Ipswich Town players are still basking in the glory of their promotion from the Championship, and why not?
But behind the scenes, work has already begun ahead of the club's return to the Premier League - and there will be a lot of big changes.
Alex Jones takes a look at eight new things we can expect in the Premier League next season...
A huge step up
Let’s start with the obvious one – the Premier League and the Championship are two different worlds. It’s something that you perhaps don’t appreciate until your team plays in it.
The pace is tough to match and the intensity is higher than anywhere else in Europe, You often see big names arriving from abroad and needing quite a while to adapt because they simply don’t expect it.
Those who watched the YouTube video of Aston Villa’s Youri Tielemans playing with a bodycam during a pre-season friendly against Newcastle United will have had a taste of what it’s like, but even then, it’s hard to truly understand until you see it in the flesh.
Will the players be up for the challenge? If there’s one thing Ipswich have been good at, it’s having sky-high fitness levels, and they’ll need to maintain those to stand a chance.
Big names up close
It’s funny to think that Ipswich were playing Forest Green Rovers and Fleetwood Town just over 12 months ago. The former will be in the National League next season while the latter will be in League Two. The Blues, however, will be taking on some of the best players in the world, and that’ll be weird.
This isn’t a familiar prospect for Town. They’ve not had too many big cup draws lately, albeit facing a couple of mid-table Premier League sides in last season’s Carabao Cup.
Of course, when promotion was secured, thoughts quickly went to big games against Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool – just to name a few – but it’s also about the players they’ll be coming up against.
We could see George Hirst coming up against Virgil van Dijk in font of a packed-out Anfield, or Luke Woolfenden trying to shut out Erling Haaland just a few metres in front of the Sir Bobby Robson Stand. Mo Salah, Heung-min Son and Bukayo Saka – just to name three – will all be playing in league games against Ipswich next season, just over a year on from relative obscurity.
Trust me, it’ll be weird to see them stood right in front of you.
Amazing grounds
The Championship has some good stadiums, let’s get that straight.
We’ve had the old-fashioned feel of Hillsborough, we’ve seen Town play in front of more than 44,000 fans at the Stadium of Light, we’ve travelled to the end of the earth to visit Home Park. There’s something pretty special about that league and some of the grounds in it.
But let’s be honest, it’s not the Premier League. It’s not Anfield, Old Trafford, Stamford Bridge or the Emirates Stadium.
Some fans may have visited these grounds during Ipswich’s previous stint in the Premier League, others may have seen them play there in cup matches or just gone groundhopping to watch some top-flight football. On the other hand, many supporters are yet to visit any of these famous grounds. That’ll be something special for next season.
Even aside from the obvious ones, how many of us have been to the state-of-the-art Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, or even Brentford’s new ground? Not many Blues fans will start the upcoming campaign having visited all 20 stadiums already.
On the road
Expect a lot less travelling next season.
We spent much of the last nine months in the North West, particularly Lancashire. We’ve been to Wales twice and to Devon once. The mileage for the campaign was pretty high by the time we returned from Hull City.
Yeah, that quick trip up the road to Norwich City is gone. Ipswich’s nearest away day next season will be West Ham’s London Stadium. In fact, I’d make sure you top up your Oyster card, because just under half of the division are based in London. That’s right, seven of next season’s 20 Premier League teams are in London.
Those lengthy slogs up the M6 haven’t disappeared, while Bournemouth and Newcastle aren’t exactly around the corner, but travel will be a bit easier in the next few months.
Go to the screen!
I suppose this one is still up in the air, but at the time of writing, VAR will be in place in the Premier League next season. There’ll be a vote on that coming up next week, and Ipswich will get a say.
If the motion to scrap it isn’t passed, Town will need to find somewhere to set up the monitor, which rises up from the ground whenever a referee needs to look at a replay. It doesn’t happen too often, to be honest.
Before that, if an incident occurs, the referee will stop play and put his hand to his ear to discuss it with the VAR officials, who are sat in front of some monitors at Stockley Park in Hillingdon, London. You won’t get to see the incident on the screen, but a graphic explaining what’s going on will flash up, with a stadium announcement such as: ‘VAR check for possible offside’.
Expect some boos, especially if they’re checking a decision against the home team. These can take a while, too - the current record is five minutes and 37 seconds (West Ham v Aston Villa). Based on what we’ve seen from the Premier League this season, they’re unlikely to get every decision right.
The game is at what time?!
Ah, this’ll be fun.
One positive for next season is that Ipswich have dodged the new EFL TV deal, which will see Championship clubs kicking off around half their games at 12:30pm. The Blues aren’t immune from lunchtime kick-offs, however, and there’s a few more whacky timeslots they might have to fill.
Saturday 3pm has slowly become a thing of the past. When coming up against teams playing in Europe, particularly the Europa League or the Conference League, Town are likely to have their games switched to Sunday, either at 2pm or 4:30pm.
Don’t forget the dreaded Monday Night Football, which is at 8pm. We’ve also seen a fair few game starting late on weekends recently.
This shouldn’t be anything too different for Ipswich fans, who saw most of their games selected for Sky Sports coverage last season. At least we’ll have fewer midweek games!
All eyes on Town
Ipswich have been in the news quite a lot recently, particularly following promotion. People want to know about the club’s story and how they might tackle the Premier League next season – rightly so.
We’ve also seen at least five or six players linked with moves to Suffolk in the last couple of weeks, and some of the rumours has been simply baffling. Many of them won’t be true, and we can’t forget that the Premier League transfer window doesn’t open until June 14th.
Let’s not even discuss the speculation surrounding manager Kieran McKenna, who’s been linked with every club under the sun and seen his face plastered on the back pages of every single newspaper in the last week or so.
You’re going to see more Ipswich shirts around town, you’re going to see more dedicated social media accounts following their season, you’re going to see every inch of the club being scrutinised from top to bottom. This is what it’s like to be in the big time.
Written off already
Get ready for this one, because it’s coming.
You turn on the radio to listen to some sports chat. They’re talking about Ipswich. “They simply don’t have the quality in the squad”, one pundit says. “What’s the point in them even being here when we know they’re just going to go straight back down?”
Luton Town had it last season. Sheffield United, Brentford and Huddersfield Town all had it before them. Now it’s Ipswich’s turn to be written off without kicking a football.
Debate is fine. Do the Blues need to make signings? Yep. Do they need to adapt the way they play to handle some of the best attackers in the world? Probably. However, there will be some people who’ve made up their minds already, and we’re just going to have to put up with that.
Supporters, however, will know that this team and this club are prepared, and that they’ll put up a real fight to achieve something special. If it doesn’t happen, that’s okay, but there’s no reason why it can’t.
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