Ipswich Town Secures Premier League Return After Championship Success

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 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 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. 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.

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.

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

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. It took time for the new-look squad to gel, and there were further additions in January.

"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 George Hirst and Ivon Azon. Finding someone who can hit the target regularly is surely an absolute must this summer. There will also be questions about whether Christian Walton should remain first-choice keeper and the solidity of the defence.

"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.