Town boss Paul Lambert believes his young squad needs the help of a little more experience with three further additions in his thoughts and specific individual targets in mind.
Asked whether, given the strength of the squad, the play-offs rather than automatic promotion might be viewed as failure in the season ahead, Lambert responded with a question of his own.
"Do you know how old they are?” he said. "They’re kids learning, they have to learn on the job. There’s no full experience there.
"Because we’ve come down from the Championship people automatically think we’re going to bounce back up, but they [the young players] have to learn.
"They will get beaten at times when you think, ‘dear oh dear, we weren’t at it’ and they’ll play unbelievable football. You get that with kids.
"The realism has to take over at certain parts. We’re a good side with energy, enthusiasm and all those sorts of things, and we’ll be a threat.
"We’ve got goalscorers at the top end of the pitch. They need a bit of help in certain areas of the pitch but the football club, Ipswich Town, the badge indicate expectancy levels, that’s normal
"But we have to have a little bit more experience, lads that have played a lot of games.”