Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna insists his promotion heroes fully supported the club’s decision to bring in a dozen new players this summer.
It was largely the same squad that secured back-to-back steps up the pyramid from League One to the Premier League, that band of Blues brothers writing themselves into club folklore.
However, the likes of Cameron Burgess, Massimo Luongo, Wes Burns and Conor Chaplin may now have to settle for a place on the bench in the top flight following the arrival of 12 new players at a cost of more than £100m, while George Edmundson and Marcus Harness have been loaned to Championship duo Middlesbrough and Derby respectively.
Asked if the transfer window, which closed at the end of August, had been a distraction for his players, McKenna responded: “It’s not been too difficult. I think every individual situation is different. In our position, every player that is here wants to be here. Nobody wants to move, everybody is so excited to be here and focused on the next session and trying to make an impact. It’s probably more difficult if you have squad where players are positively looking to move on, which certainly wasn’t the case with any individual here.