Zian Flemming Joins Ipswich Town: Premier League Return
Zian Flemming walked into Ipswich Town with a grin that said it all. Premier League football is back on his horizon – and he cannot wait to feel it again.
The Dutch forward arrived from Burnley in a £20m deadline-day move and could be thrown straight in against Liverpool under the lights on Friday night. It is a brutal reintroduction, but exactly the kind of stage he craves.
“For me it's just pure excitement,” Flemming told the media on Thursday, his words tumbling out with the energy of someone who has been counting down the days. “This move for me to go back to the Premier League – I'm happy with that.”
He knows the league. He knows the pain of it too. Last season he hit 11 league goals for Burnley, a bright spark in a relegated side, his first taste of English top-flight football ending with the drop.
That experience has clearly stayed with him.
“I just get a sensation of excitement for challenges,” he said. “Whether it's a personal or a team challenge it brings something to life inside of me to take it on.
“Last season I managed to come out on top of the personal challenge to become a Premier League player but lost out on the team challenge and stay in the league.”
That split – personal success, collective failure – is driving him now. Ipswich are back in the big time and Flemming arrives as a player who has already proved he can score at this level, but who still feels like he has something to put right.
The scale of what awaits truly hit him when he saw the fixture list.
“When the move was getting closer and I really looked at the schedule and realised we were playing Liverpool on Friday I thought, 'yeah, I'm really back in the Prem!',” he said.
That's the lure: Liverpool, the noise, the cameras, the scrutiny. The chance to test himself again against the elite.
“That's what you want, to play against the best teams and best players,” Flemming continued. “That's what gave me so much joy and excitement last year, to be able to measure yourself against the very best and have them push you to the next level. I can't wait to do that again and experience that again.”
He talks like a man who enjoys starting from the bottom of the climb.
“I'd like to be at the bottom of the mountain and look up and wonder what it is like at the top,” he said. “Then, get my head down and see how far I can get and see whether I can reach the top.”
Ipswich have their own mountain to scale in their first season back among the elite. On Friday night, against Liverpool, we find out how quickly their new striker can start that ascent.
