First coach of the team Tony Mowbray was given four games as a caretaker manager, and won one and losing once, but he was eventually removed as manager by previous Oldham Athletic, Everton and Manchester City manager Joe Royle who was a player for the local and rival Norwich City. Royle took over a team struggling to get into being in the Division One relegation zone, however, he redeemed the fortunes of the club so that the team was unable to qualify for the playoffs. In 2003-04, the team was able to rise out of the administration and continue to fight for a return into the Premier League. They finished the season the top five, but lost in the playoff semi-finals against West Ham United.
In the midst of narrowly not advancing automatically in the 2004-05 season, Royle again took Ipswich to the play-offs however, they were beaten again against West Ham United in the semi-finals. The 2005/06 season saw Ipswich finish 15th in the table, which was the lowest place the club has been in since. Joe Royle resigned by mutual agreement on May 11th, 2006 and, a month after, Jim Magilton was officially named manager. The club in November 2007 was engaged in takeover talks with entrepreneurs Marcus Evans and former Birmingham City director David Sullivan. In December 2007 Evans took over of Birmingham City by purchasing an 87.5 percent part of the team. He invested approximately PS44 million, which also included purchasing the club's PS32 million loan. The club signed with Marcus Evans Group on the 20th of May 2008. Marcus Evans Group on 20 May 2008 that will last until 2018. It was the longest period in the history of the club.
In the end, after failing to make it to the playoffs despite massive investments, Magilton was sacked in April 2009, and the new CEO Simon Clegg replaced him with the former Manchester United player, Roy Keane. Keane's time as manager ended after a shaky 18-month tenure, after which his resignation was announced in January of 2011, only to be replaced with Ian McParland in a caretaker position prior to when Paul Jewell took the reins on an ongoing basis. An unsatisfactory start to the 2012/13 season that saw Ipswich in the bottom half of the Championship having won just one of their first 12 games. This led to Jewell being dismissed on the 24th of October, 2012 with mutual consent.
He was temporarily replaced in a temporary capacity by Chris Hutchings for a single match as a caretaker until the former Wolves manager Mick McCarthy was appointed full-time on the 1st of November, 2012. McCarthy managed Ipswich to avoid relegation moving them from the to the bottom of the league during November to reach 14th place. The following season saw an 8th place finish, and, in 2014-15, an impressive 6th position and play-off win - but Ipswich fell in the semi-finals against their local opponents Norwich City 4-2 on aggregate. Ipswich ended their 2016-17 campaign in 16th position the lowest they have been since 1958-59. McCarthy made it clear that McCarthy was going home at the conclusion in the season 2017-18 on March 23rd 2018, but he ultimately removed himself from the position with just four games remaining. He was replaced at the close in the campaign with Bryan Klug as a caretaker manager. Ipswich finished the season 12th position.
On the 30th of May, 2018, Paul Hurst was announced as the new manager of the club. He was appointed on the basis of a three-year deal. After a disastrous beginning to the season, and the team finishing at the bottom of the league, Hurst was sacked in October of 2018 after just five months as manager and was the manager with the lowest tenure in the history of the club. His replacement was the former Norwich City manager Paul Lambert however, he was not able to stop the club from being relegated in League One at the end of the 2018-19 season. the end of Ipswich's 63-year tenure within the two top leagues in English football.