KIERAN McKENNA is no longer in contention for the Chelsea job.
The Blues board are in the process of finding a successor to Mauricio Pochettino, who left the club after just one season.
McKenna – who led Ipswich to Premier League promotion – was an early favourite for the role.
The Northern Irishman took Ipswich from League One to the Premier League to become a hot commodity.
Chelsea were seeking a younger candidate for the role and McKenna was deemed the perfect candidate.
But according to The Athletic, the ex-Manchester United coach is no longer being considered by the Stamford Bridge hierarchy.
It is believed McKenna is still in the running to take over from Erik ten Hag, who faces being sacked despite winning the FA Cup.
Leicester City’s Enzo Maresca, Brentford’s Thomas Frank and former Brighton boss Roberto De Zerbi are now in a three-horse Chelsea race.
The search is being led by co-sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart alongside owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali.
Maresca, who worked alongside City manager Pep Guardiola, is coming off a title-winning Championship season at Leicester.
Few managers have risen so dramatically as Kieran McKenna.
But then few were tipped for coaching success so young.
London-born McKenna, now 38, retired as a player aged just 22 due to a chronic hip injury.
He’d begun with Northern Irish sides Enniskillen Town United and Ballinamallard United before joining Tottenham in 2002.
But by the time he was forced to quit seven years later, he’d failed to make a single senior appearance.
However, after graduating from Loughborough University, Spurs appointed him Head of Academy Performance Analysis.
It was then, in two years guiding Manchester United Under-18 where his reputation soared fastest.
Having won the Premier League Northern Division title, McKenna was promoted all the way up to Jose Mourinho’s assistant in 2018, remaining high up in the backroom under Ole Gunnar Solskjær and Ralf Rangnick.
Ipswich took the plunge on him in 2021.
And after an impressive half-season in League One, he took the Tractor Boys up in his first full campaign – repeating the feat this term to restore the club’s long-lost top-flight status.
Now, one way or another, McKenna is poised for his greatest challenge in management – either keeping Ipswich up or moving to a major club.
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And the Blues board are admirers of his style of play but it could cost £10million to prise him away from the Foxes.
De Zerbi meanwhile is said to have impressed Eghbali and would cost £5m in compensation despite leaving Brighton in the summer.
Frank is an outsider for the job despite gaining plaudits for his work with Brentford as Chelsea look to announce their new manager this week.
