What Kieran McKenna has said about Ipswich Town's promotion chances - It will seriously excite Portman Road faithful | OneFootball

Ipswich Town boss Kieran McKenna has revealed how confident he is in his side's promotion chances ahead of the 2025/26 Championship campaign

Ipswich Town will be desperate to achieve promotion back to the Premier League at the very first attempt in the 2025/26 Championship campaign after suffering an instant relegation alongside Leicester City and Southampton.

The trio continued a concerning recent trend of newly-promoted clubs struggling to compete in the top-flight and succumbing to swift relegation, a fate which has now beset the last six sides to have been promoted from English football's second-tier.

Ipswich ultimately finished the campaign in 19th position with just four victories and 22 points to their name, a staggering 16 shy of 17th-placed Tottenham Hotspur.

They managed to fare much better than Southampton, who became the earliest team to fall to relegation in the Premier League's history and had long threatened to break Derby County's infamous record-low points tally of 11, but finished below Leicester City and seldom appeared capable of making a strong fist at survival.

The Tractor Boys will now have their sights set on mounting a second Championship promotion push under popular head coach Kieran McKenna, who has assessed his side's chances next season in an admission that may just represent music to the ears of supporters.

What Kieran McKenna has said about Ipswich Town's 25/26 promotion chances

Ipswich have been tipped among the pre-season promotion favourites by both supporters and bookmakers' odds, and Northern Irishman McKenna shares that sentiment.

McKenna, who took Ipswich on a sensational run to successive promotions from League One to the top-flight, admitted his confidence in his side's chances.

However, McKenna also insists that he's under no illusion of the challenges that will come Ipswich's way next term, with the Tractor Boys naturally set to face much more pressure than they did during their previous promotion push after coming up from League One to upset the odds.

McKenna is quoted as saying, by the East Anglia Daily Times: "I'm confident. That's the truth.

"But we know how relentless that division is as well. Every year there are upsets - teams who do better than expected, teams who do worse than expected.

"It's a 46-game season where everyone competes hard every week. It's one of the most competitive divisions in Europe.

"We know we're starting from scratch. In some ways we'll be in a better position than last time we were in the Championship.

"In other ways it'll be more difficult because we're now in a position of being one of the bigger clubs coming back to the division.

"We know that we can't take anything for granted as we're not going to get any head start or any favours. It's going to be hard work and smart work that's going to get us what we want.

"It's a new challenge. We know what we're going to face and I think we will be in a really good position to face it."

Kieran McKenna's Ipswich Town may have promotion advantage over Leicester City, Southampton

There is a school of thought that the Tractor Boys are heading back into the Championship in the best health of the three freshly-relegated sides, which will only fuel confidence in their ability to contend for promotion in 25/26.

In contrast to both Leicester and Southampton, Ipswich stuck with McKenna throughout the entire season, while those two sides, who could be direct rivals in next season's promotion race, both changed managers on two occasions.

That means Ipswich have the important advantage of continuity with a shrewd and progressive tactician in McKenna, and a squad which should largely be retained despite Liam Delap's recent move to Chelsea.

Indeed, the bulk of the Tractor Boys' Premier League squad was still the side that gained promotion the season before. Retaining that core, alongside last summer's series of second-tier recruits in the form of Jack Clarke, Jaden Philogene and Sammie Szmodics among others, will mean Ipswich have all the tools to plot an impressively-strong promotion bid come August.