Ipswich Town: Kieran McKenna on Championship to Premier League gulf

For the second successive season, all three sides who stepped up from the Championship have gone straight back down.

Leicester (97pts), Ipswich (96pts) and Southampton (87pts) were involved in a high quality promotion battle in 2023/24, but have subsequently become the first ever trio of clubs to have their Premier League relegation sealed with four games to go.

Ipswich, who spent close to £150m in transfer fees after back-to-back promotions, have won just one home league game. The 2016 Premier League champions, Leicester, are on a run of failing to score in in nine successive home defeats. Southampton, meanwhile, have just 11 points to their name (level with Derby's unwanted Premier League low in 2007/08). The trio's collective goal difference is -145.

Kieran McKenna and the Ipswich Town players applaud the travelling support after relegation was confirmed at Newcastle last weekend. (Image: PA)

With a growing concern that this could become a real trend, with less Parachute Payments being handed out and mid-to-lower Premier League clubs being able to further establish, McKenna was asked if he felt it was becoming harder for newly-promoted teams to survive in the top flight. 

“Yeah, I think that's clear," he replied. "That's science and maths, I would think.

"The financial gulf grows and all the other things that flow from that all grow as well. I think the gap, from a financial point of view, is getting bigger and it's getting more of a challenge for clubs to be able to bridge that.

"As I've said many times, I think our situation, even within that jump, is different. We've had a double jump. I think it's been a completely different scale of a challenge for us.

"But even for those coming up next year, Leeds and Burnley confirmed, it will still be a jump for them.

"There's no doubt that it's becoming more difficult. I don't think it's impossible though. Even for us and having made the jump twice, I don't think it's been impossible.

"I think if some margins go our way, especially in the first half of the season, it could have been very, very different. We're only one position off where I think we'd all be delighted with - and that's a club that's come up from from League One. We needed probably everything to go absolutely right and that hasn't been the case.

"Each club will be different in their situation, but there's no doubt that it's a big challenge and it's probably becoming a bigger challenge."

Burnley players celebrate after securing an instant return to the Premier League. (Image: PA)

Burnley, the Championship winners in 2022/23 with an impressive 101 points, went straight back down with 24 points. They've bounced straight back this season, racking up 97 points and conceding just 15 goals in 45 matches.

Leeds have come back at the second time of asking, while Sheffield United will head into the play-offs as strong favourites given they've won 28 of their 45 league matches.

Asked if he took inspiration from Burnley and Sheffield United's response to going down, McKenna replied: "I don't think you necessarily take too much from looking at other teams because, on the other hand, I'm sure other people will make the comparison with Luton (who find themselves a point above the drop heading into their final fixture and in danger of back-to-back relegations).

"You can't take too much from other teams. You have to know and feel it yourself. I feel like the club is going to be in a much stronger position in terms of the infrastructure here, both people and facilities, in terms of the squad that we have and in terms of the experiences that we've been through.

"I think we're going to be in a much stronger position than we were previously. But the journey and the story of other teams is different than ours. We'll deal with that challenge when it comes."

Luton Town are in danger of suffering back-to-back relegations to League One. (Image: PA)

Asked if becoming a yo-yo club might have to be the next step in the journey, McKenna laughed: "I haven't heard that phrase for a while!

“I don't think anyone's ever had the aim to be a yo-yo club. I know clubs have been labelled that, but I'm pretty sure everyone's goal is to stay up.

"The Premier League is the best, wealthiest, most competitive league in the world. And it's really hard to break into that and establish it.

"It's not impossible, but it's really, really difficult. Each club's way of doing trying to do that will be different. There's no simple solution that I could give."

Given the examples of Fulham and Bournemouth, who went back down from the Premier League only to come back stronger, McKenna was asked if clubs need a tough season at this level in order to gain the necessary experience.

"Yeah, and the money," he replied. "I think there's no doubt that teams who have been in the Premier League, got relegated and came back up, found themselves in a better position.

"It's not always been the case though because Leicester and Southampton had a decade plus in the Premier League, went down, came back up again, but weren't able to establish again. So each club has their own journey.

"But, of course, even one year in the Premier League can set you on a better path. And the more years you can have in the Premier League, the better chance you have that the effect accumulates."