Ipswich Town Consider Ole Gunnar Solskjaer for Premier League Return

Ipswich Town are weighing up a bold move for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as they plot their return to the Premier League, with the former Manchester United manager emerging as a serious contender for the vacancy at Portman Road.

The Norwegian has been out of work since leaving Besiktas last summer and is understood to be eager for a fresh challenge in England. His name still carries weight in the Premier League, not least for guiding United to a second-place finish in the 2020-21 season, even as the club lurched through turbulence behind the scenes.

McKenna’s Exit Opens a Poignant Door

The potential link to Ipswich comes with an extra layer of intrigue. Kieran McKenna, the man who dragged the Tractor Boys from League One to the Premier League in back-to-back promotions, has just confirmed his departure, leaving a fanbase stunned and a project abruptly without its architect.

McKenna worked as Solskjaer’s assistant at Old Trafford, and that shared history now forms a neat, if unexpected, thread between the outgoing hero and a possible successor. The sense of continuity is impossible to ignore: the apprentice who rebuilt Ipswich stepping aside just as his former mentor is being lined up to inherit the momentum.

For supporters, the vacancy feels like a gut punch. McKenna was supposed to lead them into the top flight he had delivered. Instead, at 40, he has chosen to walk away on his own terms.

“I feel this is the right time for me to step aside. I do so with great pride at the incredible progress we have made and with huge hope and optimism for the future of the club,” he said in his farewell statement. It was a calm, measured exit from a manager who had overseen a transformation: from the depths of League One to the Premier League’s bright lights.

There had been heavy links to the Fulham job, but McKenna has made it clear his decision is rooted in a need to recharge rather than a scramble for the next post. He leaves behind not just a promotion-winning squad, but a void in identity and leadership that Ipswich’s hierarchy must now fill quickly and decisively.

Solskjaer, O’Neil and a Defining Choice

Solskjaer is the headline name, but he is not the only one in the frame. Ipswich are also looking closely at Gary O’Neil, currently in charge at Strasbourg and building a strong managerial reputation of his own.

O’Neil impressed during his spells at Bournemouth and Wolves, steering both clubs through difficult spells and earning praise for his tactical clarity and man-management. He also has an existing relationship with Ipswich chief executive Mark Ashton from their time together at Bristol City, a detail that carries weight when a club is trying to move quickly without losing its sense of direction.

Strasbourg are said to be keen to keep O’Neil, who only took over in January, but the pull of a Premier League return is obvious. Ipswich, newly promoted and on a remarkable upward curve, offer a platform and a story that ambitious coaches find hard to ignore.

Inside Portman Road, the brief is clear: appoint a manager who can sustain the surge McKenna started, not just preserve it. This is not a survival job in the traditional sense. Ipswich have just become the first club since Southampton in 2012 to climb from the third tier to the Premier League via consecutive promotions. They have learned how to win under pressure. They expect to keep punching upwards.

A Different Stage for Solskjaer

For Solskjaer, Ipswich would represent a very different test from the glare of Manchester United. At Old Trafford, every substitution, every press conference, every stumble became a national debate. At Portman Road, the scrutiny is intense in its own way, but the environment offers something he has not had for years: room to build without the daily storm.

Since leaving United in 2021, Solskjaer has largely stayed out of the limelight, aside from his brief stint in Turkey. Reports suggested he was even considered for a return to Old Trafford last season before the club turned to Michael Carrick as it sought a fresh direction. That door closed. This one, in Suffolk, could open a new chapter.

Ipswich are not looking for a celebrity name to decorate the dugout. They are looking for someone who can handle the weight of expectation from a fanbase that has just tasted glory and wants more. Someone who can walk into a dressing room full of players who have known nothing but upward movement and convince them that the journey has only just begun.

Whether that ends up being Solskjaer, with his Premier League pedigree and emotional pull, or O’Neil, with his rising reputation and ties to the club’s hierarchy, the decision will shape Ipswich’s return to the top division.

The Tractor Boys have climbed back to the big time at breakneck speed. The question now is simple and stark: who do they trust to keep their foot on the accelerator?