Ipswich Town's Bold Approach to Premier League Return
Ipswich Town are not tiptoeing back into the Premier League. Not this time.
Chairman Mark Ashton has made the club’s stance plain enough: they have to be “a bit braver” in how they attack the division. The recruitment board has taken that to heart. The names on the shortlist are no longer safe, domestic bets; they are World Cup performers, players with edge, players who change the temperature of a game.
Daizen Maeda, the relentless Japanese forward, and Morocco centre-back Issa Diop both found the net on the biggest stage this summer. Those links alone tell you something about where Ipswich see themselves. They are shopping in a different aisle now.
And there could be more World Cup pedigree on the way. Paraguayan forward Julio Enciso, who worked under Gary O’Neil at Strasbourg last season, is firmly on the radar. Ipswich know him well. His loan spell at Portman Road in the second half of 2024-25 never really caught fire, hampered by injuries and stop-start fitness, but the interest has not cooled. The club clearly believes there is a player there who, if kept on the pitch, can hurt Premier League defences.
The contrast with their last top-flight adventure is stark. When Kieran McKenna went up, he had the credit and time to build, to grow into the league. O’Neil does not enjoy that luxury. He walks into a division that punished Ipswich heavily two seasons ago and into a fanbase that has already lived through one painful lesson.
He knows it.
“Two seasons ago, the club didn't get anywhere near staying in the division and this time we need to do better,” he said last month. No dressing it up, no soft landing. Ipswich failed badly, and the margin for error has shrunk.
That blunt assessment underpins the transfer policy. “That's why we're trying to add quality to the squad from different parts of the world and we're trying to add some different attributes," O’Neil explained. Ipswich want more pace, more power, more craft between the lines. They want defenders who can live one-on-one and forwards who can turn half-chances into points.
The early signs of that shift surfaced in Saturday’s 3-0 win over Rayo Vallecano. It was only a pre-season friendly, but it felt like a statement of intent: aggressive, front-foot, unapologetically ambitious. O’Neil’s side pressed high, took risks and were rewarded. It looked like a team being taught to survive by attacking, not by clinging on.
And he is not done yet. After that victory, the former Bournemouth and Wolves manager made it clear the door is still revolving.
The “plan is to do quite a bit more,” he said, hinting at a busy final stretch of the window.
Ipswich have tried caution in the Premier League. It ended in a relegation that still stings. This version, led by Ashton’s bolder vision and O’Neil’s urgency, is built on a different question: if you’ve already seen what playing it safe brings, why not gamble on something bigger?
