Former Norwich City defender Russell Martin believes that Ipswich Town will secure automatic promotion from the Championship this season.
The 40-year-old, who made more than 300 appearances for the Canaries in his 15-year playing career, is out of work after managerial stints at Southampton and Rangers came to an end.
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That hasn’t stopped him following the Championship, however. While Martin has been highly impressed by Middlesbrough, he believes that the Blues’ experience of winning promotion to the Premier League in 2023/24 might see them over the line, sending them back to the top flight along with Coventry City.
“I still think, for some reason, that Ipswich will do it,” he told Football Daily.
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“Part of me thinks Ipswich will do it because of the experience of Kieran [McKenna] doing it, and the players.
“I think Middlesbrough are fantastic and I’ve enjoyed watching them probably more than anyone in the Championship this year.
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“When we were in the Championship with Norwich the second time after we got relegated, because we had so many players who had done it before, we almost felt like, ‘We’ll do it, we know what it takes. When it comes, the other teams will start feeling it a bit more and we’ve been there, we’ve done it, we know what it takes’.
“If you have that in your building, maybe it gives you a little bit of edge.”