Town chairman and CEO Mark Ashton says the club is in work mode ahead of tough season back in the “unforgiving” Championship.

The Blues discovered their fixture list for the 2025/26 campaign at lunchtime with a visit to Birmingham City live on Sky Sports on Friday 8th August up first with Southampton, like Town just relegated from the Premier League, the first visitors to Portman Road.

“Tough,” Ashton told TownTV when asked what he made of the opening weekend visit to St Andrew’s. “It is, they’re all going to be tough.

“I think the beauty of the Championship, as we’ve seen, is that anyone can beat anyone on their given day.

“Birmingham will come into the division with high energy, high expectations and we’ve got to be the very best versions of ourselves. We’ve got to be ready because this season’s going to be tough.”

He added: “It’s going to be another tough season, the Championship is so unforgiving, but I like the Championship, I like the rhythm and routine of the Championship, Saturday-Tuesday, Sunday, Wednesday, the games come thick and fast, more so than in the Premier League.

“And I think that suits us because I think [manager] Kieran [McKenna] is good when he gets the players into a rhythm, he’s good when he gets them into that focus and Kieran, the team, myself, the staff, the club, we’re going to have to be ready come the 8th [August] because it’s going to be very tough.”

Ashton says Portman Road has continued to be a hive of activity over the summer.

“There have been no days off since well before the West Ham game,” he continued. “We are in work mode. We’ve delivered the Fabio Wardley fight, which I thought was great for the town, the county, for Fabio and the club, it gave us global exposure, and we’ve got three Ed Sheeran concerts just around the corner. And we’ve got commercial activities on a daily basis on the pitch.

“It’s very, very busy. We’re in a transfer window, we’ve got work to do on the football side, we’ve got a training ground that’s now under construction, so, as ever under this ownership, there’s a lot going on at this football club, there’s a lot to do and we’ve got to be ready again for the start of the season.”

Asked what he wants to see in the campaign ahead, Ashton, who took on his CEO role four years ago this month, said: “Everyone starts on that opening day of the season with huge optimism, we all do. We have to be the very best versions of ourselves. The plan’s not going to change, Plan B is to do Plan A better and to be more effective. We’ve got to do more of it.

“I think we know what we’ve got to do, Kieran knows what to expect from the league, we are working hard to retain the squad that we’ve built, because we’ve got some really good players, and we’ll add to that over the coming weeks. That will happen. We’ve been active as an ownership group in every transfer window. This will be no different.

“But we need to be the very best versions of ourselves and I’ve said this before, an amazing football club, a beautiful football club that we’ still trying to rebuild, we’re still in the early stages of rebuilding this football club.

“We’ve had huge success in the last two or three years but we can only do it as one, whether you’re fans, whether you’re players, stakeholders, commercial customers, the local authority, you name it, we have to be as one.

“And if we’re as one, this club will be unstoppable because it’s such a big, powerful club.”

With an eye on keeping hold of the squad, centre-half Dara O’Shea signed a new contract earlier in the week, tying the Irish international to the Blues until the summer of 2030.

“We worked hard to build a really good squad last season,” Ashton continued. “Ultimately we fell short. We’ve talked about that, there’s a full stop now at the end of that season and we need to look forward.

“But we also want to retain our best players and that’s not easy because we’ve recruited good players who are in demand.

“So we want to make sure we retain what we need to retain and then we want to recruit on top.

“You can tell from my tone, there’s a real excitement on fixture release day, and I get that. I’m in no mood for messing, this is focus. We’ve got work to do. We’ve got a squad and a team which needs to be prepared.

“This season will challenge us in every way other Championship seasons have. It will challenge the depth of the squad, it will challenge the staff, it will challenge the board, it will challenge the ownership and, importantly, it will challenge fans.

“We are in work mode. We need to be ready, we’ve got a job to do and we’ve got a long hard season ahead.”

Photo: ITFC

Trequartista added 17:00 - Jun 26 He's got Best Version tourrettes
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earlsgreenblue added 18:41 - Jun 26 Not quite like Citeh & Liverpool though!
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ITFCSG added 22:15 - Jun 26 Most relegated sides managed to keep a couple of their top players for at least one season. If we can't there's something very wrong.
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runningout added 23:27 - Jun 26 I for one not expecting a cushty season coming up.
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darkhorse28 added 10:04 - Jun 27 Right at home in the EFL, and distracted by everything that isn’t football. The excuses are in early. This is like ‘we’re just a little league one club’ after spending more money in a manager and players than any club in Europe. If we don’t have success on the pitch, at least we can look back at some successful concerts and boxing …, 35 years in football, zero success at an elite level, maybe boxing promoter is a logical step. Slightly harsh, but the lack of focus and desire to obsessively make the football club elite is poor.., it’s not what our culture should be. What happened to running towards adversity, it was just rhetoric, now it’s 100% deflection and excuses. We are favourites for promotion, we have the most expensively assembled squad in the division, and one of the biggest budgets. Players smell weakness. Insecurity and BS. The commercial events should be delegated and his attention should 100% be on football, the summer is where seasons are defined with transfers, talent ID, off the field structure. It’s not like we have a foreign talent ID network that all clubs have…, just 5 years talking about it, and none delivering it. ALL successful models above us are leagues ahead of our talent ID. This reads like a man knowing he’s not good enough, looking for distractions, a fragile ego, that instead of failing, will stop trying. Not firing talent ID, but did you see those concerts and that boxing fight. It’s not Davjd Brent than elite football executive.

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Carberry added 11:35 - Jun 27 My word, can you imagine working for him, when he doesn't recognise his responsibility for failure but just cracks the whip over everyone else.
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RRanger added 17:19 - Jun 27 Pathetic comments from C arberry And Dark Horse Ashton attracted Gamechanger and KMc to the club. Where would we be without him? He with KMc will see us back in the Prem next season.. Without him we'd still be in League 1
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Facefacts added 21:34 - Jun 27 Looking for Norwich away when he can splurge tickets on boxing star's mates and club employees. Still cannot forget that, it was so badly not reading the room. Then not being able to give them away. But it is the Premier League that has caused this pain and inability to hold on to our best players.. Players and agents have the power to go where they want, so he is not going to say he loves the Premier League and wants to get back there at all costs. The club has spent a bomb and doesn't like the environment. Not structured to cope. The last year has taken so much out of him too. Can't help but say as little as possible as we are in such a weak position. The player recruitment: good luck in finding any early 20s talent that Kieran can work with and develop. Obviously the first game is a worry. That place will be rocking if the ground is finished and full. Hoping for the best.

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Motown added 16:52 - Jun 28 Some bizarre tales on here. For me, Ashton is saying - the Champ is tough but we enjoy it as a league, everyone is working hard and there will be signings, and we have an amazing, beautiful football club but we all need to pull in the same direction. I'm not sure what any supporter is finding to dislike in that.
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