Is this Town promotion just a false dawn?

Is this Ipswich Town promotion to the top table of English football nothing more than a false dawn? Last season, three clubs came up and this season, the same three clubs went down, so why should we expect anything to be different? I want to outline in this article why I believe the Tractor Boys have a real chance of staying where they are.

The X factor is undoubtedly manager Kieran McKenna. In his first managerial post, he took a struggling League One side to the very pinnacle of top-flight football, in a division that is the most-watched league in the world. Not bad for a rookie don’t you think? He has managed 131 games and won 75 of them which equates to a win ratio of 57.3% Last season under McKenna, Town scored 101 points and ended their campaign with 98 points, finishing runners-up to Plymouth Argyle.

This season they scored 92 goals and ended up with 96 points which was just one point less than the eventual Championship title winners Leceister City. It was a staggering achievement which shocked the football world. Back-to-back promotions of this kind have only occurred 5 times and never when a side coming up has had to contend with three big clubs with massive parachute payments. To get automatic promotion this term makes the feat all the more remarkable when you consider that Leeds, Leicester and Southampton received parachute payments of 44 million pounds.

There are several reasons why I don’t think this will be a false dawn for Ipswich Town football club. The club has new ambitious owners with money to burn.  Average attendance records were broken at Portman Road last season when 28,845 watched the Blues regularly. That is a lot more than Bournemouth which only has a capacity of 11,307 and more than Brentford (17,250) and more than Fulham (24.500). This club has ambition and last season they relayed the pitch at a cost of over 1 million so that the playing surface suites the style in which McKenna wants to play. It is a statement of intent. Everyone is pulling in the same direction and momentum continues to drive this club forward.  And, unlike Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and Vincent Kompany, McKenna had been learning his trade with some of the best managers in Europe for 13 years, before accepting his first job as the gaffer. His meticulous attention to detail and his ability to improve players means that in this respect he is a cut above the rest.