Following a 22-year absence from the top flight, Ipswich Town have climbed back into the Premier League thanks to back-to-back promotions.
They did it against all the odds, but Kieran McKenna’s team fully deserved their promotion, finishing six points clear of Leeds United in third and just a single point behind champions Leicester City.
This was no fluke.
Ipswich lost just six games throughout the whole campaign, five fewer than the Foxes, and they scored an impressive 92 goals, the highest tally in the league. They have been an attacking force from start to finish and without a player in the top ten goal scorers in the Championship.
English winger Conor Chaplin with 13 goals and eight assists and Wales striker Nathan Broadhead with 13 goals have topped the Tractor Boys’ scoring charts, and they are two of a talented bunch of players who have been moulded by their manager into a highly effective winning machine.
Captained by defensive midfielder Sam Morsy, who has been at the club since 2021, this is a well-led group both on and off the pitch, and, while they are hard to beat, they have plenty of attacking flair.
Chelsea loan star Omari Hutchinson has scored 11 goals and five assists, and he bagged a goal as Ipswich beat Huddersfield Town 2-0 as they celebrated their passage back to the top flight. At 20 years of age, Hutchinson is a real talent, and Ipswich fans would dearly love to see him back at Portman Road for another season.
Meanwhile, 31-year-old Aussie star Massiom Luongo adds some steel to the midfield, quick to break up play and launch attacks, and experienced striker Kieffer Moore, on loan from Bournemouth, has been a good outlet, able to shield the ball and play in Ipswich’s faster players while posing a constant aerial threat.
This is a nicely balanced team that settled back into the second tier better than anyone could have imagined. Leicester City were backed to make an immediate return to the Premier League, but McKenna’s team matched them twice, with 1-1 draws home and away in December and January.
Ipswich beat play-off winners Southampton twice, and an early-season 3-2 victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Carabao Cup showed the potential of this rapidly rising team. A 1-0 defeat in the East Anglia derby to Norwich City set the Tractor Boys back at the beginning of April, but Ipswich rallied, going unbeaten in their last five games and winning the last two.
The McKenna factor
The three teams which were promoted in 2023, Burnley, Luton and Sheffield United, have all made a quick return to the Championship and Ipswich will be desperate to avoid following in their footsteps, and they will draw inspiration from Nottingham Forest, who stayed up on their return to the top flight after a lengthy absence.
Ipswich will try to add quality, but they will not splash the cash as wildly as Forest did, and so they will be hopeful that many of the players who have won promotion can take another step up, and they will also be keen to retain their highly thought of manager.
McKenna took over in the midst of the 2021/22 campaign and guided the team to an 11th-place finish. In his first full season in charge, the Tractor Boys won promotion, recording an unbeaten run of 18 games and finishing second with a superb tally of 98 points and 101 league goals.
Any thoughts of a tough return to the second tier were quickly dispelled and Ipswich settled quickly and, while everyone was watching the Foxes, Southampton and Leeds United, the Suffolk side stuck to their task and held onto a top-two place, confirming promotion on the final day.
McKenna is a talented coach, a great motivator and an astute tactician and he is well connected, making use of the loan market by bringing in Brandon Williams from Manchester United and Jeremy Samiento from Brighton and Hove Albion, as well as Hutchinson and Moore.
The Ipswich boss has already been in the midst of the Premier League 2024 news over the past week, linked with both Manchester United and Chelsea, and the club and fans will be hoping they can keep their man, who is vital to their hopes of another successful campaign.
Just like Luton Town, who shocked everyone by reaching the top flight last season, the Premier League 2024 betting odds will predict a speedy return for Ipswich, but as my SBOTOP writing pal James says, ‘The Premier League always has the capacity to surprise’ and the Tractor Boys will do everything in their power to stay at the top table for longer than a year.
It’s been one heck of a ride so far, so all you Ipswich fans out there…hold on tight!
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