Ipswich Town

Pat Nevin
Former footballer and presenter

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There should be some focus on the newbies in the Premier League just as much as the old guard in the top half of the table.

‌When you get promoted, you really do want to hit the ground running. Start the season on a high and you can ride that wave for a while. Lose, and that sunny hopeful optimism can turn to a dark menacing cloud of fear before August is over.

‌Both Ipswich Town and Leicester City have got home openers but that is counter-balanced by the fact that it is Liverpool and Tottenham they will face - two teams with designs on a top-four finish. Southampton have a bigger mountain to climb, when they face Newcastle United at St James' Park.

‌Last season, all three promoted teams in Burnley, Luton Town and Sheffield United were duly relegated nine months later. That was an unusual occurrence that last happened back in season 1997-98 but at least Leicester and Southampton have a decent amount of recent Premier League experience.

‌Even so, it is hard to see any of them doing anything other than battling relegation. I wish them well but expect just one will survive.

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Ipswich legend Kieron Dyer is thrilled to see the Tractor Boys back in the Premier League, as Town prepare to play their first top-flight match since 2002 this weekend.

Kieran McKenna's side host Liverpool on Saturday (12:30 BST kick-off).

Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live's Football Daily podcast, Dyer said: "If you walk through town in the past two or three years, businesses have shut down. We have the docks, the harbour - they were going build and erect flats and they didn’t get built.

"It was just a crisis in our town and with the football being revived, businesses are starting to pick up.

"With us being in the Premier League, the town and the football club are just going to flourish and we’ve got our club back."

Listen to the full Football Daily podcast on BBC Sounds

The latest episode of BBC Radio 5 Live's Football Daily podcast has landed - and it's all about the Tractor Boys.

Aaron Paul is joined by Ipswich Town legends John Wark and Kieron Dyer, BBC Suffolk's Brenner Woolley and current player Wes Burns to look ahead to the Premier League return.

Listen to the full episode on BBC Sounds

Steve Mellen
Fan writer

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In our final part of a journey through the doldrums for Ipswich, our fan writer asks 'What now?' for Town.

Keeping Kieran McKenna, despite interest from Brighton, Chelsea and his boyhood love Manchester United, was the pivotal moment of the summer. But even with his services retained, nobody is under any illusions about the challenge ahead.

One of the main challenges for Ipswich fans may be coping with emotional whiplash.

We have only lost 10 games over the past two seasons, dominating possession in most games and scoring bundles of goals – 101 goals in the League One promotion season, and 92 last time round. It is unlikely those patterns will be repeated in the Premier League.

Paul Scholes said on a recent podcast he could see us finishing 12th. If that happened, the smoke from the celebration fireworks would drape over Suffolk from Lowestoft to Sudbury. The Adnams brewery in Southwold would need to treble production.

As well as being the small fish in the biggest pond of all, we will have to get used to other changes.

Last time in the Premier League we were going to Maine Road, not Etihad, Highbury not Emirates Stadium and White Hart Lane instead of the incredible new Tottenham Hotspur stadium.

VAR was not around in 2022. Brighton were still playing at the Withdean, where I once saw a match stopped as a tennis ball had come onto the pitch from a neighbouring court.

With weeks of the transfer window yet to run, it is hard to make a concrete prediction about how we will fare.

But this much is true. We have a waiting list for season tickets. We sold more than 60,000 replica shirts last season. Our average crowd on the way to promotion – a shade under 29,000 – was the highest in the club’s history. That mould has been cleaned off the roof of the stand.

We’re back. Sorry it took so long.

Nizaar Kinsella
BBC Sport football news reporter

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Ipswich are not just set to complete a loan deal for Manchester City midfielder Kalvin Phillips - the promoted side have also expressed an interest in Chelsea's Armando Broja.

The Albania striker, 22, made eight appearances on loan at Fulham during the second half of last season.