Town striker David McGoldrick is already looking forward to next season, which will be the last before his present contract expires.
But with that deal running out in the summer of 2018 McGoldrick admits he will be eager to extend his stay in Suffolk and commit himself to a further contract tying him to Portman Road.
McGoldrick, who celebrated his 100th league start for the club with a goal in last week’s 3-1 victory over high-flying Newcastle, said: "I’ve got no plans to be going anywhere else. I’ll be back for pre-season and I’ll be fighting for my place in the team — and then an extended deal. That’s the plan.”
The former Southampton and Nottingham Forest player, who has also had a number of loan moves in his career, is even looking forward to an influx of new talent during the close season, something boss Mick McCarthy recently hinted would happen.
McGoldrick, 29, added: "My main hope is to come back fit, hit the ground running and have a good pre-season. But if the gaffer wants to bring in new blood during the summer to help the team, great. It helps to lift everyone when you see an exciting player coming in.
"You see him on the first day of training, he does well and you think to yourself ‘We’ve got something here’. It excites you and keeps everyone on their toes.
"If two new strikers came in during the summer the gaffer is bringing them in to play so it will put me on my toes and the same for the other strikers who are here.
"I’m hoping there will be new players arriving for next season because it pushes everyone and that’s what we want.”
McGoldrick is also certain that McCarthy, the main target for frustrated fans in recent months, will still be in charge and he admits to feeling for the manager when the flak has been flying in his direction, particularly after a number of depressing home displays.
He added: "The gaffer will still be here and I think he’s a victim of his own success, with the budget we’ve been on and what we’ve been doing during the past couple of years.
"I think that’s been underrated when you look at the money that is spent in this league on transfer fees and wages.
"We’re way behind that but we’ve been in the play-offs and finished seventh last season. It hasn’t clicked this season, for whatever reason, and he’s been getting stick.
"He’s not the type to hide from it — other managers might even have resigned but I could never see him doing that.
"He’ll stick with it and I know he’ll pull it round because he’s a top manager and his record speaks for itself.”
Meanwhile, McGoldrick is hoping to add to his five senior caps for the Republic of Ireland, for whom he qualifies through a grandmother who was born there.
"We’ve got friendlies against Mexico and Uruguay and then Austria in a World Cup qualifier,” he said. "It will be good to get called up for them.
"I find when we break up for the summer I’m itching to come back after a week or so of the wife nagging at me.
"It’s fitness as well — you don’t have to go out for runs on your own because you’ve got the training and the games for Ireland, and you’re not switching off for too long.
"If I’m called up I’ll be working with top Premier League players and you learn from the experience. I’m just little old McGoldrick from Ipswich when I’m playing with some of the strikers there.
"It’s good to go there sometimes because it’s a real good atmosphere in and around the squad.”