The fairytale story of the 2023/24 EFL Championship season was the automatic promotion of Ipswich Town. The Portman Road club have been outside the top-flight since 2001/02, which is a good storyline on its own. However, when you add in the fact the club won back-to-back promotions from League One to the Premier League, it becomes an even bigger feat.
Before a ball has been kicked and any players have been signed for 2024/25, the Tractor Boys are unsurprising favourites for an instant return to the Championship. Town are priced at 10/11 with most bookies for relegation. This wouldn’t generate as much of a return as a basic 1:1 win in real money blackjack games, which carry a house edge in the region of only 0.39% when applying basic strategy either on or offline. Nevertheless, Ipswich’s relegation odds could lengthen somewhat between now and August, particularly with boss, Kieran McKenna tied down to a new long-term contract and the prospect of enticing some players to Suffolk with Premier League experience.
Turn the clock back 12 months, and Ipswich came into the 2023/2q4 EFL Championship season as a newly promoted outfit. Under former Manchester United assistant, McKenna, Ipswich stormed to automatic promotion to League One, racking up 98 points to pip Sheffield Wednesday to second place in an enthralling three-way promotion battle with the Owls and Plymouth Argyle.
Back-to-back promotions born in the USA
In the last few years, Ipswich have been revitalised by new American owners, Gamechanger 20, funded largely by Arizona’s Public Safety Personnel Retirement System (PSPRS) pension fund. During the 2022/23 League One season, Town made several savvy signings to bring proven Championship experience to their squad. This included current skipper, Sam Morsy, as well as talented forward, Nathan Broadhead and Conor Chaplin.
The benefit of building a Championship-ready squad in League One soon became evident at the start of this season. The bulk of their promotion-winning side in League One started together in the 2023/24 Championship campaign. The addition of Chelsea loanee, Omari Hutchinson, brought additional dynamism and flair in the final third. Meanwhile, Peterborough’s box-to-box midfielder, Jack Taylor, was also recruited from Darragh MacAnthony’s Posh.
It’s a measure of how well Ipswich adjusted to life in the second tier that Taylor only had a bit-part role throughout much of 2023/24. Midfield pivots, Sam Morsy and Massimo Luongo, had an unrivalled synergy, providing a real backbone for the frontmen to do their damage. Target man, George Hirst, was signed permanently too after a success loan spell with Ipswich in 22/23. His selfless performances helped bring Ipswich’s trio of number tens into play week in, week out.
Clever moves in the January 2024 transfer market
Despite a bump in the road over the festive season, which saw Town recruit Kieffer Moore, Lewis Travis and Jeremy Sarmiento on loan to pep-up their attack, Ipswich regrouped superbly in early spring to retain their position in the automatic promotion places. It was a position they would refuse to relinquish, with four points from two tricky away games at Hull and Coventry teeing up a promotion party on the final day at home to already-relegated Huddersfield.
By rights, Ipswich should have been nowhere near the automatic promotion places, with a squad value five or six times less than the likes of Leicester, Leeds, and Southampton. It just goes to show that a squad with consistent principles and outstanding team ethic can still be a greater force than a bigger budget. Sure, Town will need to recruit heavily in the summer to try to upscale their squad, but this is a club that’s reborn and revitalised, ready to dine at the top table of English football again.
