Agree, they have both had a similar trajectory, but with very different success rates...
Sorry to be pedantic, but what ARE The Championship and League 1 if they're not lower league?
I didn't mean it in a disparaging way either, Champo/League 1 are the PERFECT leagues for young managers (and young players) to hone their craft, and improve themselves in a stable environment, without all the added pressure cooker of the likes of Sky's: WIN EVERYTHING or you're an automatic failure mantra, or CERTAIN entitled fans calling for PL managers heads if their clubs DON'T get CL football within a year of them setting foot through the door!!
I think McKenna will get to the PL with Ipswich, and if he does well, will no doubt be cherry picked by one of the so called 'bigger clubs' some day... One of whom might even be US!!
I would call lower Leagues League 2 and below, League 2 being the first rung of "professional" football. The championship is a big demanding League, there are some highly experienced managers in there and McKenna has certainly shown his worth in it this year but he is an outlier, the majority that try to cut their teeth in that league don't do very well and even more importantly they fail to communicate their philosophy as they end up chasing results rather than developing themselves and their ideas.
McKenna was highly rated when he was with us, just as many others with him at the time like Matt Wells etc. Basicly the group put together by McDermott was highly sought after. (I think it's hard for us on the outside of academy football to truly evaluate a coach's ability as they work with so many different caveats (First team manager taking the academy players as cones in their training sessions the day before their games etc), its not about winning stuff, it's developing individuals against certain measures etc.. So we have to go on vibes coming out of the Club and what other people are saying about them further afield and McKenna was always positively talked about and ultimately poached away from us (just as Liverpool have done to a number of our other staff previously).
But McKenna is 7 years older than Mason and started his development as a coach much earlier than Mason, although their first responsible coaching roles managing/developing a team came at exactly the same time when they were 28.
But they have practically mirrored their careers to date.
I think the only difference between them is since McDermott left there has been little fanfare coming out of the academy, no coaches getting highlighted for being good and one to look out for. The good vibes for McKenna all steemed from this era of his career, they absolutely weren't proven when assistants to Mourinho, OGS & Ragnick as these teams have largely been shit.
Mason only picks up bad vibes from our own fans based on absolutely nothing other than they didn't like him as a player (even though he was Poch's number 1 disciple, the first person he entrusted from the academy, the first person whom he publicly said was the first player to get what he wanted (he said this in Australia pre-season) odd fucking bunch, many though think it would be great to have Vertonghen coach at Spurs, but don't see them saying that he has to manage Preston North End first or whoever.
In short, Mason has worked under some of the biggest managers in the game, he's seen them go tits up too. He's played and coached a wide spectrum of styles and is currently picking up new feathers to put in his cap working for Ange who's got even more differences to those that have gone before him. Few aspiring coaches have had this exposure not to mention 13 PL games, a League Cup Final, in fact, that's more experience than McKenna had at the age of 32! McKenna hadn't managed his first professional league game until he was 34.
