Managing director Ian Milne believes there’s got to be “some massive rebuilding” at Town over the summer with owner Marcus Evans and manager Mick McCarthy having held their first meeting to discuss their plans for the 2017/18 season.
"Marcus has indicated and we’re indicating that there’s got to be some massive rebuilding over the summer and that’s starting, there’ll be more after the end of the season so they’ve started looking at the options,” he told Saturday’s Life’s a Pitch on BBC Radio Suffolk (47mins 00secs).
"There are loan players that I think we’d all like to keep, so they’ll be working on that. It’s always difficult to say precisely who is going to be here because it’s up to the players, they will have other offers, there will be some players who may go because they’ve got a better offer somewhere else.”
Does this rebuilding mean Evans will be spending some money? "He continues to spend a lot of money, £6 million or £7 million a year. I know fans want more spent but we all have budgets we have to cope with.
"As we’ve said before that squad, the basic squad is good as it proved against Newcastle, but it keeps going up and down, that’s our problem. We had bad day at Rotherham, which was very upsetting. Marcus was there and he knew our thoughts.”
Milne confirmed that McCarthy and Evans met last weekend to get their summer discussions under way: "They did, they had a good meeting, but it was the start of many.”
The MD says Evans is well aware that significantly more money is now being spent elsewhere in the division than was the case in previous seasons.
"He fully understands that,” he added. "At the moment he doesn’t know how much he’s going to spend because we don’t know who’s coming in and going out. But I’ve got no feeling that he’s going to spend less and hopefully he’ll spend more.”
Having said in January that he would make a decision on his future in the summer, McCarthy has more recently stated his intention to remain at Portman Road.
Asked whether McCarthy would still be in charge at Town next year, Milne added: "That’s a question we’re going to have to wait [to hear the answer to]. He’s got another year on his contract, I have no further news on that at the moment.
"At the moment he’s here, he’s going to continue for the season and we’ll see what he says.”
Milne isn’t yet sure when Town will announce their matchday prices and says the club have been discussing more flexible ticketing arrangements.
"Not at the moment, we’ve got a review with Marcus to go through that,” he said. "We want to get that right.
"Basically, it’s around the idea that we’ve got to understand that people’s lifestyles have changed and maybe they can’t come to every match and they want to pick and choose which matches they want to come to.
"I’m not a golfer myself, but they tell me golf club memberships are difficult to sell now because people don’t have that time every week to go and play.
"The same with us, they can’t come to every match, so I think we’ve got to give more options on that and that’s what we’re working on.”
Season ticket numbers are expected to dip to just below 10,000 for the first time since the Blues’ stint in the Premier League at the start of the century - a drop in revenue of more than £1 million - and Milne says the precise total sold before the recent early bird deadline should be known soon.
"We’re processing those at the moment, the DDs [Direct Debits], so we will be coming up with that shortly,” he continued.
"It’s lower than last year but I don’t know the actual figure at the moment. But we’ll come out with that shortly. Of course it is lower, we understand that because of the entertaining football issue.”
Regarding the new kits for the 2017/18 season which are yet to be unveiled, he said: "I think we’re a bit later this year, part of it is because of Adidas and the marketing.”
Milne expects the home strip to go down well with supporters: "I’ve seen it and it’s traditional and I think fans will love it.”