Talk of Ipswich being in the market for a goalkeeper is like water off a duck’s back to present incumbent Arran Lee-Barrett.
Manager Paul Jewell has admitted that the signing of an experienced custodian will be one of his main priorities for next season — but Lee-Barrett, whose contract is not due to expire until 2013, has heard it all before.
Lee-Barrett, 28, said: "I’ve been here nearly three years and there has always been talk of goalkeepers coming in. You’ve got to welcome the competition they bring. With each keeper you can learn something new that can help to improve your game.
"Whoever the goalkeepers are at the club the one thing that never changes is the way we all work hard together as a group. We usually have about 30 or 40 minutes training on our own before we join the rest of the squad. Only one can play in the first team and whoever it is the others all support him.”
Although Lee-Barrett’s career has taken a roundabout route via Norwich, Cardiff, Weymouth, Coventry and Hartlepool and he only became an Ipswich player in August 2009, he was in the Town academy from an early age.
He laughed: "I started when I was 10 so that means I have known our goalkeeping coach, Malcolm Webster, for 18 years. We’ve both been away and come back again but it’s great to be working with him again. He’s someone for whom I and the rest of the goalkeepers have a great deal of respect.”