Boss Mick McCarthy believes Town’s academy staff are “an outstanding group of people” despite last week’s failure to attain category one status. The Blues' youth set-up fell just 0.3 per cent short of the required 75 per cent in an independent audit.
McCarthy says he was as disappointed as everyone else at the club: "I was, and I had a word with the academy staff just to let them know it was nothing to do with anything they did or didn’t do and that they can be proud of their efforts to reach category one.
"They’re an outstanding group of people and fabulous staff, most of whom have played here and worked here for a long time.
"I think they did deserve it. Why it’s been turned down by .000003 or whatever it was goodness only knows, but we’ll continue to strive and get to category one.
"As I said to them, all they can do is keep doing the same and keep trying to produce the best possible players for Ipswich, whether it’s category one or category two. They’re all highly motivated and we’ll try and get there next time.”
A lack of recent graduates to senior football was a big factor in the Blues failing to make category one this time around but McCarthy believes there are talented young players on the way through, having fielded the likes of Jack Marriott, Matt Clarke and Teddy Bishop in his first team during pre-season.
"I think at any club it’s cyclical,” he said. "I was at Manchester City when they won the FA Youth Cup, which was 130 years ago now.
"But they didn’t have a lot after that. Manchester United they won it with their kids and then it didn’t happen for a long time.
"I just think it goes round and round and it looks to me that we’ve got a good crop of youngsters coming through. I hope that’s the case because it’ll make my job a lot easier if we have.”
Meanwhile, Town's U18s face Arsenal away in a friendly later today.