Town skipper Sam Morsy is in no doubt that Blues boss Kieran McKenna will ultimately manage in the Premier League.
McKenna signed a new four-year deal at Portman Road on Friday and Morsy believes the 37-year-old has a big future ahead of him.
"He’s come in and he’s been brilliant, I think he’s improved every player. I feel like I’ve improved massively under him. So far, it’s been absolutely fantastic,” Morsy said in a lengthy interview with the Second Tier podcast.
Does he believe McKenna will manage in the Premier League? "I think so. I don’t see any weaknesses in him and probably the best bit about him was when things weren’t quite going well, how he handled those situations.
"In any season, whether you win the league or whatever, take Man City, [they had] arguably one of the seasons in history, but at the start of the season there were big question marks over them. So it’s always about how you handle adversity and he’s a very clever, articulate man.”
Morsy also gave his side of the story of the flashpoint with a member of the crowd following the frustrating 0-0 draw at Bristol Rovers in February.
The stalemate with the Pirates marked a low point in the campaign with the Blues dropping briefly to fourth before going on a charge which saw them finish second and only fail to win two subsequent matches, one of those at Fleetwood on the final day having already secured promotion.
"The fans pay good money to watch the team. Everything on social media is heightened now,” Morsy recalled.
"It was one fan who was giving me a money gesture, a bald guy in the crowd, he was doing the money gesture to players before me and to me.
"So I asked him what he meant by this gesture because the effort was certainly there, the endeavour was there, we just weren’t winning games.
"And the next thing you know, the kitman is trying his best to restrain me, not that I was jumping in the crowd, but then it’s on social media and all of a sudden it’s ‘having a fight with the crowd, arguing with the crowd’, but it wasn’t like that at all.
"It was probably my mistake for even getting so close and not understanding the fans’ frustration. But all it was was this money signal, which I didn’t really like.
"But from them we went on a great run, whether it was because of that, I don’t know. We went on a great run, we had a few games where you’d expect us to win but then from then we beat Barnsley comfortably away, Derby comfortably away, Peterborough comfortably away, Bolton comfortably away, so we had this away record where we were just really annihilating teams really and we just hit some real top form.”
Regarding winning promotion, he added: "It was brilliant, it meant so much to the people, to the fans and they deserve it because for the last couple of years, they felt as if they didn’t have the club and now they fully feel that they have their club back and it was special to be a part of that.”
Quizzed on the Blues’ aims for the campaign ahead in the Championship, he said: "I think it’s really hard to say because I think you have to aim as high as you can without putting any pressure or unrealistic expectations on ourselves.
"I think recruitment’s very big, we’ve got a strong squad but when you go up a level, recruitment’s really big. That’s important, how the new players gel, how they respond to the team.
"What I can say is that we will be very fit, we’ll be very organised, we’ll be a group who sticks together, the manager will be meticulous in his approach in the good times and in the bad times, he’ll keep level-headed and we’re going to be a real team.
"Where that [leads to us to] finishing in the division, nobody knows and nobody will know until May next year, but what I will say is that we will be a strong team and a group of men who are together and let’s see how far that can take us.”