Are Ipswich better equipped for Premier League this time?

ByPaul Grunill

BBC Sport England

It's been a great season for Ipswich Town fans, who saw their team do the double over Norwich City in the East Anglian derbies and, oh yes, also win promotion back to the Premier League.

Some might argue that going up in 2024 was the greater achievement, given that the team had been promoted from League One only 12 months earlier.

Others may feel that shrugging off the disappointment of last season's top-flight relegation and getting the club back on the right track is an even greater endorsement of Kieran McKenna's coaching skills.

That relegation followed a run of only one win in their final 19 matches but the Northern Irishman has re-established his reputation this season as one of the best young coaches in the English game.

And he was recently tipped as a potential candidate for the vacancy at AFC Bournemouth before the job was given to Marco Rose.

"Kieran's a very special manager," Ipswich chairman and chief executive officer Mark Ashton recently told BBC Radio Suffolk.

"He's someone who I know is extremely sought after by the majority of the Championship, the majority of the Premier League and top European clubs - he's first-class at what he does.

"I would want Kieran to be here forever. I like him and respect him, I work with him every day, we have a really healthy dialogue, but football works in cycles, nothing lasts forever."

Ashton has said that "when this club really comes together as one, it's an unstoppable force" - a statement illustrated by the noisy euphoria before and after Saturday's 3-0 win over QPR which sealed second place in the Championship.

The relationships between those running the business and those running their teams is crucial, but togetherness is often in short supply at some clubs.

There are countless examples of what can happen when they are not in sync. Think Tottenham and Chelsea, for example.

And although Ashton and McKenna don't socialise - "I don't have time to socialise", the chairman has said - there is no doubt they are very firmly on the same page.

"I try to give him his space to do what he needs to do, but to be there as a support mechanism, a challenge mechanism, and make sure - almost as a no-excuse culture - that he has everything he needs to do what he needs to do," Ashton added.

"We understand our drivers, there's no holds barred in conversations and I think you get that from mutual respect."

Ashton is a man in a hurry - a firm believer that if you don't make progress fast, you will be overtaken by rivals.

And he has confirmed that talks have already taken place with McKenna about next season with the aim of moving forwards again "at pace".

There is no doubt that lessons were learned by McKenna during Ipswich's season in the Premier League, only his third full campaign as a head coach.

One charge which could perhaps have been levelled at him was that he showed too much loyalty to players who had served him well previously.

The starting 11 for the 2024-25 season opener against Liverpool at Portman Road, which they lost 2-0, contained six players who also began their final League One game against Fleetwood Town just 15 months earlier - Christian Walton, Luke Woolfenden, Leif Davis, Massimo Luongo, Wes Burns and Conor Chaplin.

Walton, Davis and Burns are all still in the current Ipswich squad, along with striker George Hirst, who also played in that 2-2 draw at Fleetwood.

There was a radical change of personnel at Portman Road last summer when 11 new players were signed, with the help of Premier League parachute money, including Chilean playmaker Marcelino Nunez from regional rivals Norwich for a reported £10m.

It took time for the new-look squad to gel - they did not win any of the opening four league games this season - and there were further additions in January when Anis Mehmeti and Dan Neil arrived.

They have not matched the 2024 team's total of 96 points, nor their 28 wins, nor their goals tally of 92, but that could be a reflection of the extra competitiveness of the Championship this year.

"The players have grown over the course of the season - you look at this last run, this was our eighth game in 26 days, three away games back-to-back, there have been a lot of challenges," McKenna told BBC Radio Suffolk.

"They stuck at it and you can't ever underestimate how hard it is to get promoted to the Premier League. It's a great achievement.

"To finish with one loss in 15 games really shows the character of the group really came together by the end."

One surprise in the January transfer window was that Ipswich did not sign a striker to provide competition for Hirst and Ivon Azon - in 2024, they brought in Wales' Kieffer Moore on loan and he provided seven goals to help seal promotion.

Hirst has hit double figures this season, but Azon has scored only five times, and it may be asking a lot to expect them to provide the goals to give Ipswich a chance of staying in the Premier League.

Ipswich managed only 36 in 38 games in the top flight last season and finding someone who can hit the target regularly is surely an absolute must this summer - especially as Jaden Philogene, who has contributed 11 from midfield, will not be afforded as many opportunities to indulge his taste for the spectacular.

There will also be questions about whether Walton should remain first-choice keeper, having played only seven top-flight games, and the solidity of the defence.

But those are questions for another day.

"I'm super happy for the football club but I'm happy for the county, it lifts the county, lifts the spirits of people who live in it," singer Ed Sheeran, a minority shareholder at Portman Road, told BBC Look East.

"Ipswich and Suffolk doesn't have a lot of things like this happening so when it happens it's amazing."

Former Town striker Shefki Kuqi believes Ipswich "belong" in the Premier League and said following the final whistle against QPR: "It's a club with great supporters and (it's) almost like a family. For all the players who have played here, it's a special club and it has a big space in your heart."

Kuqi added he is "100% sure" they will acquit themselves better in the Premier League next season because of the lessons of 2024-25.

"They have the feeling now and they have been there last year so I think they are more ready - I think they will be there forever now," Kuqi said.