Ipswich Town's Phenomenal Rise

Karan Ahgun

— 4 min read
Ipswich Town's Phenomenal Rise

After a 22 year exile, Ipswich Town have returned to the Premier League! This follows back-to-back promotions from League One and has coincided with new ownership at the club and the recruitment of Kieran McKenna as manager. Now, The Tractor Boys will be hoping they can go one further by securing Premier League safety this season. Let's delve deeper into how they have gotten into this position...

Following a successful 2000/2001 season, in which they finished 5th in the Premier League, Ipswich Town suffered relegation in 2002 and would experience some really low lows. They've experienced a spell in administration, stagnating in the Championship and at their lowest point, they finished 11th in League One. Under Marcus Evans (previous owner), Ipswich Town hired a multitude of experienced managers to try to help them break their Championship stagnation. This included the likes of Roy Keane, Paul Lambert and Mick McCarthy but all their effort were to no avail and in 2019, the club were relegated to the 3rd tier of English football for the first time in 60 years.

Whilst in League One, neither Paul Lambert nor Paul Cook were able to bring the Tractor Boys back up. Paul Cook proclaimed himself the "Demolition Man" by ordering a mass cull of the squad in the summer of 2021 and was also behind some of the key recruits who helped bring Ipswich back up to the big time. These include Sam Morsy, Conor Chaplin and Wes Burns amongst others, all of whom played against Liverpool in their Premier League opener and gave a good account of themselves. But Paul Cook was not the new owners' man and they soon got rid of him after arriving in April 2021. There attention turned to a coach many in English football regard as one of the best, upcoming young coaches. He was Kieran McKenna. The Northern Irishman previously held academy roles at Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United and was prized away from Ralf Rangnick's coaching staff at United to forge his own managerial career at Ipswich Town. The rest is history!

Kieran McKenna has rapidly gained a reputation for being tactically astute, a great communicator and a fine man manager. He demands very high standards in training and on match days and has managed to instil an attitude of having each others's backs in his Ipswich Town team. The frequency in which Ipswich Town have scored late equalisers and winners in McKenna's reign highlights their never say die attitude and shows that the players would run through a brick wall for their manager. In terms of his playing style, McKenna likes his teams to play out from the back and be brave in attacking the opposition. We certainly saw this in their game against Liverpool, with the high press in the first half really stifling the opposition but they gassed out in the second half, opening the door for Liverpool to slice through them.

Ipswich Town's summer transfer window has been strategic and seems meticulously planned. The signing of Jacob Greaves at the back looks like a really good pick up from Hull City and they still have Kalvin Phillips and Sammie Szmodics to bed into the team. A deal for Chelsea striker, Armando Broja, has been agreed this week to provide Liam Delap support at the top of the pitch and also adds some needed Premier League experience. The club has also received significant investment from US private equity firm, Bright Path Sports, to the amount of up to £105 million which should keep the clubs finances in a healthy position.

The story of this rapid return to the top league in English football has certainly been inspiring and entertaining for fans of English football. There could yet be a new brilliant chapter of this story to write, should the Tractor Boys achieve safety and establish themselves as a Premier League club. I'm really looking forward to watching Ipswich Town this season and I wish them every success in achieving their goals.

Talk soon!

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