Best of luck to D Wright; I think he had still had a lot to offer Town but maybe his face did not fit or something went on behind the scenes.

I can't wait to see all these departing players replacements. Like everyone else just hope it's not well into pre season this time.

League 1 just about right

Hang on Charlton linked with town players??? surely not

Agree with ya Mickeyjb before pre season the best but whatever happens it surely can't be another repeat of or as last seasons deadline day activity !!! unsettling the squad once season kicked off

I think if we are making a few signings they'll all come in within 3 weeks, prefer some activity now but don't think we'll get any

well keano not to be pushey mate but I dont soppose we could sign anyone maybe the replacements for the players that left and then maybe a striker :)

I think we are going to find the same as last season he has targets but will find it hard to persuade them to come here,players either see this as a backwater or do not want to play under Keane

aGREE with that fatuncle.

starting to look like a last minute rush again already !

Norwich have signed 3-4 players already just to name one club, of all clubs

I just cant see where he is going to get these 5-6 new players from, and whether they will be any better. He has a fairly bad track record in the transfer market and if he has no money we are not going to get the best free transfers anyway.
Paynter for free didnt seem a bad deal for leeds for instance.

Lets judge Keano once the season starts on who or who he hasnt bought into the team. Its still very early days. The real action will not start until July time after the World Cup.

He probably hasn't signed someone because he is on holiday...
Once he's back everything will start getting serious, just lets get behind him until (and IF) we start doing bakly again!
COYB!

We are not going to get a better more reliable right back than Wright for realistically under £500,000 which is money that could have been spent elsewhere ,left midfielder ,creative midfielder if Garvan goes ,striker ,left back .
Wright will do well at Leeds as will Leeds themselves aswell as Norwich getting themselves sorted early already on a high both may do well like Leicester this season

This is the first post I have ever written but having spent the last year or so reading such extremes of opinion I thought that I would dip my toe in the water and let you good people burn it off!

I am an armachair ITFC supporter and have been for 35 years and only attend a few games per year. As such I like to think I view ITFC with an impartial perspective. This post is in support of fatuncle's comment.

Forget club history the harsh reality is that unless we are in the premier league ITFC will always be a difficult club to attract the vast majority of players to because Ipswich, compared to many town is a backwater. Like any business ( and ITFC is afterall a business) that tries to attract quality staff it is what the business AND area can offer the staff and family that counts. Norwich (and I hate to say it) is a much bigger and more attractive with many more amenities for family in and out of town, Leeds is a wonderful large city on the edge of some of the most beautiful countryside etc etc, the list goes on. Ipswich is small, not that attractive, too far from London to count, and with the exception of the stretch of coast between Southwold and Aldeburgh ddoesn't have that much to offer compared to other towns. Now I may be being a little harsh but if I am right the only way any business can overcome shortcomings of geography and attract decent staff is either by paying more than the going rate (we have seen many examples of this at ITFC) or by having well respected, dynamic, charismatic & successful leadership that can attract deecent staff for the long-term. I do mean long-term because any club regardless of lits imitaions can have the odd season.

Let us look at ITFC- In Marcus Evans and Simon Clegg we have 2 successful business men who have a passion for sport but are first and foremost businessmen. Exactly the calibre of leadership any business needs. They don't need to know much about football because that is the job of the next tier down.

In Roy Keane we have a dynamic, charasmatic and incredibly successful manager (don't laugh he is the most high profile of the lower league and most Premiership managers), he should be eaxctly the sort of individual that can be the deciding factor to attract many players who would not consider ITFC for the reasons I have stated- but is he? In my opinion his role should be just that to attract and motivate, what he ad ITFC need more than anything is a fabulous coach along side to take these individuals and turn them into a potential championship winning side. In Evans, Clegg, and Keane we have 3 peices of the jigsaw to attract and develop talent but the missing peice is still development.

Football is short-term and as such we cannot really expect too much loyalty fron any player but I leave you with his. Before you all tell be to go away and stick to my armchair if you were Chopra and ITFC, Leeds, & Norwich came in for you offering the same wages and same terms, where would you go? I would suggest pre Evans & Co ITFC would be last on the list but with Evans, Clegg, & Keane any player worth their salt would look how ITFC is set up for a long-term aim...

Have to respond to baldandlardy's comments : almost everything he says is incorrect or lacking in logic.
First of all, Ipswich and Norwich are the same size and have been for decades, so there is no geographical advantage in a player going to Norwich rather than here. While it is true to say that Ipswich town centre has still not fully recovered from being decimated in the 1960s, Norwich is a concrete monstrosity in comparison, devoid of any character whatsoever.
Evans and Clegg knowing how to run a business? There is no Marcus Evans, simply an ever-changing array of Marcus Evans Group directors/employees, some of whom will show good business sense and some of whom will not. In any case, running a football club as a conventional 'business' is not possible and the skills required are much more football specific. Therefore, the combination of Clegg and a medium-sized faceless corporation is hardly the right one for Ipswich Town, or any football club. As a senior shareholder (ha-ha) I was one of the few that voted against the Evans Group takeover, and time has shown that decision to have been 100% correct : too late now, though!
Keane? Successful? Hardly : he had one season of success at Sunderland, fuelled by massive amounts of money that are not available here. The term 'flash in the pan' applies here. He lacks the intelligence and the temperament to ever be successful as a manager long-term : our recovery cannot begin until Keane is shown the door.
So, we remain an unattractive propostion for prospective new players, not because of poor geography (in my view our location actually being a real asset) but because very few players would want to suffer the abuse of the current manager, and very few agents (yuk!) will be sold on the poor financial management that the Evans Group and Clegg have shown thus far.

I have to say Daleyitfc, as someone who has lived in Ipswich and supported the Town all my life, I unfortunately cannot agree with your comparison of Ipswich and Norwich as places. Ipswich apart from the waterfront is a desolate place. The town centre is awash with charity and pound shops and has been getting worse for years. It pains me to say it but Norwich is a vibrant city with great individual shops, better malls and fantastic nightlife. It also has a well appointed market unlike the pathetic display of stalls outside our Town Hall. One thing they dont have is our history as a football club however. Next season I feel will be pivotal in both clubs development. Whatever one's views on Keane lets get behind the team.

Have to agree with fatcat to!

Back to the topic though, would be great to get Lisbie off the books even if someone is willing to take him on a freebie-would free up his wages which could definitely be put to better use! As for for David Wright, good luck to him, has been a good solid servant for the town, lets hope Keano has someone on mind to replace him.

To DALEYITFC
First of all, Ipswich and Norwich are the same size- Not true, and Norwich is and always was a far more attractive a city than Ipswich and has much more to offer any potential recruit. Ipswich is a wasteland by comparison.

Evans and Clegg knowing how to run a business? The Evans group stats speak for themselves, the BOC on Clegg speaks for itself and I have to disagree with you that running a football club as a conventional 'business' is not possible and the skills required are much more football specific. Business is business, ITFC is a business and what it sells is a "brand" of football. The success of that brand and the revenue generated is dependant on popularity and results versus the cost of developing that brand. Letting emotion get in the way of business will only serve to ruin it.

Keane? Successful? Hardly - He is phenominally successful at raising the profile of ITFC to attact potential players and compensates for the lack of kudos that ITFC represents to possible recruits. Whilst I partially agree you with regarding Keane's tempremant etc his role should be far more about getting payers in ,motivation, and laying down a playing strategy, the coaching and implementation of the strategy should be carried out by the coaching staff and this is where I see where we are missing a key member.

I disagree with your last comment. Our location is an issue. The A12 is a nightmare as is the A14 and there is little in the way of investment in the local area to make a difference to potential players. On a like-for-like basis I bet most would go elsewhere.

I bow to your superior knowledge on Keane but I work in a global business and our products involve a 100% emotional purchase. We run at a profit. Business is business

I am constantly reading of fans dislike of players - of late: Bruce (not good enough for Championship), D Wright (only good enough for lge 1), Garvan (too slow) Counago (inconsistant & lack of goals). I select these players because they are supposedly fans favourites. But, do we universally like any players in the team. I am sure if you were to go back to teams of the past at least half the team was universally liked by all supporters. Conclusion - its crap now!

didn't know this was a geography lesson, better get my atlas out

Great to see a good sensible debate, with opionions being respected. The way it should be!

Hopefully Italy will win the world cup, i will be chuffed to bits with that. More celebrating on the corn hill like 2006... Forza Italia!
As for ITFC I haven't renewed my season ticket (1st time in 8 years) as i don't hold much hope on next season because i think it will be more of the same.
i hope we get 2 creative midfielders and an experienced centre half (lets not kid ourselves - we won't win the league with Delaney & macauley at the back, even if their stats on champ manager are high).
As for strikers i think that Wickham, Counago, Stead & Walters could get 12 each, plus Edwards should chip in with half a dozen or more...

Norwich is and always has been
1) A MUCH large urban area to Ipswich.
2) Has always had a more vIbrant city life - helped no doubt by the well establisHEd university culture and therfore younger population.

3) Ipswich (and Ive lived here 80% my life), has over the years become a run down, dirty town , full of non english speaking immigrants (if thats racist sobeit , it's TRUE, just walk down the town on a sat or sun if you dont believe me ).

4) Ipswich over the last decade has become a town centre devoid of shops , is full of cheap £1 or charity shops and half finished developments as developers go bust (water front project).

I HATE the place now .

On the footballing front.

1) norwich city fc are, and always have been (and I can see no evidence for this to change) a small, non achieving club.

2) Ipswich Town (despite the misplaced associations of "poor area") have , and always have been, a small club that has achieved great things within the game and within the game is a well respected club.

3) Town have generally always been able to attract decent players (certainly of a much higher cailibre than norwich ever have achieved in the main) - the area didnt seem to affect that fact!! What HAS affected that recent abuilty to attract decent players is not "where" Ipswich is geographically , but more "where " we are in footballing terms ie an ESTABLISHED 2nd division side . Decent players will not drop down a level , unless "silly" money is put on the table , and only then, if they forsee an immediate retrun to to the Prem (which I suspect is some 3-5 yrs away still) ).

as for the area being a problem in attracting players to Ipswich Town fc.....players dont tend to live IN the town, but more in the beautiful surroung Suffolk countryside , which historically sees thousands of people migrate to live in this area because it's a "nice place to live"!!

Ture the town of Ipswich is a shyte hole and is getting worse (thats for the local councils to get to grips with). The same cannot be ssaid of the Club. Our problem is we have perhaps become less attractive due to the underlying greed of players that want big wage packets , and mor eimportantly ONLY Premiership football , or atthe very least a sign that it is imminently possible in their careers ie any player joing Newcastle or WBA were nigh on certain of Premship football within the follwoing 12 - 24 months.

As an established Championship club Town's "problem" is we have been at this level for over EIGHT years !!

sorry, if thats true people, why is mr keane on holiday?!!!!!!!

As of last season it seems we are going to have to be patient and hope our Mr Keane comes up with the goods, on last seasons transfers I do not hold to much hope .I really do believe word has been confirmed amongst the agents and players that our Roy is just not a motivator of players.also you are either in or out in a big way.so sign at your own risk,unless you want a quiet comfortable season sometimes in favour sometimes not

I dont think RK IS on holiday is he ? He said he wouldnt be for most of the close season due to "the job in hand "!!