'A really enjoyable time' - McKenna discusses Town's pre-season preparations

Ipswich Town boss Kieran McKenna is looking forward to the start of the season, describing it as an ‘enjoyable’ yet important part of the year.

The first-team squad returned to Playford Road last week for some early assessments and exercises, but pre-season will officially begin next Monday as they prepare for their first Premier League campaign since 2001/02.

Town only have one friendly fixture pencilled in so far – a home game against Fortuna Dusseldorf on Saturday, July 27th. However, another training camp in Austria expected after the success of last year’s, with McKenna revealing the potential for a second trip abroad as well.

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It gives him, his staff and his players a chance to enjoy the summer while working hard for the upcoming campaign, with significant preparation required to make the step-up to the top flight of English football.

“It’s always exciting for us as staff,” he told Town TV. “It’s the time of the season I really love, to be honest.

“It’s the most contact time you get with players, to work on ourselves individually, as a team, to work on the group, integrate new players.

“It’s a chance to travel away with the group as well – once, maybe twice in pre-season.

“That’s always a really enjoyable time for the staff, to build those bonds for the season.

The Blues faced Bundesliga duo RB Leipzig and Werder Bremen in Innsbruck last summer (Image: Ross Halls)

“That’s going to be exciting. The players are working well, they’ve been in in some small groups in the last couple of weeks to touch base with the medical team and make sure everyone is ticking along well with their pre-season programme.

“Other than that, we’re looking forward to all being back together on July 1st. We’ll have a good, long pre-season, we’d have had a good break and we’ve got to use that time as well as we can to set us up for the year.”