Blues centre-half Cameron Burgess says boss Kieran McKenna is a special talent and it’s massive for the club that the Northern Irishman has committed to staying.
Despite interest from Brighton, Chelsea and Manchester United following the Blues’ back-to-back promotions, McKenna signed a new four-year deal at Portman Road just over a week ago.
"That's the first step really,” Burgess, who is currently away on international duty with Australia, told ESPN. "The boss staying is massive for the club and probably shows our intentions as a club.
"Me especially, and the whole club, are under no illusions of how difficult it's going to be to make that step up.
"But we also meet it with excitement and full optimism that we can we can go and show our stuff on the biggest stage. Let's attack it like we've done with our last season.
"We'll look to hit the ground running and, hopefully, we can show off what we're capable of. And, hopefully, it turns out to be a successful season.”
Reflecting further on McKenna, he added: "He's a special talent of a manager. Simple as that. I've said it many times and all my teammates have said the same thing; we owe him a lot personally. He's done wonders for our careers. We've landed on our feet to have him as our manager.
"The environment works for him. What he's got in us as players and trusts us in what we do. Anything he asks us to do, we're doing it gladly because everything he'd told us to do so far has worked wonders. So, we owe him a lot. I'm just delighted that he's sticking around for a little bit longer.”
Burgess is expected to start and win his ninth full cap when the Socceroos host Palestine at HBF Park, Perth, his home town, on Tuesday.