Former Town boss Mick McCarthy has admitted that he should have left Portman Road earlier than his eventual departure in April 2018.
Having made the play-offs in 2014/15, McCarthy, who left his latest job as manager of the Republic of Ireland earlier this month, became deeply unpopular with fans during the final two campaigns of his five-and-a-half-year stint at Portman Road.
"We got to the play-offs at Ipswich – that is a club I should have left earlier,” McCarthy told The Athletic.
"They got bored with me, but me being belligerent I wasn’t going to walk, certainly Marcus Evans, the owner, wasn’t going to sack me because I was keeping them up – we finished 12th the last season that I was there.
"But it did turn sour, which is such a shame because I had a great rapport with the fans when I first went there. We didn’t spend any money and we had really good results.
"And the rapport that I had with them from the start, I wasn’t doing anything different when I left. But I think they got a bit bored with pragmatic me.”
McCarthy, 61, has also been speaking about the impact of social media on the game, revealing that a Town player came to see him after Blues supporters called for his inclusion in the side on Twitter.
"People tell me the game has changed and players have changed but have they? I don't find the job any harder. I treat all the players well and with respect. Me and TC [his assistant Terry Connor] coach and manage them. That's it,” he told the Daily Mail.
"Social media has changed things a little but I have learned something there. I used to think Twitter offered only abuse to players. But it was pointed out to me at Ipswich that all the fans were bigging one of the lads up on Twitter and he was responding by thinking he should be in the team.
"It opened my eyes. Not that it made any odds, because when he came into my office I still wasn't bothered. I said, ‘The fact that you are getting a million tweets saying you should be playing doesn't make a blind bit of difference to me. I watch you train and perform, remember. I know’."