Town boss Mick McCarthy insists that he has no problem working within tight financial constraints at Portman Road. The Blues manager, who has spent just £20,000 on former Waterford United winger Jack Doherty, sees no point in complaining and prefers to just get on with the job in hand.
"What I’ve become very adept at is playing the hand that I’ve been given,” he said. "If there’s a Financial Fair Play rule and I have to be within that budget, what’s the point about me bitching about it?
"It’s like us saying we’ll have caviar at home but we can’t afford it, so we can’t have it. I’ve never had it, so I don’t know if I like it or not.
"It’s bonkers when people whinge and bitch about their lot. Make the best of it. I’ve done that wherever I’ve been.
"With the Republic of Ireland, where were we there, 40-odd [in the world rankings] and we ended up 13th. All that travelling second class and coming to games with plastic bags and we got to the last 16 of the World Cup.”
He says not all the players he has worked with in the past have taken the same approach: "Make the best of what you’ve got, that’s got to be anybody’s mantra in my book and I ask players to do the same.
"When there’s 10 different flavours of Powerade and somebody wants an elderflower one and we haven’t got one — ‘Shambles, we haven’t got an elderflower one!’.
"Do me a favour! It’s not happened here, but I’ve been there. ‘Have we got any hats?’ in the summer. Do me a favour! ‘You don’t need a hat, get out there and train!’.
"Make the best of what you’ve got and if you do that individually and collectively, you’ve got a really good chance of being successful and I’d say Crystal Palace epitomised that last year.”
With regard to Financial Fair Play he believes it is making a difference and says he’s still hearing from players yet to find clubs, perhaps as they were expecting wages above those that clubs are now willing to pay.
"I think there were probably a lot of players thinking that coming out of contract was the holy grail and I think there were a lot of clubs thinking ‘Happy days, there are a few coming out of contract we can get off the wage bill’, knowing full well that Financial Fair Play will be having an effect.
"And it has had an effect, there’s no doubt about that. I’m still getting calls about good players who have not got clubs.
"Maybe they set their sights too high and they’re not going to get what they were going to get and now they’re looking around trying to get jobs some of them.”