Town have confirmed the appointment of Paul Lambert as manager, the 49-year-old having agreed a deal to 2021.
The new boss will watch today's game at Millwall from the stands and we understand will meet the players and coaching staff at Playford Road on Sunday. A press conference is pencilled in for Tuesday.
Lambert's backroom staff are his Stoke assistant manager Stuart Taylor and fitness coach Jim Henry, as previously reported by TWTD, along with first-team coach Matt Gill, who has been working as Norwich City’s U23s coach.
"I am delighted that Paul has agreed to become manager of Ipswich Town,” Town owner Marcus Evans told the club site.
"He made it clear from our first conversation that he would relish the opportunity to come here.
"He is a very knowledgeable manager who has vast experience of the Championship as well as working for a number of years in the Premier League.
"In his time at Aston Villa he showed he could work and develop young players and his teams have always looked to play exciting football and those attributes fit our ethos here.
"He obviously enjoyed a lot of success at our local rivals and the aim for Paul and everyone at the club is to see that repeated here - and bettered!
"The first priority though is to start climbing the table and I urge the supporters to get right behind our new manager and the players to strengthen our ability to do that.”
New boss Lambert added: "I can’t wait to get going and I’ll be using all my experience - and give everything I’ve got for Ipswich Town.
"I know about the history of the club, what a fantastic football club it is and I’m proud to be the manager here.
"Obviously it’s been a difficult start to the season but to get through this period we need to be pulling together as one - players, staff and supporters.
"I want us to play with tempo, with enthusiasm, with drive. I want the players to enjoy their football and I’m relishing the challenge of helping to take this club forward.”
Lambert, the 17th manager in Town's professional history, was last in a job earlier this year, taking charge of Stoke City in January but leaving in May following the Potters’ relegation to the Championship.
Previously he was in charge at Wolves, Blackburn and Villa, but is most remembered in East Anglia for his stint in charge at Norwich between 2009 and 2012 during which he took them from League One to the Premier League in successive seasons.
The Scot had joined the Canaries from Colchester United where he had spent just under a year. The U's had defeated Norwich 7-1 on the opening day of 2009/10.
His managerial career started at Livingston, where he finished his playing days, before he moved on to Wycombe.
A midfielder, he played for St Mirren, Motherwell, Borussia Dortmund - with whom he won the Champions League - and Celtic as well as Livingston. He won 40 caps for Scotland, scoring once, and played at the 1998 World Cup.