‘It’s not going to happen overnight.’ – McKenna on blending 11 new faces

Ipswich Town have two points from their first four Premier League fixtures. Kieran McKenna insists that adapting to the level will take time.

Ipswich Town may still be waiting for their first Premier League victory of the season, but no one can say they’ve looked out of their element in the first four games.

The Blues had Liverpool on the back foot for over an hour at Portman Road before losing 2-0, and they took the lead at Manchester City before falling 4-1. Kieran McKenna’s side then appeared the more likely to win in the second half of an absorbing 1-1 home draw with Fulham, before digging hard to earn a 0-0 stalemate at Brighton.

Overall, given the background of 22 years away from the big time, back-to-back League One promotions, and 11 new faces to integrate, it’s been a very promising start. Town have been competitive to a point against two behemoths and have split the spoils, in different ways, against two solid mid-table teams.

“I definitely feel more relaxed now that the window is shut. “It was such a busy period for us as a football club,” said McKenna, who spent more than £100 million on transfer fees to prepare his squad for a significant step up.

“Because of our infrastructure and where we’ve come from, the burden of bringing players in and helping them go on is distributed around a small number of people.

“It’s good to be able to look in our squad’s eyes and know that we’ll be working with them until at least January.

“It can be difficult to integrate new players. To begin with, there are many practical things that can help them and their families settle in, such as homes, nurseries, and schools. Again, that task is distributed here among fewer individuals than it would be at Manchester United, for example. This means that everyone will have to work extremely hard.

“We also want to get the guys up to speed tactically. That means many more individual meetings to go over additional film clips to discuss how we can incorporate them into the squad, what role we see them playing, and what specifics we’ll be looking for from them in and out of possession.

“All of that is going to be a process over time.”

McKenna has a 27-man first-team roster to deal with. The nucleus of his back-to-back promotion-winning squad remains intact, with 11 new faces (excluding returning loan star Omari Hutchinson) brought in to raise standards. Of the 11, only Jacob Greaves and Liam Delap have started all four league games thus far.

“The thing that is positive here is that we’ve got a fantastic group of plyers who help with that integration,” stated the Chelsea manager.

“We have over half of the players who were with us in the Championship. I’m not sure about the numbers, but perhaps close to 50% were also with us in League One.

“So many of the players have been here for a long time; they understand how we function and what we do well, and they are really helping pass it on to the younger guys.

“The individuals that we’ve brought into the building will also be quite helpful. Bringing in people who we believe will fit in with and contribute to the culture, and who are eager to be here, was at the top of my priority list this transfer window, as it has been in previous ones. We’ve done it. This means that the people you bring in are more likely to settle in.

“We’ve also brought in profiles of athletes who fit our style. Fortunately, when we bring in new players, we don’t normally ask them to do something dramatically different from their finest traits. That improves football integration slightly.”

Town are now preparing for a trip to Southampton, another newly promoted team, on Saturday. Last season, the Blues won both Championship games against the Saints, although Russell Martin’s side is yet to score a point since gaining promotion through the play-offs.

“It’s not going to happen overnight,” McKenna remarked, going on to explain how he plans to bring his new-look squad up to speed.

“Across the squad, I believe we’ve got about 14/15 Premier League debuts. So we’re in a process, and I believe we’ll improve week by week if we take the appropriate approach.

“It’s fortunate because we’ve already been somewhat competitive in our games. If we stay on track and work together, we’ll be in a much better spot in a few weeks or months than we are today.”

If Town’s best is yet to come, their early results should be quite encouraging.