Ipswich Town boss makes ‘biggest’ and ‘best-supported’ Sunderland claim ahead of Championship opener
The Black Cats welcome the Tractor Boys to the Stadium of Light on August 6 in the Championship.
Ipswich Town boss Kieran McKenna has labelled Sunderland one of the “biggest” clubs in the EFL.
Sunderland will face newly-promoted Ipswich at the Stadium of Light on the opening Sunday of the 2023-24 Championship season, it was announced today.
The game will take place on Wearside on Sunday, August 6 at 5pm after the clash was picked for live broadcast by Sky Sports with Tractor Boys’ boss McKenna looking forward to the match.
“It is a great fixture, of course, it is an exciting day and whoever we got would have been exciting,” McKenna told Sky Sports News
“To get Sunderland away, one of the biggest and best-supported clubs in the EFL and a team who got promoted two seasons ago so they’re trying to make the same journey as us, is a really exciting fixture and of course, it being a Sunday and a televised game adds even more prestige.”
Ashton Buzzing For First Game at Sunderland
Blues CEO Mark Ashton says the season is the next step in the club’s resurgence since the takeover by Gamechanger 20 Ltd just over two years ago.
“I think it’s exciting times for the club, it’s exciting times for the fanbase,” he told BBC Radio Suffolk (3 hours 32 mins 44 secs). “And when you look at that fixture list, it’s packed with some very, very big clubs and I think this is the next stage on the journey of taking this amazing football club back to where it belongs.
“Delighted to get the fixtures out today and buzzing for the first game against Sunderland.”
Which games jumped out at him? “The opener’s always key and we’ve got a long journey to Sunderland on Sunday 6th August, I would imagine that will be 40,000 people in Sunderland and we’ll take a big following of Ipswich fans, I’m sure.
“Home opener the following week at home against Stoke, that will be a big game, and the next home game against Leeds, so they’re going to come thick and fast and we’re excited now to get the players back and get prepared.”
Ashton says he’s looking forward to his first taste of an East Anglian derby when the Canaries visit Portman Road on, as currently scheduled, Saturday 16th August.
“It’s a game I’m I’m looking forward to, it’s one I’ve not experienced yet but it’ll be a great game going into that Christmas period,” he continued.
“I think the fans will be excited about that and there’ll be a real buzz in the town and we’ll be up and ready for it, don’t worry about that.
“It’s important, it’s probably one that’s more important to the fans than anyone else and I get that, but we’ve got a 40-game season and it’s going to be a long, tough season with some big clubs and we’ve got to be ready for all of them.
“The club will be prepared, I think this football club is a very different club now to the one that our neighbours will have visited in recent years, the last time they were here, for example.
“The stadium will be very different, a brand new pitch will be in place by then and I think we’re a very different team with [Kieran] McKenna at the helm, so it’s something that we are certainly looking forward to, that’s for sure.”
Last week, manager McKenna signed a new deal, tying him to the club until the summer of 2027.
“It was imperative that we got Kieran’s contract done early because any players either in contract or coming into the club are going to want to know who the manager is,” Ashton added.
“That gave us the ability to do our housekeeping and get those three players [Massimo Luongo, Conor Chaplin and Sone Aluko] on longer contracts, which was key, and we are now active in the transfer market, looking to bring in the right players to improve us on the pitch going into that first game at Sunderland.”
Despite last season’s success and the manner in which the Blues steamrollered their way to promotion in the latter third of the campaign, Ashton says it’s vital to strengthen ahead of August.
“You would be very silly to think what got you here, will get you there,” he said. “If you stand still in this industry, you will go backwards very, very quickly.
“We have to evolve, we have to keep moving forward. The Championship is a very, very different division to League One and he’s clear that every player that he brings in, he wants us to improve and wants to make us better.
“It will be a continuing evolution of the team, but we’ll move forward with pace and energy, that’s for sure.”
Reflecting on the demands of the Championship, the one-time Bristol City and Watford CEO continued: “It’s a very difficult division, it’s a different set of challenges and we’ve got to make sure we’re ready.
“Kieran’s very clear with his brand and his style of football, he wants to attack the division and I’m looking forward to it.
“We’ve just got to make sure we worry about ourselves, it would be very easy to focus on some of the big names and big clubs and big players that are coming down from the Premier League down into the Championship this season, but we’ve got to concentrate on us, focus on Ipswich, build the club and if we do that properly and attack the division, I’m sure we’ll be very competitive.”
He says the preparation for the opening day trip to the Stadium of Light will begin immediately: “The travel plans from the performance team, we’ll be working through those today.
“It’s a long way, it’s on the Sunday, it’s a broadcast game, which again presents this amazing football club to the whole world and we’re just looking forward to the players coming back now, we’ve got a big pre-season calendar which is being announced as we speak and we just want to get under way now, we’re in a good place.”
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