drop out the play-offs here.
“We had a little bit of an iffy run. I say iffy run, but it was an absurd standard Sheffield Wednesday and Plymouth were setting. What you might find interesting is that he actually had to embrace League One a little bit more and understand you have to run, you have to fight and you have to be able to play direct at times.
“I think he figured that out half way through the season. He twigged the hybrid style you have to play in League One. As much as Birmingham might try to be pleasing on the eye, you have got to defend long throw-ins, you’ve got to see out the first 15 minutes of a game, on bad pitches sometimes.”
Even if Blues do manage to tick the first box of ‘doing an Ipswich’ and win promotion at the first attempt, to achieve that in their first season back in the Championship would be a long shot. Knighthead do, however, want Blues to be in a position to compete right away when they get back up.
Bloom concluded: “What I just want to say to Birmingham fans is yes the parallels are massive – American investment, big club in League One. Arguably, Ipswich weren’t the biggest club in League One because Sheffield Wednesday were there. I think Birmingham are going to be the biggest club in League One. The point I’m trying to make is don’t be crazy enough to think that because there’s lots of parallels that the same thing will happen.
“It’s very much sensible to say, right, what’s working, what’s the trend, how can Birmingham best follow the lessons that Ipswich have learned? It’s sensible to look at what’s happened and what’s gone right, but it’s not sensible to look at a complete outlier of a freak two seasons of an incredible managerial job. Kieran McKenna is probably the best performing manager in English football over the last two seasons.”
