Ipswich Town Long-Term Strategy To Bounce Back From Relegation & Become A Permanent Premier League Contender – Team Analysis

The 2024/2025 Premier League season will host many highs and lows for Ipswich Town fans.

It has been a season defined by narrow losses, fine margins and, ultimately, insufficient quality.

Sadly, it now looks inevitable they will be relegated in the coming weeks. 

However, all is not lost for the Tractor Boys. 

The club that seemed doomed to rot in League One just four short years ago now returns to the Championship in very positive shape.

The atmosphere around the club should be one of optimism, not negativity. 

Despite a difficult year, this Ipswich Town football analysis will examine why I believe Ipswich are very well set to bounce back and why the good times arent coming to an end just now.

Ipswich Town Investment

The Premier League will provide Ipswich with a cash injection, unlike anything the EFL has to offer.

Last year alone, the bottom three each received parachute payments of over £109 million in revenue from the Premier League.

Off the pitch, the club has used these Premier League finances to invest heavily in their infrastructure.

Ipswich’s £30 million state-of-the-art training ground was approved in March this year.

This training ground provides an abundance of growth opportunities.

It will be a massive part of the progression to becoming a ‘Cat A’ academy, which will help recruit and develop exceptional young talents.

Darren Bent, Kieron Dyer, and Nick Pope all previously came from the Ipswich youth setup, yet the quality of graduates has dropped since then.

This investment could be groundbreaking in returning the youth success of the Suffolk club. 

Furthermore, the impressive facilities will hugely improve the daily development and training of the first-team mens and womens players.

This will aid in gaining short-term results on the pitch, but it should also act as a massive attraction to new recruits and could help Ipswich attract a new calibre of players even when outside the Premier League. 

Ipswich Town Recruitment

Upon arriving in the Premier League, Ipswich had a squad of 25 players, 14 of whom had also played for the club in EFL League One.

No player had been purchased for more than £2m, and the squad spent approximately £4.5m during the whole promotion season. 

For comparison, the lowest estimated squad purchase value of clubs already in the top division was Everton, with a roster bought for approximately £240m.

As such, Ipswich recognised the urgent need to strengthen their playing squad. 

Whilst unwilling to concede their chances, any fan knew Ipswich were facing a huge challenge to stay up in the EPL.

Despite their impressive £150m budget, they would still have a much less expensive squad than competitors. 

However, despite their slim chances this year, the Tractor Boys recognised the clubs amazing position.

Whilst they may face a huge short-term battle, the Premier League finances can long-term build a club and establish a legacy.

Clubs such as Burnley and Fulham have been relegated yet returned in a much better state.

On the other hand, many clubs have fallen and stayed down: Sunderland, Huddersfield Town, Cardiff City, Stoke City, and West Brom, to name a few. 

Ipswich were keen to fall into the first category.

Accordingly, their following transfer policy over the next two windows took a long-term investment approach to their acquisitions. 

Ipswich Town Permanent Signings 2024/2025 Season

Ipswich made loan signings of experienced players Jean Cajuste and Kalvin Phillips.

Nevertheless, as seen above, the bulk of Ipswich’s budget was spent on purchasing 12 players as permanent signings.

The signings followed the criteria below. 

Ipswich Town Recruitment Criteria

• Young
• Championship Experience
• Resale Value
• System Suited

Youth

The average age of Ipswich players recruited was 24.5, with five of the players aged 23 or under.

Buying young is very effective for Ipswich, as it allows Kieran McKenna to coach the players and develop them to his style.

McKenna, a former youth coach at Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United, is very experienced in this regard and is extremely well-suited to growing young talent.

It also means the players have the best years of them.

Buying before their prime means that should Ipswich fail in their damning pursuit of survival, the players will then be peaking in the coming seasons.

This gives Ipswich great chances at future promotions and will benefit them long term.

Buying players nearing the end of their prime would be a huge risk, both on the pitch, where performances may drop, and financially, where resale value will decline. 

Resale Value 

Another great benefit of the youth policy is that if players do opt to leave, they should, in theory, bring money into the club in the form of net profit.

For example, this season, Liam Delap is being touted for a move.

Delap had a very successful year, and the fee Ipswich are rumoured to receive is around £40m—£25m more than what they paid for him in July.

These funds can be used to strengthen and replace his goals upon his sale and provide a revenue stream for the club when the Premier League funds stop. 

System Suitability

Arguably, the most significant sign of trust in McKenna from the board is the signings suitability to his system.

McKennas football is high-energy and progressive, with overlapping wing-backs and high-pressing forwards.

It also requires a very particular profile of player, and Mark Ashton has delivered this in his recruitment. 

Players like Chiedozie Ogbene and Wes Burns thrive in a particular system, in this case, as a flying wing-back.

Statistics will always push recruitment sides towards particular players, yet the best recruitment usually involves a mixture of data and manager influence.

This certainly seems to be the case at Ipswich. 

Wes Burns & Chiedozie Ogbene Ball Progression Map

Championship Experience

Another very obvious element of their recruitment is that the players brought in have Championship experience; 11 of the 12 purchased players have recently played Championship football.

Buying from the division Ipswich have come from, and are returning to, has plenty of benefits.

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