A joyous return to the top for the “Tractor Boys”
There were scenes of “sheer, unadulterated joy” on Saturday, as Ipswich Town were promoted to the Premier League after an absence of 22 years, said Joe Bernstein in the Daily Mail. The
Suffolk team’s 2-0 victory over Huddersfield ensured they finish second in the Championship, guaranteeing a place in the top flight next season.
It has been quite the turnaround for the “Tractor Boys”, who two years ago were in League One, said Jason Burt in The Daily Telegraph. But under manager Kieran McKenna, they’ve become only the fifth side in history to gain back-to-back promotions to the top tier. What makes the achievement even more remarkable is that they’ve done so without transforming their squad: on Saturday, they beat Huddersfield with “effectively the same side” as competed in League One.
McKenna, 37, has proved himself inspirational, said Martin Samuel in The Times. In his previous job, as a first-team coach at Manchester United, he was sometimes dismissed as an “over-promoted PE teacher” – a reference to his sports science degree from Loughborough University. But at Ipswich he has thrived, and in many ways it’s odd that he’ll still be managing Ipswich next season. Times were when the “Premier League elite” would have targeted such a manager. But such is the “snobbery around our game now” that “doing the best job in the English game consistently across two seasons just doesn’t count for as much anymore”.