Ipswich Town’s season opener against Birmingham City is a clash that the whole squad are looking forward to, according to forward Conor Chaplin.
The sides were two divisions apart last campaign, but following Town’s relegation from the Premier League and Birmingham’s League One title victory, Kieran McKenna’s side will travel to St Andrew’s as equals.
The Midlanders are returning to the second tier with high expectations after setting a new EFL record of 111 points in League One last season and have continued to be financially backed by their American ownership group fronted by Tom Wagner and Tom Brady.
Sky Sports have selected the fixture to be their Championship curtain-raiser on Friday 8th August and Chaplin believes it will be an excellent advert for the division.
"It’s going to be a brilliant evening for football,” he told TWTD in an exclusive interview. "It’s going to be a great crowd, they’ll be fired up for it, we’ll be fired up for it, live on the telly. It’s going to be one to look forward to.
"There’s three weeks to get some good work done, some good game time, some good training time and make sure we’re firing and ready to go for that game.
"It’s a completely different group now and I think different expectations from the League One team.
"We were in League One for four years until we got this football club back out of there so I think it’s even more than the League One team. I think it’s something we need to lean into rather than shy away from.
"We all know our goal, we want to be back in the Premier League this time next season. That’s something all of us have got to take on and in terms of the whole football club face that challenge front on and be excited by it.
"I don’t feel like it’s a pressure thing, it’s one to lean into and be excited about.”
Town’s pre-season preparation is shorter than last season ahead of a more intense and demanding fixture calendar than in the Premier League last term.
Chaplin has previously stated how much he enjoys the testing schedule the Championship provides, and a year in the top flight has not changed his mentality.
Speaking after the training camp in Austria, which ended with a 4-1 friendly victory over Blau-Weiß Linz, the 28-year-old said: "It’s a different pre-season even though it’s shorter. Last year we had a seven-and-a-half week pre-season and this year it’s been five-and-a-half weeks so it’s a lot different and there’s a lot of games now.
"We’ve got Saturday-Friday-Tuesday games for the rest of the pre-season schedule so it’s going to mirror the EFL schedule which is one that I absolutely love. I think it’s incredible for players, it’s tough but it’s brilliant just playing games, suffering, recovering and going again.
"It’s exciting, it’s what it’s all about, testing the body and seeing how quickly the body can recover. I love that and I’m a bit of a geek when it comes to stuff like that, I enjoy all that stuff.
"You adapt to the schedule you’re in as long as you utilise the time well. Obviously there’s more emphasis on recovery with this schedule but maybe the games are more hard and intense in the Premier League so you do maybe need an extra day or half-day of recovery, but then you also get more time on the training pitch as well.
"There’s definitely differences in the way that we’ve approached it as a team and the way the manager and coaching staff have approached it. I love the game, game, game, game structure, I really like it.”
During the Blues’ Championship promotion campaign two seasons ago Chaplin started 42 of the 46 league games and was the club’s joint-top scorer with 13 goals.
The former Portsmouth man finds himself in a competitive area of the pitch this time around with Nathan Broadhead, Omari Hutchinson and Sammie Szmodics fighting over similar positions on the pitch.
"I’m ready for the challenge in the same way I’ve been the whole four years here,” Chaplin said.
"I’m excited to bring what I can bring to the team and then also learn from the other players as well. That’s something I’ve tried to do wherever I’ve been, learning different bits from different people’s games and also supporting my teammates in the best way possible.”
Part one of the interview in which Chaplin talks about skipper Sam Morsy’s impending departure can be found here and part two on the Austria training camp and new signings here.