“Our environment is really one of learning and development, and we’ve made a big focus from the start of trying to improve each other every day, trying to learn every day – of course trying to win matches is our main business, but trying to make every day a day that we come in and improve.
“We want the players to be curious, we want to foster the love of football, we want them to think about why they’re doing things at times and have a slightly deeper understanding.” – Kieran McKenna
It should come as no surprise to anyone who’s followed Ipswich Town in the Kieran McKenna era that he’s fostered a culture of growth, self-improvement and learning among his charges.
We often talk about how McKenna and his staff have improved players on the pitch, but those efforts extend far beyond the white lines too.
As an example of that, ten of Town’s first team stars are currently giving up their own time to take a bespoke UEFA B coaching course provided by the PFA.
Skipper Sam Morsy plus Massimo Luongo, Dominic Ball, Conor Chaplin, Lee Evans, Cameron Burgess, George Edmundson, Sone Aluko, Kayden Jackson and Vaclav Hladky are all adding another string to their respective bows as they work with academy youngsters.
McKenna is certainly impressed with their efforts. He said: “With the support from the PFA and the availability of the course, it’s coming together to provide an unusually large cohort, but it’s something that the players should be proud of and us as a club should be proud of.
“It can only be good for us as a team and good for us as a club, and also good for those players as individuals to be already developing other things in their personality and careers which might help them further down the line.”
David Bridges of the PFA is working with the group, having crafted a bespoke course to allow them all to get involved.
