Ipswich Town returned to the Premier League after finishing second in the Championship in the 2024-25 season, completing an immediate comeback at the first time of asking after relegation. Dara O’Shea said the club did it despite a season in which, as he put it, “nobody wanted us to do it this year” and “everybody wanted to see us fail.”

The defender said the promotion carried extra weight because Ipswich came into the campaign as heavy favourites, with the quality in the squad and the reported transfer fees bringing pressure from the start. “I’m just proud of us. We believed in it. We always thought we could. We proved it to ourselves, which was the main thing,” O’Shea said, adding that the side “walked the walk.”

That made the Championship campaign feel very different from the one before it. Ipswich were a recently relegated side with parachute payments, and O’Shea said it took time for the team to understand that opponents were happy to disrupt them in whatever way they could. He called the season “the polar opposite to last season” and said, “It’s different. It takes a while to get used to it.”

The wider picture helps explain why Ipswich’s return stood out. Recently relegated teams often face hostility from opponents and do not always come back straight away, while rivals can take different paths after dropping down. O’Shea pointed to Southampton, saying they are “doing brilliant now,” and noted that Leicester “find themselves in League One.”

That contrast is part of why Ipswich’s promotion matters beyond Portman Road. Teams such as Coventry City, Millwall and Middlesbrough drew more neutral support over the course of the season, and yet Ipswich still finished second place and earned a place back in the Premier League. O’Shea said the expectation never went away, but the team absorbed it and delivered anyway. “We’ve done it. That’s all that matters,” he said.