How Ipswich have gotten Premier League prepared after 22 years away

Down Sir Alf Ramsey Way and past statues of Sir Bobby Robson and Kevin Beattie, avid Ipswich fan Ed Sheeran will head to recently decorated Box 78 and watch his beloved club back in the Premier League after a 22-year absence, with hopes that England midfielder Kalvin Phillips can be this season’s loan sensation as Omari Hutchinson was during promotion.

Something old, something new, something borrowed and of course lots of blue. There is palpable excitement throughout the county of Suffolk with tickets for Saturday’s visit of Liverpool as hard to find as front-row seats at a Taylor Swift concert.

Mail Sport visited Portman Road on Wednesday to discover frenzied activity so everything can be ready for the big lunchtime kick-off.

Amid the scaffolding and cables, workers in hard hats and luminous jackets drill and paint away. It is the opening of a new reception area, all sparkling down to the fresh plants. On the pitch, Hawk-Eye is being tested by men with footballs and gadgets. No VAR in the Championship, of course.

Earlier in the week, there was a moment of concern when fire engines were called to rescue construction personnel stuck in a tilting scissors lift. Everything turned out fine and if things seem a bit frenetic, it’s hardly surprising.

American pension fund owners ORG had a seven-year plan to reach the Premier League when they bought the then-League One club in 2021. Even that looked ambitious but they’ve smashed their target after consecutive promotions under manager Kieran McKenna, amassing a remarkable 194 points and 193 goals.

Though the fixture list hasn’t been kind with a trip to champions Manchester City following Liverpool, captain Sam Morsy’s programme notes for Saturday don’t sound fearful.

‘We know the standard goes through the roof but it’s important not to be overawed,’ he insists.

‘We can’t be passive. We have to make sure the season is just as much about the things we can do. Our bravery, commitment, the part the fans play, especially at home.’

McKenna has already spent £60million to bolster his promotion winners by signing Arijanet Muric, Ben Johnson, Jacob Greaves, Liam Delap, and Conor Townsend, as well as winger Hutchinson from Chelsea for a club-record £20m. Phillips is set to join on loan from City on Friday with others expected to follow.

McKenna, the former Manchester United coach, was 35 when hired by Ipswich in 2021, coincidentally the same age Ramsey and Robson were when they were appointed before winning major trophies and going to even greater recognition with England.

The manager keeps pictures of the two legends in his office but has otherwise dragged the club into the 21st century by recruiting a significant team of coaches, data analysts and health and nutrition experts to supplement his young, hungry players.

The playing style has been front-foot and attractive but before they can perform to a new global audience, Ipswich have been forced to endure a hugely busy summer at the stadium to meet Premier League requirements.

So much is new: tunnel, dressing rooms, purpose-built drugs-testing rooms, LED screens running behind each goal, monitors for the directors’ box and a media theatre for 75 journalists.

Extra seats have increased the capacity beyond 30,000 with safe standing rails in the away end. More corporate seats will be added by the end of the year and a new TV studio is being constructed in the corner, the first to give a view of the whole pitch behind the presenter, though it won’t be ready for TNT’s coverage on Saturday.

Majority shareholder Ed Schwartz and his fellow directors allow chief executive and chairman Mark Ashton full freedom to spend the transfer budget but they have an input in other areas.

The slogan ‘Running Towards Adversity’ that dominates the back wall of the new home dressing room is inspired by ORG’s work running investment portfolios in Arizona for the state’s firefighters. It is a reminder to players not to shy away from challenges they face on the pitch.

Many of Ipswich’s heroes when they won the FA Cup and UEFA Cup under Robson between 1978 and 1981 will also be present for the big kick-off on Saturday. 

Former skipper Mick Mills commentates for Radio Suffolk, goalscoring midfielder John Wark hosts sponsors in the lounges and famed centre-half pairing Terry Butcher and Russell Osman will pay for tickets as regular fans.

It’s striking that they and other famous players from that era, Alan Brazil, Roger Osborne, Allan Hunter and George Burley, settled in the area, such as in nearby Suffolk villages with delightful names like Bawdsey, Woolpit, Layham and Melton.

On Wednesday evening, Butcher, Wark and Osman took part in Ipswich podcast Life’s A Pitch recorded in front of a live audience of Tractor Boy fans who gleefully chanted: ‘We are Premier League.’

Talking to Mail Sport at the show, the legends can hardly contain their excitement at Ipswich’s revival.

‘It’s long overdue. We plumbed the depths — beyond the depths in fact,’ says Butcher. ‘Bobby (Robson) would have loved what is happening. Everyone is turning up to games in Ipswich shirts with a smile on their face.’

Wark, who also played for Liverpool, smiles: ‘My phone went mad after the fixtures came out. Fans of both clubs asking for tickets!

‘Ipswich is my club so I want us to win, though I’ll take a draw. It was awful for years, when we beat Huddersfield to go up, I was emotional. The atmosphere was like the old days. I stood at the side of the pitch and soaked it all in. Then I had a fantastic night in my local, reminiscing about all the great days we’d had.’

Osman worked in Ipswich’s academy partway through the tenure of previous owner, Marcus Evans. He can scarcely believe the transformation. ‘It wasn’t the club it had been. It had lost the relationship with the supporters,’ he admits.

‘Ipswich always had potential if someone invested in it properly. These owners have backed the manager and what he’s done with that support is fantastic.

‘I think it has actually surprised the investors how things can take off at Ipswich when things go well. We were everyone’s second-favourite team around the country when I played. What is happening now has given us an identity again and it’s built on good management.’

Northern Irishman McKenna was part of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s coaching staff at United but has stepped up magnificently as a No 1. His rotation of forward players during and between matches keeps energy levels high in attack so opponents can’t cope.

It was a relief to Ipswich fans that he wasn’t coaxed away by Manchester United or Chelsea this summer and subsequently signed a new deal. The development of left back Leif Davis is an example of his coaching. Davis cost Ipswich £1million from Leeds but could fetch 20 times that if sold now. Under McKenna, his crossing and passing have improved no end.

Both Ramsey’s championship team of 1962 and Robson’s cup winners had a Suffolk presence and there is a local element in this team, too. Central defender Luke Woolfenden joined the club’s academy aged 11 and been part of the whole journey. 

Butcher has worked with him and sets high demands. ‘He’s quick, good in the air and can ping a ball but he can do better, improve on his reading of the game,’ says Butcher.

Fittingly, Ipswich-born Harry Clarke’s picture is featured on the side of the new tunnel that Mohamed Salah will run out of on Saturday.

It is obvious to visitors how embedded the football club is in the community. Glass-fronted Suffolk Council offices are next to the stadium. A giant ‘Good Luck’ message to the team has been draped across the Town Hall.

Ironically, Ipswich’s last Premier League game also came against Liverpool and ended in a 5-0 defeat in 2002. Hutchinson wasn’t even born then.

Simon Milton, player, commercial manager and club ambassador for nearly 40 years, believes McKenna and Ashton were shrewd to sit down and explain their vision to former players soon after taking charge.

‘Kieran talked to us and you could see him come alive,’ he says. ‘He’s taken players from League One to the Premier League. We have got an unbelievable spirit. Let’s hope we can shock a few people early.’

When the new owners first took over, they noticed how tired Portman Road looked and the damaging effect on morale. Fans walking towards the Cobbold Stand could easily observe the tattered windows with the vinyl finishing flaking off.

For a modest cost of £20,000, one of their first outlays was to spruce up the area and hang up images from the club’s illustrious history so fans could see and feel proud as they walked into Portman Road.

Less than three years later, Britain’s biggest pop star Sheeran is modelling the club’s new pink change strip for the Premier League. On Thursday night it was announced he had bought a 1.4 per cent stake in his club — and word has it he’s decorated his box like a traditional Suffolk pub for this season. 

He’s privately hired designers and painters to work on it over the summer and has so far kept the final result hidden from outside eyes, even those who work at the club.

Ipswich Town, a club of old and new, a bit of pink and plenty of Blue.