Blog written by tractorboykent
Published: 29th April 2025 9:16
Just as there were many thousands of words written and spoken before the season about how Town might fare in the Prem, there’ll likely be many more now that we know. In reality though it can surely be very easily summed up by those four.
Of course, every club reaching the Prem has to make massive adjustments but the speed of our ascent meant that ours were surely more massive than most. As a consequence, the way I see it is that we had to take three significant bets –
1 – We gambled that the Prem experienced players we bought in (inc Phillips, Godfrey and Johnson) would look a cut above what we already had and would be comfortable against Prem opponents. We lost because they rarely did.
2 – We gambled that the cream of (often young) Championship talent (inc J Clarke, Szmodics and Greaves) were ready for the big step up. We lost because they generally weren’t.
3- We gambled that the best of our existing squad (inc Davis, Tuanzebe and Morsy) would step up and maintain their consistency. We lost because that was only sporadically the case.
All of this meant that the manager was constantly trying to change the wheel while the car was speeding ahead (complaints that he didn’t know his best XI were a bit empty – how could he and who did?)
Injuries were some sort of mitigation (in that third category I’d argue that Chaplin and Burns were certainly coming good when they were struck; in the first, Ogbene looked similarly promising) but overall none of these bets paid off – at least before we ran out of time (and a 38-game season provides precious little of that.)
What’s more interesting to me than the outcome of this season is where we go starting next season and how we as fans will support that move. It’s been hard to take much pleasure in watching us lose most weeks but, speaking personally, I’ve seen nothing to doubt that everyone – on and off the field – has done their very best.
Some fans see it differently, lambasting the manager and accusing players of downing tools, but to me all of the commitment, preparation and togetherness that delivered the last two seasons’ glories didn’t disappear – they just weren’t enough because we simply weren’t up to the level.
Every summer sees the ritual of players from relegated Prem sides demanding moves on the basis that playing outside the Prem is somehow beneath them (conveniently forgetting their part in their clubs’ failure to stay there.) Apart from Delap, there’s not a single member of staff – player or management - at Portman Road who could make that claim without some sense of delusion. I really hope that they don’t try.
We should just accept that we came up short and now look forward. After the loans have gone, if we can keep much of the contracted talent in the building and form a more consistent unit then there’s no reason we can’t have a good go next season at getting back.
What we and the other five promoted sides from the last two seasons have shown is that being too good for the Championship is not the same as being good enough for the Prem. Personally, I’d be happy to avoid the ‘promised land’ (notwithstanding its many imperfections, regularly and clearly illustrated over the last nine months) until we are more capable of bridging the gap, however long that takes.