 Ipswich made only one major signing during the off-season, buying Hermann Hreiðarsson from Wimbledon F.C. for a club record £ 4m two days before the season commenced. Television pundits Rodney Marsh and Mark Lawrenson both agreed relegation would be the obvious outcome. Ipswich surprised the doubters; they sustained a high league position and narrowly missed out on qualification for the UEFA Champions League, when the team failed to win on the last day of the season against Derby County. The fifth-place finish gained the club a UEFA Cup place and earned George Burley the title of FA Premier League Manager of the Year, an award that until 2010 had, in every other season, been given to the manager of the Premier League champions.
