Chairman and CEO Mark Ashton believes Town will be better prepared for the Premier League than they were two years ago.

The Blues confirmed their return to the top flight after one year away with a 3-0 victory over QPR at Portman Road on Saturday with the celebrations continuing today as 30,000 fans lined the streets and filled the park for the traditional - and now quite familiar - open-top bus parade.

In the summer of 2024, Town had won promotion to the Premier League only a year after coming up from League One.

Two years on from then - and two further years under Gamechanger 20 Ltd’s ownership - Ashton says the club is better placed to survive.

“Yes, it is,” he said. “I think we’re more organised, I think the training ground will be open, that’s huge. Commercially, our revenues are up, that makes us more competitive.

“We’ve got a different level of skillsets in the business at Portman Road and at the training ground, but it’s the biggest and best league in the world for a reason and it’s going to be tough. But we’ll be better prepared.”

He says lessons were learnt from the previous season in the top flight: “You learn every day, but there’s no silver bullet to the Premier League.

“But I go back, I think our silver bullet is our consistency, the professionalism of the board to allow myself and the team to run the business, to set the plan and deliver the plan and then push us forward.

“If you look at the way clubs are run across the world, I think that’s quite unique, but it’s fair to say, three promotions in four seasons, the team’s delivered.”

Supporters’ minds will quickly turn towards the summer’s recruitment and Ashton says that’s well under way under head of recruitment Mick Court, who joined the club in September, while more recently Peter Braund has come in as head of European scouting and José Mayorga has been appointed the club’s first ever head of Americas scouting.

“Mick Court and his team have been working,” Ashton added. “You’ll have seen some of the names that have joined the club behind the scenes in the scouting and recruitment department. Everything’s building.

“It’s still going to be tough, I’ll repeat it, but I think we’re in a better place than we were last time.”

It’s understood that Cedric Kipre’s loan from Ligue 2 Stade Reims has already become a permanent switch after the Ivorian international made the requisite number of appearances, while the similar clause in Jens Cajuste’s deal wasn’t triggered.

Asked whether that was correct with Kipre, Ashton added: “Yes, all that will get cleared up and clarified in the next week or so. We have some obligations, we have options.

“Again, I’ve always said, it’s difficult to tell the fanbase everything, but we fairly well protect ourselves in a lot of things we do.

“Regardless of what some people think, there is a plan and it’s just nice now to have seen it all come together.”

Two years ago, the club had to spend millions upgrading Portman Road following 22 years out of the Premier League.

While this summer’s work won’t be as significant, there will still be upgrades to be carried out with the standards changing on a yearly basis.

“There’ll still be multi-millions of pounds to spend on Portman Road,” he said. “It’s incredible considering we’ve been in the Premier League so recently, but as the machine of the Premier League moves on and moves forward, their demands are increased.

“But it’s nowhere near what we had to do last time. The big thing is Playford Road and the training ground will be open in July. The team have done an incredible job, Mark Calver [facilities consultant] and the team have got that on time and on budget, and I can’t wait to get in it.”

Quizzed on whether promotion hastens the rebuild of the Cobbold Stand, a medium to long-term aim, Ashton added: “Over the next couple of months you will see numerous plans coming out for Portman Road and the areas around Portman Road.

“We work really well with the council, they’ve been really supportive. Not only do we want to build a football club, we want to help regenerate this town. We’re passionate about that.

“I’d say watch this space because I think there’ll be more things coming out over the next few months.”

Photo: TWTD