Kieran McKenna has already explained why he will wait for Man United offer amid Chelsea and Brighton interest

Kieran McKenna has already explained why he will wait for an offer from Manchester United despite interest from Brighton and Chelsea.

McKenna, 38, has led Ipswich Town to back-to-back promotions into the Premier League during his first two full seasons as a manager.

That success has attracted interest from various Premier League clubs, including his former employers at Old Trafford.

United are reportedly planning to part ways with Erik ten Hag after the FA Cup final on Saturday afternoon and McKenna has been named as one of four potential options to replace the Dutchman.

It appears that INEOS has been forced into action following the departures of Roberto De Zerbi and Mauricio Pochettino at Brighton and Chelsea, respectively.

Both clubs are targeting McKenna; however, The Times has since reported that the Northern Irish manager will wait for an offer from United—his preferred option—before making a decision on his future.

The 38-year-old manager previously worked at Old Trafford, firstly as an under-18s head coach before he was brought into the first-team coaching setup under Jose Mourinho and Ole Gunnar Solskjær.

He departed United a month after Solskjær’s departure in November 2021, with The Tractor Boys offering him a chance to lead their project forward.

The manager has already explained his close affiliation with United and how working for the club was a long-term goal that he achieved.

“Yeah, I think that was part of it. It’s, of course, a massive and great club anyway, but I grew up as a Man United fan with a Liverpool brother, so I was always passionate about the club, and that was always a goal that I wrote down in my diaries,” he explained in an interview with League Of 72 in 2022.

“I put it on paper to work for Man United. So that was always an ambition from when I started off my coaching career, and when that opportunity came, you know, it was fantastic for me and not one that you take too long to think about.”

“The sheer scale of the club is on another level to almost any other in world football, so that’s certainly one thing that hits you when you go there. But probably more importantly, it hits you when you go there is that it was a club that really still had that family feel.

“A lot of staff in the academy, especially who’d worked there for a lot of years that, you know, were really great influences on the pathway of young players that they’ve had there.

“It felt like you were coming into a club with great history and tradition that had done a lot of things in a good way.”

McKenna’s boyhood love of the club, as well as his good relationship with the people at Old Trafford, are clearly two factors that have impacted his decision to await further contact from the club.

Whether or not he is hired remains to be seen, with Thomas Tuchel, Thomas Frank and Mauricio Pochettino also considered leading options.