The news landed like a guillotine on Thursday evening — O'Neil is leaving Strasbourg for Ipswich Town, the Premier League newcomers left searching for a manager following McKenna's departure.
The Athletic broke the story, and Foot Mercato reports that discussions between BlueCo and Ipswich are now close to a positive conclusion, with the 43-year-old expected to sign early next week despite holding a contract in Alsace until 2028.
O'Neil's spell at Strasbourg proved short-lived. He arrived in January to replace Liam Rosenior, who left for Chelsea after just two and a half months in the role, but made a strong impression in his short time at the club.
He oversaw the fifth-best record in Ligue 1 over the period he was in charge, in a season that saw Strasbourg finish eighth, the first club outside the European places. He also guided the club to the semi-finals of both the Coupe de France and the Europa Conference League.
O'Neil will take assistants Tim Jenkins and Neil Critchley with him to Ipswich. His expected departure confirms a trend that had been building for days, with Ipswich having made appointing a manager their priority and identifying O'Neil — previously in charge of Bournemouth and Wolves — as their preferred candidate for a return to England.
Strasbourg believed they had strong arguments to keep him, according to L'Equipe, but those proved insufficient against O'Neil's desire to return across the Channel, with the club no longer able to offer the same sporting guarantees it could a few months ago.
Without European football next season, Strasbourg's project has become less appealing, and the club will also need to sell players, with Valentin Barco and Emmanuel Emegha having already left for Chelsea. O'Neil himself had been critical of the club's transfer business in a press conference at the end of the season.
"We need to improve the club culture, the quality of players, the depth of the squad. We got it wrong in January in the transfer market. We weakened the group instead of improving it," he said at the time, a comment that reportedly did not go down well with the club hierarchy and now looks like it was a sign of what was to come.
Strasbourg must now search for a new head coach for the second time this year, with local outlet Dernieres Nouvelles d'Alsace wryly noting that former Chelsea boss Liam Rosenior, sacked from Stamford Bridge, is now available once again.