Ashton: We'll Be Better Prepared This Time
Monday, 4th May 2026 16:53

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

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wischip added 09:31 - May 5 Great news about the European and American scouting setup. I do think the dual role of Chairman and CEO has aged him this season though. Time to get some help from someone else in one of those roles.
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Wooly74 added 10:07 - May 5

I will admit to being a fan who truly believed as early as September this season that we weren’t going to get promoted and even this time last week (prior to the Southampton away game), I hadn’t changed my mind. It was our overall lack of consistency that really worried me, yes a much better possession playing style generally than the squad of two seasons ago, but any team needs both togetherness and the will to win from what appears to be unwinnable positions. In those areas, this team seemed a country mile off the one from 2024.

I was also concerned that we had spent a really unhealthy amount of money on players who were failing to live up to expectations and I will include Akpom, Nunez, Walle and McAteer as the worst of them. Having said all that, the ability to win points in the latter stages of the season against the likes of Birmingham, that lot up the road, West Brom and Southampton away at least kept it in our hands and I was somewhat delighted (along with 27,500 plus others) to be proven wrong and run onto the pitch at the end of the game on Saturday.

Now though, the hard work really does begin and very sadly, it has to be completed by taking all of the emotion out of our thoughts for players that have been modern day legends for us. Chaplin and Burns will sadly both have to go in order to make way for younger, faster and most importantly tougher replacements, who will hold their own (or who already have held their own) in the top division. We need PL experience and not has been’s to come in and build on what we have. In truth, there are players that I am not entirely convinced will be able to make the step up from the Championship, but wrong of me to name them on this post not to get marked down by everyone. What’s the famous quote “Opinions are like ar*eholes, everyone has one”.

For now, lets enjoy the moment and look forward to the transfer business that we look to complete in the early close season and that’s what we need to do most of all, get our business done early and hope that the boys will have the time to gel before the big season kicks off. I love how everyone on social media has us relegated already before a ball is even kicked, but we have to look at the likes of Sunderland, Brentford, Brighton, Bournemouth, all teams that have gone up and stayed up and with maybe the exception of Sunderland (fan base wise), none of the others are as big as Ipswich Town. We will also have a great chance to finish above both Coventry and the team that comes up from the play offs if we start well and can get our away form better than it has been this season.

Key is of course the right recruitment, everyone knows that one area that is most important is up front and maybe going abroad is the right answer, so lets hope the new various recruitment positions mentioned in this article gets it right. For now, enjoy the summer fellow Town fans and lets all look forward to the transfer business we do.

IT_since_75 added 10:19 - May 5 Well done Mark and team on another promotion, I sincerely hope lessons on recruitment have been learnt...I don't think I can take another uncompetitive, depressing season like our last flirtation with the Prem!
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poldark added 11:11 - May 5 Good season for town but needs to remove players like Philogrene as he showed by not turning up at the presentation night is nothing but a greedy money grabbing spoilt brat should never wear a town shirt again
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Bazza8564 added 11:33 - May 5

IT since 75, we bought what we could with what we were allowed to spend, those are the bedrock of the side now (DO, JG, JC, JP), you won't stay in the PL with a League one squad and £140m, sorry, but if you think the 24 squad was EVER going to stay up you were deluded. £140m buys you one Liverpool player, we needed 15 and we've added more since. We will recruit differently this time, fewer more expensive players, we will be a slightly better proposition for the £45m players to come here, but we aren't Arsenal, the players we want grew up at a time when we were struggling and then relegated from the Championship. A bit of realism with the task of getting them here wouldnt go amiss

KBsSocks added 11:54 - May 5 poldark, philogene was apparently ill, among other possible reasons for not going.
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d77sgw added 11:56 - May 5

Whatever your views on Ashton and what happened a few weeks back, there is no need to be slagging off fellow fans, especially at a time when we should be united in joy, excitement ahead of the new season. I think it’s hard to argue he hasn’t done an effective job in his time here, and pretty much any inspirational leader I can think of was no saint - but that’s just my opinion. Describing fellow fans as ‘numptys’, ‘knobs’ and ‘deluded’ is just indicative of a culture where some people seem incapable of reasoned debate, and stoop to name-calling. Let’s get some positivity back on here - if you’ve got nothing nice to say then don’t say anything at all!

d77sgw added 11:56 - May 5

captaincrunch added 12:21 - May 5

Blues1, spot on. Thanks for setting the ignorant ones straight. Exposes their lack of logic.

Ashton has done a great job and he should stay. As for the ones crying about Farage or just calling him far-right, he is not far-right so get your facts straight. In fact you might find that the election will be won by a party that is further to the right than Reform because Reform are seen as being captured by the establishment so it will just be more of the same if they were to win. Looking forward to a more successful season in the big time this time around and I think we can do it now with what Ashton has brough to the club.

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hyperbrit added 12:27 - May 5 ...getting 3 down votes for asking a perfectly reasonable question which was answered later on is puzzling to say he least.
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poldark added 13:58 - May 5 KB I bow to your superior knowledge I’m sure you are well informed but so am I
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KBsSocks added 14:06 - May 5 poldark, being an introvert is not a reason for insulting "greedy money grabbing spoilt brats". This opinion does not sound to well-informed to me.
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KBsSocks added 14:10 - May 5 hyperbrit, getting a downvote for calling people with an opinion "moaners" is probably what happened. Hope your puzzlement is cleared up.
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darkhorse28 added 14:31 - May 5

We’re indexed exclusively to Mark. His ceiling. That’s our ceiling now. Doing that to one person was always a huge risk.

Leicester and Spurs have some of the best facilities in world football.

You either have the skill and expertise to know what’s required at the elite end or you don’t; of course there’s progression and development and learning, and that’s why whether McKenna is elite or not isn’t essential, he’s young, he can improve, he could be anything he wants with the right conditions.

Mark though. It’s 36 years of not knowing the solutions at the sharp end.

That doesn’t change. That’s about having the skill set required to know the problem and implement the solutions.

A great example is Brighton. Not just their club, it’s taken Bloom and Barber about A MONTH to identify the issues, implement solutions, and add elite level value at Hearts.

Not a year, not five seasons, they did in one window what we couldn’t after four years of development.

We’ve struggled with identifying the problem, let alone the execution and implementation.

Others have done it without Marks 36 years in the game, at Sunderland they didn’t plan for promotion, had no legacy expertise off the field, they knew what was required, and we could see what happened to relegated clubs before us, and had that visibility just as much as they did.

They saw the problem, but had the skill and expertise to do it in one window, like Bloom and Barber.

I do have faith we’ll have more time and balance in this window, and we’ll get it better then before, time will tell, it’s massively exciting either way and you can’t ask for than that.

I wish Mark would sacrifice some control, and try to stand on the shoulders more of other people, let experts be experts.

Bloom and Barber - like strawberries and cream, you can’t do this new level on one man’s ability, no other club can, and we can’t either.

Let go to grow stronger, put the club before individuals, that’s our roadmap to untold success.

Index to any individual and that’s one hell of a risk. We need an elite team off the field to support McKenna and his skills on the coaching field.

I don’t think Mark can do that, I don’t think he can let go, he spent years curating control.

grow_our_own added 15:39 - May 5 Well said Dark Horse. Ashton's recruitment was a failure last time we went up. £150m of spending later, we've scraped out of a much poorer Championship this time. Ashton has reached his ceiling. We need someone of superior calibre to manage off-field to the same standard as Kieran does on it. Re-index.
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Gforce added 16:35 - May 5 @Darkhorse ....I agree with you in the main,but do we really need a sporting director type figure? They seem to just cause animosity at most clubs.
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