Summer signing Jay Tabb has revealed that boss Mick McCarthy paid him a huge compliment soon after snapping him up on loan from Reading last season.
The 29-year-old midfielder said he had only been at Portman Road for about 10 days when the manager confirmed his intention to offer him a permanent deal.
Tabb recalled: "We’d trained and played a couple of games when he said ‘I definitely want you here for next season as long as we stay up’.
"It almost went down to the wire so nothing was agreed until the season finished. I spoke to the manager and the owner a few times, there was a bit of negotiating and we got it sorted. I was delighted.
"When I was at Coventry both Reading and Wolves, who were in the top two places in the league at the time, wanted me. Mick McCarthy was the Wolves manager then and I didn’t actually speak to him at the time — I just decided to sign for Reading — but he’s a manager I have always admired and his track record is great.
"What you see is what you get and there’s no pulling the wool over his eyes. If you do the job he wants you to do you’ll get on fine with him and if you don’t you won’t be in the team. That’s the way it should be and I think that’s what most players like, for the gaffer to be straight with them.
"When you are a player looking to move there are a few things you need to take into consideration, like the manager, the set-up at the club, the players, size of club, location etc. For me Ipswich ticked all these boxes and they were the club I wanted to come and join.
"I could have held out until longer into the summer, like a lot of players did, and see who came in for me. But if a club like Ipswich, and with the manager they have, come asking you’d be a fool to turn it down.”
Tabb agrees a positive start to the campaign will be on all players’ wish lists but he pointed out: "When I was in the Reading team that won the league we had a terrible start. We were in the bottom half at Christmas, so at least if things don’t go as well as we want at Reading there will still be 40-odd games to get it sorted.
"The first game of the season is always the same. Everyone comes flying out of the traps at 100 miles an hour and after five or ten minutes you’re always knackered, no matter how much work you did in pre-season. It will settle down after that and the main thing is to come away with a positive result.”