Skipper Jon Walters expects that some of the eight players recently made available for transfer will still be at Portman Road when the season begins. Alex Bruce, Owen Garvan, Alan Quinn, Colin Healy, Jon Stead, Lee Martin, Kevin Lisbie and Pablo Couñago were on a list recently circulated to all Football League sides.
Walters said: "There is a need to create space in the player wage budget. The club has circulated a list of eight players that they are prepared to listen to offers for, but I expect some of them to stay and remain part of the first team squad.
"But here again it is all out of our hands and up to the manager. Our squad is a strong enough one to do well at Championship level whether there is any player movement to come or not.
"And I think we will gain from having a far less hectic build-up to the season than we did last year.”
Walters expects Town to add to their squad nearer to the start of the season: "Ideally it would have been nice to have any newcomers in the building by now so that the gelling and bonding process could have started.
"But the majority of close season business is done late on, and this looks like being the case again.”
Meanwhile, ex-Town keeper Lewis Price is set to join Crystal Palace having been released by Derby County. Price spent last season on loan at Brentford.
Elsewhere, former academy striker Alan Connell has joined Blue Square Premier Grimsby Town, who are managed by ex-Blues frontman Neil Woods, having left Bournemouth at the end of the season. Connell played alongside the likes of Darren Bent and Darren Ambrose at Playford Road.
Photo: James Ager