To apply a little context to what has made Kieran McKenna so popular of late, you have to travel a decent distance into the past to find the last manager who made the same magnificent jump through the divisions. That would be Nigel Adkins and it might be an idea to ask him about the thanks he got for it.
He was the bright young thing once. Like McKenna, he was emotionally intelligent and tactically strong. And like McKenna at Ipswich, Adkins found an unfavourable table when he embarked upon the peculiar business of sporting miracles in September 2010 — Southampton were 22nd in League One.