New Town co-owner Brett Johnson has vowed to have a tattoo of the Blues badge if and when the club make their return to the Premier League.

Johnson is one of the Three Lions who own five per cent of Gamechanger 20, Town’s new owners, and who are also co-chairmen of USL side Phoenix Rising.

The new ownership have made no secret that their ultimate aim is to take the Blues back into the top flight for the first time since the 2001/02 season.

"Yup. Ipswich. Premier League. That is a tattoo,” he told the ¡Qué Golazo! podcast. “I just have to figure out a way to break it to my wife. I can't wait for the day to explain that to my wife on your show, I made that commitment.”

Johnson says he is firmly behind manager Paul Cook and is delighted that new CEO Mark Ashton will be running the club day-to-day.

"I think we have the right man in Paul Cook. That's the right start,” he added. "We're very pleased to have added Mark Ashton, relative to his pedigree, background and experience, certainly what he did with Bristol City.

“I think he's going to bring a difference in terms of hands on. With the utmost respect to Marcus Evans, you know, it's not a secret that he was fairly an absentee owner. You really have to live, breathe, eat this stuff 24 hours a day, and it's a team effort.

“I feel very fortunate with the success I have seen in Phoenix Rising. The credit goes to other individuals, but I think having Paul Cook and his experience and Mark Ashton and then really looking into making some fairly dramatic wholesale changes over the summer window, and put a team that's going to fight every single day for the honour to kind of restore Ipswich back to its former glory.”

Johnson stresses the importance of the club to the locality and the local people, something which has been key to the success the Three Lions have enjoyed at Phoenix.

"These teams ideally live and thrive because of the community support," he continued. "The supporters in Phoenix that were behind the predecessor days of Phoenix Rising, it got me through some dark periods of time and I'll never forget it, and I'm grateful to them.

“So by extension I am grateful to the global community of Ipswich supporters. I'm going to work with the extended team, tirelessly to reward them and get this club back to a point of pride, for the broader community, because it's where it deserves to be.”

Regarding the ill-fated European Super League, he added: "It's not a bold statement to say that collectively, clearly they [the Super League clubs’ owners] were tone deaf and I think rightly so, the response was appropriate.

”I'm glad it died a quick and painful death and I think some of the American owners deserve a lot of criticism relative to their role and naivety associated with that.

“One of the many things I love about owning a club in England - and I've owned a club through my partnership with Jordan Gardner in Denmark with Helsingør - is that I am a huge advocate of promotion and relegation.

“I believe strongly in that model. I wish we had it in the US. You can't make a broad indictment of American owners because the reality is that we all come from different places and balance sheets, certainly different leagues, and I also view our partnership as very much an Anglo-American partnership.

“But all that said, we take our role with absolute reverence and humility and look forward to hopefully making good things happen.”

Photo: TWTD

JewellintheTown added 13:08 - May 2 Fast forward 3 years to May 2024 - 1 match to play before we go up to the Prem, Brett! I hope you're already booked up with the parlour as there will be a very long queue.
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