Blues boss Kieran McKenna says it’s exciting to be part of the project at Town and that it would be exciting to continue that and take the players to another level should his side confirm promotion to the Premier League tomorrow.
McKenna, whose side will return to the Premier League after 22 years if they gain a point against Huddersfield at home tomorrow, has been in charge at Portman Road since December 2021 and has masterminded a remarkable turnaround, which as seen the Blues climb from 12th in League One to the cusp of promotion to the Premier League for the first time in 22 years.
The Blues’ swift rise hasn’t gone unnoticed with McKenna understood to have spoken to Premier League Crystal Palace earlier in the season about potentially replacing Roy Hodgson, while West Ham and more recently Brighton, should current boss Roberto De Zerbi depart in the summer, also reported to be keen.
Asked whether, having already achieved so much in such a short time with this group of players, many of whom he inherited from former boss Paul Cook, he is keen to see what more can be achieved with them going forward, McKenna said: "We want to keep improving the group and the club as much as we possibly can.
"Of course, we've travelled a long way in a short space of time and the jumps have been hard, probably harder than they'd look from the outside.
"It would look like on 93 points with a game to go that we've made the step up easily, but it's certainly not been easy.
"It's taken a lot of work. At the moment, we're competing at the top end of the Championship, but we know that the next step is a huge one. It would take an awful amount of work again, but that's exciting.
"It's exciting to be part of this project, to be leading the project and we want to continue that. We want to keep helping these players go to another level, we want to keep giving the supporters things to be proud of and days and moments and seasons to enjoy, and we hope to continue to do that after tomorrow.
"We know that whatever happens tomorrow, whatever happens to the end of the season, there's no end point for Ipswich Town Football Club. It's another step on the journey.
"There's a lot of work going on behind the scenes and there's ambition from the owners to keep developing a football club, and that's what everyone wants to keep doing.
"So, we hope to take a really big step in that tomorrow, but we know that there are lots of things still ahead to achieve.”
Given the developments which have happened off the pitch as well as on it during his time at Town, does it feel like the same club he joined in December 2021?
"It does, and in a nice way, to be honest, because a football club is primarily the people,” he said.
"You come in today and there’s the large majority of the staff who were here two and half years ago, staff who have been here for years, decades some.
"Some fantastic people working at the football club. A fantastic community spirit around the football club, not just at the training ground but at the stadium and in the town.
"That was in place already, of course, bringing all that together, giving them a team to get behind and to be proud of and setting and establishing some things in the environment that would make us elite, that’s been the process over the last couple of years.
"Of course, developing the infrastructure has been and will continue to be a massive part of the redevelopment of the football club.
"But I think the essence of the football club, the history, the tradition, the family feel, the fantastic community spirit, the sense of togetherness, the strong passion and love for the football club from the people that you encounter here, I think that’s been in place.
"That’s just been fostered over the last two and a half years and I think it’s why to me and to so many people I think it will feel very similar, just hopefully we’ve progressed and moved forward together.”