Loanee Luke Garbutt admits he would be open to the idea of joining Town on a permanent basis but knows he will probably have to wait until the end of the season.
Garbutt, 26, is still very much an Everton player, although he has so far only started in eight of his 12 senior appearances for the Toffees, the most recent of which was back in May 2015.
This, together with the fact that his current contract is due to expire next summer and Town are the sixth club with whom he has been on loan, tends to suggest he could be looking for a new club come the end of the current campaign.
"Everton were watching me at the Fleetwood game and they are pleased with the progress I’m making,” said Garbutt, "but my sole focus is on making sure I play to the best of my ability here at Ipswich and making sure we get promoted this season.
"Would I like to stay longer term? Well, I’ve really enjoyed my time here and I’m settled in here. The lads are brilliant, the fans are top drawer and playing in front of 20,000 people is what I want to be doing. As long as we keep doing well I don’t see why not.
"But I’ll leave all that to my agent and the powers that be at this football club. At the moment I’m just focusing on each game as it comes and trying to perform to the best I can.
"If we’re promoted, Championship football would be a pull. That’s where this club should be, at the very minimum.
"It’s a bit of a travesty that we were relegated last season but the lads have taken on board exactly what the manager wanted straight away from pre-season.
"I eventually want to settle down somewhere, at a club where I feel I belong and where I’ve got a home and can push on with my career.
"I want to settle down, perform and all that type of thing. We’ve kicked on massively and bucked that trend of losing from last season.
"Now that we’re on a winning run we want to look to continue that and I look forward to it as we move on.”
Asked how the temporary switch to Town compared to his other loan spells at Cheltenham, Colchester, Fulham, Wigan and last season at Oxford, he replied: "It’s up there as one of the better ones. I’ve had a few, including a couple of poor ones, but I’ve also had a couple of really good ones.
"This one has been brilliant and I’ve really settled in, not just at the club but in the area.
"The club have been good with me, the fans have been brilliant and because we’re winning games the momentum of everything is going in the right direction. This is something I want to be a part of.
"The second half of last season at Oxford was very positive for me and I’ve looked to continue it here at Ipswich.
"That has coincided with the whole group playing well — winning games and being top of the league.
"You can’t really be in a better place to be honest. I think the Oxford loan has helped me mentality-wise and to focus on being the best I can be for Ipswich.”
Garbutt is a near-certain starter at Accrington on Sunday, the first of three games in seven days for Paul Lambert’s men as they take on Rotherham at Portman Road next Wednesday and then make the relatively short away trip to Southend on Saturday week.
He added: "It’s another three-game week coming up and we’ll be looking to take maximum points from all three games.
"First of all, though, we’ve got to take care of Accrington and make sure we execute exactly as we want to do. I would say we take it in little chunks and look to push on.
"We’ll be top of the league whatever happens in Saturday’s games but we’ll be looking to pick up three points and kick on, not just preserve our lead at the top.
"We need to focus on what we need to do, which is winning at Accrington, and then move forward and turn our attention to Wednesday and Rotherham.”
Of course, this will be Town’s first-ever league clash with Accrington, who triumphed 1-0 when the teams met for the first time in last season’s FA Cup third round tie in Lancashire, a result consigned to the history books and irrelevant to Saturday’s league fixture.
Garbutt added: "The cup tie at Accrington back in January hasn’t really been spoken about. The mentality of the group at the minute is all positive, so as long as we look to win games we won’t be looking back on the negativity of last season.
"This is a totally different game. It’s in the league, we’re top of the league and we’re looking to kick on, so from that point of view we won’t be thinking about what happened last season at Accrington. My sole focus is on trying to win the game on Sunday.”
Meanwhile, Garbutt’s accuracy from free-kicks makes him a leading contender to take a penalty should an opportunity arise.
James Norwood is the current number one but in his absence after being substituted at Fleetwood earlier this month fellow striker Kayden Jackson fired wide from the spot late on.
Garbutt said: "I’ve taken penalties in the past and I’ve scored a lot as well. I’m ultra-confident in taking penalties and believe I’m good at it.
"If Nors is on the pitch he’s the number one penalty taker but maybe it’s something we will discuss in the future. I’m more than happy to take penalties.”