Eight promoted teams have spent north of £100m in the summer transfer window heading into their crack at the Premier League.

Three have stayed up, four have gone down, with Ipswich Town not only in the latter camp but also the only club to feature twice on that list.

It is why the eighth outcome remains unknown, and while it would take Ipswich another £55m to topple Sunderland’s bold spend last year – the Black Cats are also their first league opponents this month – their £107m summer spend on 10 new players is set to rise further with forward Julio Enciso expected to join this week.

A huge outlay carries no guarantee of survival, as Ipswich know themselves, having spent £100.5m two years ago before finishing 19th – 16 points off safety.

So have lessons been learnt? There has certainly been a different approach, and while Enciso appears crucial to helping one problem position, it is arguably off the pitch where Ipswich have taken their greatest gamble this summer.

Ipswich need a spark

Ipswich averaged less than a goal a game in their previous Premier League campaign (36 goals), and last season they scored 80 goals in the Championship – 12 down from 2023-24.

Their need for firepower was obvious, and Ipswich started the summer window by spending a club-record £24m on Brazilian striker Emersonn from Toulouse.

Emersonn scored six goals in 27 Ligue 1 games last season, and Ipswich boss Gary O’Neil admitted this week there is work to do.

“He’s getting there,” O’Neil said. “He didn’t have as good a summer as the rest of the lads. Emi came back in not as good shape as [others in the squad], so he’s a bit behind.

“We need to get into him to help him with some of the deficiencies that he has in his game… Short term he’ll be more inconsistent than he will long term. But that’s part of it. When you shop abroad a little bit and you take a young one, there’s going to be a little bit of a transition to the level.”

The uncertainty continues with the permanent arrival of Chuba Akpom, whose loan spell at Ipswich last season triggered a mandatory buy clause of £7m.

The 30-year-old former Arsenal striker has played just 28 minutes of Premier League football in his career, and scored 38 times in 158 Championship appearances, including twice for Ipswich in 2025-26.

In need of a spark, therefore, it is clear why Ipswich are after Enciso, who had a brief loan spell with the Tractor Boys in 2025.

O’Neil’s recent Strasbourg stint may have been brief, just five months, but in that time he worked with Enciso, the Paraguayan who scored against Germany at the World Cup and ended last season with three assists in one game against Monaco.

That could be the level of creativity required to ensure Emersonn in particular does not become an expensive mistake.

O’Neil’s own point to prove

Beyond the money spent – including on 6ft 9in Dutch goalkeeper Kjell Scherpen, who becomes the joint-tallest player in Premier League history – the spotlight will be on the Ipswich dugout.

Kieran McKenna’s June departure was abrupt, the 40-year-old resigning to take a break from football entirely following reports he was in talks with Fulham.

And with Ipswich turning to O’Neil, the club and head coach are already part of history, with a record nine Premier League teams starting the season with a new manager.

In O’Neil, Ipswich have a boss with a point to prove after his last stint in England ended on a sour note at Wolverhampton Wanderers.

O’Neil had started brightly at Wolves, but in December 2024 he was sacked with the club 19th. They failed to win any of their opening eight Premier League games and, coincidentally, O’Neil was dismissed after losing 2-1 at home to Ipswich.

The final straw unfolded in messy circumstances, with O’Neil stripping Mario Lemina of the Wolves captaincy before Rayan Ait-Nouri was involved in a scuffle during the Ipswich game.

O’Neil lost the players having long lost the supporters, and the question will be whether he is the right man to lead Ipswich’s Premier League campaign.

It could answer whether he contributed towards or actually softened Wolves’ drastic downwards spiral, and makes for a greater gamble than any money Ipswich have spent on players. With bookmakers placing O’Neil second in the sack race behind Hull City’s Sergej Jakirovic, the jury is out.

Overhaul plus new manager equals…?

Survive and the justification for spending big is obvious, and Ipswich will know the eyes of the Championship are on them after such a major overhaul.

This is the second time in three summers they have rolled the dice, and with a new approach – recruitment from the continent instead – the drawing board will come out if they are relegated again.

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And with Coventry City taking a different tact and Hull City still hopeful of 10 new arrivals, what is clear is that the promoted clubs mean business.

Something will have to give, and right now the fascination lies in not knowing where.