Last summer, there was a lot of noise around Kieran McKenna’s future as Ipswich Town manager.
Linked with Manchester United, Chelsea and Brighton, he ended up signing a new deal to stay in Suffolk, guiding his team into the Premier League. Even with relegation imminent, he has revealed that he will look to stay at the club as they prepare for life back in the Championship.
Sam Morsy has been his captain throughout – including the two back-to-back promotions. Asked whether he would follow in McKenna’s footsteps, he replied: “Of course, yeah. I’m committed to the club, like the manager is.
“You see managers all the time where it doesn’t start to go their way. They start to down tools a little bit.
“This manager, one of many attributes that makes him so special is how focused he is. He’s been like how he was any other week, really. He’s been really focused and he’s kept the players focused.
“There’s been a quality level of training and improving. We’re going to go to Newcastle and try to get something.”
This season clearly hasn’t gone to plan. A bottom-three finish will be confirmed on Saturday unless Town beat Newcastle and West Ham win at Brighton.
Regardless, the last few weeks – at least since the defeat to Wolves – have been delaying the inevitable.
“It’s always challenging,” Morsy admitted. “You always have high expectations of yourself and the team.
“When you fall below that, it can become challenging, but at the same time, it’s always good to keep the perspective of there still being games to play, still trying to compete. We’re still trying to do the best that we can.
“It’s one game at a time. If you look at it, to be a professional footballer, you’re very lucky to be very lucky to be playing at the top level. There’s always that gratitude.
“We know our fans will come in numbers. We know we’ll have friends watching, family watching, people who have supported us along all of our journeys. There’s massive motivation to still win a game, to still compete.
“In the last few weeks, we’ve done that. We’ve had good performances – obviously the Arsenal game was difficult for a number of reasons – but the motivation is just to win a game of football, really.
“If you strip it back, it’s why you play football in the first place – to compete and to win.”
Many did expect the Blues to be relegated this season, even after spending around £150m in the last two transfer windows. We’re seeing a running theme of the promoted teams dropping straight back down.
We saw it last season with Burnley, Sheffield United and Luton Town. We’ve seen it this season with Ipswich, Leicester City and Southampton. There’s every chance we see it next season with Leeds United, Burnley and whoever wins the play-offs.
In Morsy’s eyes, survival is tough, but it’s certainly not impossible.
“Of course it’s difficult,” he explained. “But I spoke to one of my friends yesterday, saying, ‘I remember the last time I played against Newcastle, they were in the Championship’.
“Newcastle have been in the Championship and got promoted. [Nottingham] Forest have done the same. It wasn’t so long ago that [Aston] Villa did the same. It wasn’t so long ago that Bournemouth did the same. Fulham were yo-yoing for a number of years.
“It’s meant to be difficult, but it’s not impossible. Teams will stay up, whether it’s next year, the year after that or the year after that, I don’t know, but teams will come up and stay up.
“That’s the challenge, it’s not meant to be easy. You’re not meant to get promoted and finish mid-table, going, ‘ah, this is easier than I thought it would be’. It doesn’t work like that.
“For us, it’s about our club. Everyone’s on a different journey – Southampton, Leicester. They have different journeys for us.
“For us, it’s about expanding, getting better, strengthening the squad in every window, international scouting, all of these things. It’s part of the process of growing.
“You can reach the goal, which is to be a sustainable Premier League club, but to get there, there’s going to be many ups and downs.”
The one positive is that Town are in a better place than they were 12 months ago.
They have a stronger squad, a bigger budget and better facilities. They will be among the favourites to earn promotion from the Championship next season, which is a world away from when they were struggling in mid-table.
“The club is in a great place,” Morsy argued. “This was a lot of players’ first year in the Prem, so they will be better because of it.
“Younger players have another full season under their belt, the highs and lows. I’ll tell you something as well, you learn a lot more in your losses than you ever do in your wins, so the team will be stronger, it will be more resilient.
“We’ve had a really good taste of the levels, we’ve been competitive in a lot of the games. It’s going to be a great learning curve as long as we see it like that.
“As a team, but also individually, you have to take it as learning, want to grow and get better.”
A trip to Newcastle comes next. It’s certainly a daunting test.
The Magpies currently sit fifth in the Premier League table, which would see them secure Champions League football if they can stay there. They also lifted the Carabao Cup back in February, their first major trophy since the 1950s.
Of course, Eddie Howe’s side eased to a 4-0 win at Portman Road back in December, with Alexander Isak netting a hat-trick. For Morsy, it’s their midfield that stands out.
“One of the best in the league, probably just behind Liverpool, maybe even just on par with them,” he pondered.
“They have got a blend of everything, incredible players. Actually, it’s not just in the league, I think they have got some of the best players in the world in those positions.”
At the back, Dan Burn has become a mainstay. The towering centre-back is now a senior England international and has been one of the top performers in the division since making the move to St. James’ Park.
Morsy knows him well. When he captained Wigan Athletic to their League One title win in 2017/18, Burn was his vice-captain. The defender has since gone on to play at the highest level, which Town’s skipper has been delighted to see.
“It’s amazing,” he grinned. “He’s someone who’s a really good player, of course, but he’s also got a really good mentality. We always want to improve and wants to work.
“He just kept making forward strides. He’s stuck at it, worked his way up. He’s having a great season.
“Dan’s always been really level-headed. High standards, works hard every day. It’s a lot of the characteristics that you see from most players who go on to do well, having the will to continue to work and improve.”
Burn may have the task of defending against Liam Delap in the North East on Sunday afternoon.
The striker missed the reverse fixture through suspension but, if fit, he will be tasked with hurting Newcastle’s back line. Doing so won’t harm his chances of a move away from Portman Road this summer.
In fact, the Magpies are the latest of a long list of clubs reportedly keen to take him on in the summer, and Morsy isn’t surprised to see that there’s plenty of interest in him.
“He’s had a really good season,” the 33-year-old said. “He was at Hull last season and probably did alright by his own admission. Nobody could have expected him to have the season he’s had, in all honesty.
“If you’re scoring a lot of goals in a team close to the bottom, you’re going to get a lot of attention. He’s very powerful, a very good finisher. He’s going to have a lot of suitors for sure.
“From when I first saw him train, he’s improved a lot. The manager and the coaching staff, that’s one of their biggest qualities, they can really improve players. Now, you see the clubs he’s linked to, it’s not be accident, it’s because of how well he’s done.”
Is there any chance he stays at Ipswich beyond this season?
“It’s a possibility,” Morsy claimed. “He’s a young lad, he’s got his feet on the ground. His dad was a player, his mum was a physiotherapist. He’s very switched on.
“He’s got really switched-on people around him. They will have a think about it and they will make the right decision for this stage of his career.”
