Burns Fulfilling Childhood Premier League Dream Friday, 16th Aug 2024 15:47 by Dave Gooderham Wes Burns has admitted that he will be fulfilling a childhood dream tomorrow when he makes his Premier League debut against Liverpool. Ipswich Town’s return to the Premier League could not be more high profile with the fans’ excitement clearly shared by those preparing to step out against some of the biggest names in football. For Burns, the first signing after the Gamechanger 20 takeover and one of a handful of current players to taste consecutive promotions, tomorrow’s game can’t come soon enough. The Welsh winger said: “Personally, I am super-excited. It has been a childhood dream of mine to make it to the Premier League and tomorrow is a chance for me to get that Premier League appearance. “I think for so many of the other lads as well. I know there are a couple who have made debuts before but there are so many in the squad that haven’t. “The overall feeling in the dressing room is one of massive excitement. It’s not every day you get to play against the teams we are playing against this year – and what a way to start it by playing Liverpool. “It is massive. From a family perspective, parents, friends and family all travel up and down the country coming to watch you play against all sorts of teams. “Mine have travelled thousands of miles over my career and so this one is an extra special one for me. The pinnacle of where you want to get to in your career is playing in the Premier League, not only for myself and others in the dressing room but also for the families. It’s the icing on the cake really.” Burns admitted Town’s return to the Premier League was a pinch-me moment after two seasons of almost unprecedented success in Suffolk. He said: “It has been mental. I was the first of many in that first sort of transfer window. I remember walking in the first day and the changing room was pretty empty – there was about four or five of us training. “When I first walked in, I thought ‘what have I got myself into’ as there was just so many faces that left and 19 that came in during that first transfer window. It was crazy. Since then, we have gone from strength to strength. “When I signed in League One, the goal was to get out of the league and into the Championship. I knew that the long-term goal of everyone at the club was to get us back playing in the Premier League as quickly as possible. But did I think we would do it back-to-back? Probably not. “But the infrastructure the club has put in place – the coaching staff, the players they have brought in, the way we work tirelessly on the training ground every day – it is no real surprise that with the group that we’ve got and the manager we’ve got that we managed to do it. It has been a crazy rollercoaster of a couple of seasons.” The days leading up to tomorrow’s televised clash has been largely dominated by transfer speculation with Kalvin Phillips and Sammy Szmodics both signing today and Swedish international Jens Cajuste due to follow. Of the England international midfielder, Burns said: “It’s going to be a hard season so we are going to need all the quality we can get. Kalvin is definitely one with certain qualities, he’s played for England, he was signed by Pep at Man City, he’s definitely going to add the quality we need and will certainly help us this season.” It was a similar sentiment around the signing of Szmodics, the Championship’s top scorer last season, with Burns adding: “It is massive. He was top goalscorer in the Championship last year. He’s had a few very good seasons before that when he was at Peterborough. “Even when he was at Bristol City, I’ve known Szmods for a few seasons now, playing against him a few times. To add someone of his quality is only going to help us. “There is no better feeling than looking around the dressing room and looking anyone in the eye, and you know they are going to be right there with you in the heat of the battle on matchday. “Especially when we are adding the right quality in the way we are, it is going to help us. “Although people have moved on and people have come in, if you look at the core squad it’s still pretty much everyone that was here in the League One season. “Although people are coming in, they are fitting in very well. The recruitment is really key at the club and anyone who comes in is a really good person. There are no egos. It’s really easy to settle in with this group. Everyone is very welcoming and it’s a very family community.” Both new signings quickly pointed to the draw of being coached under Kieran McKenna as a key reason to signing on the dotted line. And Burns was equally gushing of the Town boss when asked how he has helped improve the winger’s game: “Without over complicating it, he has just helped me simplify my game right down to a couple of actions. “He honed in on my strengths and kind of steered me away from the weaknesses of my game. He sort of pushed my game towards my strengths and kind of set up different ways we play to bring those into each game. “You get a lot of people, strangers on the street that don’t really follow football, ask what the boss is like and obviously I have spoken highly about the boss before. “And everyone seems to have a soft spot for Ipswich Town now. I don’t know if that’s the amount of goals that go in at Portman Road, whether that be for or against, the games are always exciting.” Preparing for the visit of Liverpool, Burns admitted it was a little different as the opponents were so well known. But the pre-season training has certainly gone up a notch with Ipswich back in the Premier League for the first time in 22 years. Burns said: “This summer’s training has got more intense. I think each week gets more intense to be honest. From the moment he came in, the level of training has gone through the roof. “The demands that he puts on us every day, in terms of training how you play and don’t leave anything spare especially in training days. “The training week is tailored to giving the maximum on a match day. Like you say, he has come in and lifted everyone’s training ability through the roof. “This pre-season, looking at running numbers and sprint distances, we knew we had to go to another level this season. So pre-season was tailored around running harder and sprinting harder and it has gone up again. “I’m sure the Premier League is ready for Ipswich. It has seen so many clubs over the years come and go. I know there is a narrative that has been placed that the three teams that come up always go back down. We know that’s going to be a challenge for us this season. “But over the last couple of years, so many people have doubted us and we have come back against that and come out the other side. We know it’s going to be a relentless season, a very hard season, but we will attack each game with 100 per cent effort and we will see where that takes us. “I am looking forward to playing at all the grounds this season, but my old man is a Chelsea fan so I’d have to say Stamford Bridge. “I know a lot of people last year were saying that we were just riding on momentum and that it will drop off. I do think momentum is a big thing. “But alongside that, we work tirelessly on the training ground, we work tirelessly in here with tactical and video analysis. The core group is going to be massive for this season, it has been a part of our culture going forward. As long as we keep that in house, we will be fine.” And when asked about how they have prepared for Liverpool, Burns replied: “It is surreal. We have gone from a couple of seasons ago prepping for going away to Morecambe and Fleetwood to now we are prepping for Liverpool. Though we don’t really need to prep as we watch them week-in, week-out, and we know the qualities the players like [Virgil] van Dijk and [Mo] Salah are going to bring. The main prep is around tactical stuff rather than individual players. “I usually have tunnel vision and full focus on the game. But I think tomorrow is going to be slightly different. You walk out the dressing room, they will be there, and there are going to be a lot of familiar faces. You don’t actually know them, but you feel you do know them because you watch them all the time. It’s going to be a surreal moment. “I don’t know any of the Liverpool players. Throughout football, you play against so many people all the time and it’s very rare that you play against a team where you don’t know anyone. But Liverpool weirdly is one of those teams for me.” The Wales international says the squad have prepared for VAR with manager Kieran McKenna typically leaving no stone unturned in his pre-match preparation. “We had a meeting in here about VAR and the things they are doing to improve it and the things to expect,” Burns said. “We have been trialing it in training, by having big pauses in training, and going back to the buggy and reviewing things and then dealing with whether the decision goes for you or against you. We are fully prepped for that.” Burns likened his pre-match feelings to when he made his Welsh debut against Robert Lewandoski’s Poland in a 2-1 defeat. But he has called on his team mates, the majority of which have never played a Premier League game before, to embrace the moment. He said: “We’ve spoken about it all pre-season really. We know the quality of the player is going to go up again, the physicality of the games are going to go up again, but I don’t think it’s really too much for us to talk about. “We will experience it first hand tomorrow and it always takes a couple of games to find your feet in any league. We found in the Championship last year that it takes a couple of games to get your fitness levels back up. “The main thing for us is going out there and giving 100%, but also enjoying the occasion as well. It’s taking a lot of us a long part of our career to get to this point, so there’s no point going into our shells and hiding. We might as well attack it head on. “It can be that players get star struck, especially in big games. But we will only kick ourselves if people start to go into their shells and not attack the moment head on. “All I can say is that we are fully prepped and everyone knows their job. I have no doubt everyone will be fully focused and ready for tomorrow.”
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