Liverpool looks set to announce the arrival of Arne Slot as its new manager in due course. He appears to have been selected to take over from Jürgen Klopp, whose reign of almost nine years has just two games remaining.

Slot will hope to enjoy more success than his compatriot at Manchester United. Perhaps inevitably, there have been some early comparisons with Erik ten Hag — mostly by those struggling to look past the lack of hair — but Liverpool is clearly confident that he can be the man to continue this era of success.

There are one or two parallels to when Manchester United tried to replace Sir Alex Ferguson, with Ten Hag just the latest in a long line of appointments that have not really worked. But Klopp has left Liverpool in far better shape for long-term success, and if the next manager is to be Slot, he has a lot of excellent tools at his disposal.

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Certainly, he has more than Klopp had when he first joined the club. Taking over from Brendan Rodgers, the former Borussia Dortmund manager had to build a domestic and European contender almost from scratch.

It was during that Rodgers era that Liverpool was rejected by Kieran McKenna. Now known to the footballing world as the man who masterminded back-to-back promotions for Ipswich Town, he was then an academy coach at Tottenham, the club where he spent the majority of his youth playing career before injury prompted early retirement.

Per the Belfast Telegraph, Liverpool approached McKenna to take up a similar role at its academy in 2014, after Alex Inglethorpe's promotion to academy director. But the Northern Irishman rejected the club's overtures, choosing to stay at Spurs despite meeting with Rodgers.

In 2016, the lure of Manchester United proved too strong, and McKenna was named head coach of the U18s. He made quite the early impression there, winning the Premier League Northern section before earning a series of rapid promotions within the club.

By 2018/19, he was on the first team coaching staff. McKenna was kept on by successive managers, but while his stock was high under José Mourinho, his time working under Ole Gunnar Solskjær was less successful. JOE was among the outlets to report that his 'school-teacherly' manner had left senior players unimpressed.

But McKenna has engineered quite the turnaround since leaving Man United. His stock is now higher than ever before, having gone from League One to the Premier League in no time at all, where he looks likely to face Slot's Liverpool next season.

Liverpool.com says: The only question is whether McKenna will be Ipswich's manager when he takes on Slot and Liverpool. You'd imagine plenty of other Premier League teams looking to change managers would have him on the shortlist.

Even Manchester United might be looking at its old coach in a new light. But McKenna has an Ipswich fairytale to continue. Who knows, if he continues to perform well, perhaps he could find himself being approached by Liverpool again in future — though not any time soon, if all goes well for Slot.