Town boss Mick McCarthy believes this season’s Championship is the toughest ever but dismissed the suggestion that it is mission impossible for the Blues, despite other clubs splashing out huge sums in fees and wages.
McCarthy is currently going through his hardest time since taking over at Portman Road in November 2012 with a large number of fans believing it’s time he was replaced, but the Blues boss says he’s known tough spells before at his previous clubs.
"I’ve had difficult times,” he reflected. "I think [that’s going to happen] when you’re at a club for the time I have here, I’ve been here four years.
"Strangely enough when I was at Sunderland for the first three years it went swimmingly and then we got promoted, we got no money to spend and you’re in trouble.
"The same at Wolves, actually. We didn’t compete in the Premier League financially with other clubs and I’d had five years of relative success.
"We’ve been good in the Championship here but there are teams just throwing money around which is ridiculous in this league. Some of the wages I’ve been hearing about just doesn’t compare to what we’re doing.
"We’ve been having it tough but we’ve been doing it a certain way and we’ll continue to do it. Whether it’s tough or not I’ll keep doing it and I’ll keep smiling at everybody.”
Despite other clubs having in some cases vastly superior resources he dismisses the suggestion that it’s now mission impossible for the Blues to compete.
"Not at all,” he insisted. "I think like anything, if you’re in a Formula One race if you’re driving a Formula One car you’re going to be better off than if you’re driving a Mondeo.
"If you’ve got the best and you’re plying at that end then it’s always going to be [about] spending more money, that goes for everything in football.
"I’m not suggesting for one minute that’s the comparison, us being a Mondeo, by the way, and certainly not me as a manager, but the clubs that are spending have really invested in this league and it’s made it tough. It’s made it tougher still. This is as hard a season as I’ve ever seen in this league.”
As he looks to get his side’s form back on track he says his players have access to a sports psychologist but he says he believes that’s not something which should just be employed at times of adversity.
"Yes they do, but I always find that the worst thing you can do is when you’re losing a few games and resort to sports psychology,” he added.
"If it’s going to be done I think it should be done on a regular basis. If players are seeing somebody to help with their focus or their confidence, I think that should be done regularly, not a case of saying, ‘Let’s get the psychologist in, that’ll sort it out’ because it doesn’t.
"We need to play like we did against Bristol City and QPR and not give goals away, if you need a psychologist to work it out.”