Exclusive: What Sky Sports pundit fears could happen with Kieran McKenna at Ipswich Town this summer | OneFootball

Lee Hendrie spoke exclusively to Football League World about a potential departure from Ipswich Town for popular head coach Kieran McKenna this summer

Ipswich Town are poised to join Southampton and Leicester City in completing a swift return back to the Championship after gaining promotion to the Premier League just last season.

The Tractor Boys gained successive promotions from League One to the top-flight under hugely-popular head coach Kieran McKenna, but the ride has now stopped for the time being. The current campaign has been a real struggle for Ipswich, who are likely to fall some way short of securing survival in the Premier League.

Although Ipswich have perhaps fared better than last season's champions in Leicester City and Southampton, who have already suffered the Premier League's quickest-ever relegation, they will still be frustrated with how the season has played out.

They are some way off catching up Wolves in 17th place, and will also inevitably see their fate confirmed in a matter of weeks. Ipswich's impending relegation may invite fear over a summer departure for McKenna, who was strongly linked with the likes of Brighton, Chelsea and Manchester United in the wake of his side's promotion last term.

On Friday afternoon, McKenna went some way to easing doubt over his future, telling the East Anglian Daily Times of his desire to stay put and lead Ipswich back into the Premier League from next season. However, the fear will ultimately remain, to some extent, until the summer is up, and further links to top-flight jobs have been tipped to emerge in the coming months.

Lee Hendrie reveals Ipswich Town, Kieran McKenna exit fear verdict

Speaking exclusively to Football League World - before McKenna's revelation emerged - Sky Sports pundit and former Aston Villa defender Lee Hendrie explained the potential concern about the former Manchester United first-team coach leaving Portman Road this summer.

Hendrie believes McKenna will be the subject of interest elsewhere, with his achievements in Suffolk and progressive playing style bound to appeal to certain Premier League sides.

"It looks like Ipswich are going to be one of those teams that will enter back into the EFL," Hendrie told FLW.

"With that squad of players, you would feel that they will have a chance of coming back up with the money they've spent. But the key thing is Kieran McKenna.

"He was linked with so many clubs with what he had achieved and how he had gone about his business with his coaching and methods. He attracted bigger Premier League clubs, there was talk of Manchester United at one stage.

"But you think that now he's had the experience of Championship, a short time in the Premier League with a young squad. For me he's a very, very good young coach and you do feel that with clubs now looking for something else, his name will get branded around for a bigger job, whether it's a Premier League job that becomes available.

"Whether he's buying into that Ipswich could have a good chance of getting promoted back to the Premier League, that would be the only thing. But you do feel that with what he's achieved in a short time, he will be linked to a lot of jobs if there are roles vacant and it will be about whether his head is turned and takes that opportunity.

"It would have to be good for him, because he's got a good role at Ipswich and I know he's very well thought-of through what he's achieved there."

Ipswich Town are well-placed to gain promotion next season

Even though Ipswich will be disappointed to be closing in on relegation, the overarching picture at Portman Road remains positive and they appear to be in much better health than either Leicester or Southampton, who have both changed managers at least twice this season and will likely lose more players in the off-season, too.

Ipswich conducted much of last summer's transfer business in the Championship, signing the likes of Sammie Szmodics, Jack Clarke, Dara O'Shea and Arijanet Muric. Both Jaden Philogene and Alex Palmer, meanwhile, were added in January.

Town have retained the nucleus of the squad that earned two successive promotions, and it has been supplemented with further, if not more talented, players with experience at the very top-end of the Championship.

That, alongside the presence of an outstanding, young, promotion-winning head coach in McKenna at the helm, bodes well for their promotion ambitions in 25/26, should he indeed stay where he is.