Neil Warnock has urged Ipswich Town to fully back manager Kieran McKenna after he turned down interest from other Premier League clubs.
The Blues boss was strongly linked to Brighton, Chelsea and Manchester United after guiding the Blues to back-to-back promotions, but opted to sign a new four-year deal at Portman Road.
Warnock, who achieved eight promotions during a managerial career that spanned five decades, was at the Ipswich Regent last night as part of his ‘Are You With Me?’ tour.
Earlier in the day, he spoke on the talkSPORT breakfast show, hosted by former Town star Alan Brazil, about the Blues.
“It’s a fantastic achievement. I know, because I’ve done it myself!” said Warnock.
“When I was at Notts County I went up two divisions on the trot to the top and they all came to see me. I went down to Chelsea, I could have got the Chelsea job. The players and chairman all said, ‘Please gaffer, don’t go, please stay’. I stayed in the end… then six months later I got the sack!
“So there’s a moral to that story isn’t there? You have got to stick with Kieran now. It’s hard when you have been winning every game, or nearly every game, for two years and then lose three or four on the trot. He’s going to learn more about himself and he’s going to learn more about the boardroom as well
“They have got to support him now because it’s not easy when you come up.”
Meanwhile, Warnock revealed that he persuaded Town skipper Sam Morsy to drop down from the Championship and join the League One Blues back in 2021.
“I had Samy Morsy (when I was manager) at Middlesbrough,” said the 75-year-old.
“I loved him as a manager, but certain people at Middlesbrough didn’t and they wanted him gone.
“Ipswich asked about signing him and Samy said ‘I don’t want to go gaffer’. I said ‘I don’t want you to go, but you know what they’re like up here’. I told him Ipswich is a great club and that he’d like that part of the country. In the end he said, ‘alright, I’ll go and talk to them’.
“When Ipswich got promoted I text him my congratulations and he came back to me straight away. He always does.
“Samy’s a manager’s dream. He’s one of them who’s always an eight out of 10. He’s never the star man – a nine or 10 out of 10 – but he’ll never be a four or a five either.
“One quick story about Sam from when I was at Middlesbrough. In one game he got booked – he’s like that, he’s rash, his head goes – and it was right in front of the dugouts. I shouted over to to him, ‘I might have to substitute you now’ and he replies, ‘Gaffer, no, I’m okay’. I said, ‘Another booking and you’re off’. He goes, ‘No, no, gaffer, trust me’. Two minutes later, red card! But what a great lad he is.”
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