Manchester United have signed highly-rated coach, Kieran McKenna from Tottenham Hotspur. McKenna managed the Spurs U18 side and now will manage the United U23 side, as per reports. He will replace Paul McGuiness who left his role at Carrington in February this year.
The young coach from Spurs was one of the most sought after coaches in England before being snapped by Manchester United, as the Red Devils look to shake-up their youth system and develop more local players.
This is Spurs’ second setback this month as their head of recruitment, Paul Mitchell, resigned in the first week of August. United had previously tried to lure John McDermott, Spurs' academy director, but he turned them down. McKenna started his career with Enniskillen Town in Northern Ireland as a midfielder before moving to join Spurs.
McKenna played for Spurs' youth teams for seven years before he was forced to quit because of a persistent hip injury. He will join Warren Joyce’s backroom staff, and the duo will now coach the reserve team. The U23 League has just started with Man United winning their first game of the campaign.
McKenna once said that winning trophies with the youngsters does not matter to him as he believes that he looks out for standout individuals who he can mould into the type of players the first team manager require.
While at Spurs, he guided the U18s to a semi-final in the FA Youth Cup in 2015. United U18s started this season with a 5-1 victory against Everton, with new signing Nishan Burkhart on the scoresheet and a hat-trick from prodigious talent, Angel Gomes.
The U21s drew 1-1 against Chelsea yesterday. The 30-year-old McKenna will start working for his new club immediately. He first visited United's base on Thursday and had a look at the club's faculties first hand.
United are looking for an overhaul their academy to offer an opportunity to their youngsters to force themselves into the first team. Although United have given debuts to the likes of Marcus Rashford, Timothy Fosu-Mensah, and Jesse Lingard – all from the youth academy, the number has been on the lower side in the recent years.
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho when asked about academy graduate’s chances this season stated, “If we have any kind of problem or opportunity. I have a few young players in the academy that I will be more than happy to accelerate their process by bringing them."
