Blues CEO Mark Ashton has stressed the importance of the character of the players the club has brought in this summer, believing that Town have done good business up to now.
The Blues have made 10 signings with manager Paul Cook having said earlier in the week that up to six more could be on their way in before the transfer window closes at the end of the month.
"We’ve done good business, I think. We’ve brought in good players and really good characters,” Ashton said in a lengthy interview with iFollow Ipswich.
"And character is key to what we’re trying to build. Be under no illusion, we’ve got to bring in good football players that fit what Paul needs on the pitch but we have to bring in god characters who fit what we want to build off the pitch.
"One thing I’ve done with all of the players is sat them down and talked to them about culture, what it means to play for Ipswich Town, what you represent when you play for Ipswich Town.”
He says part of that culture relates to the police and fire services’ pension fund, Arizona’s Public Safety Personnel Retirement System (PSPRS), which holds a 90 per cent stake in Gamechanger 20 Ltd, the company which now owns 87.5 per cent of the club, and is providing the money behind the Portman Road revolution.
"I’ve started to talk a little bit our vision, our mission and our values, and have used the terminology ‘running towards adversity’. That is something that is going to be key,” he added.
"It’s something that I believe represents the funding of this football club, it represents what we’re about and what we’re trying to do, and I’ve explained that to all of the players that have come in.
"And on Friday of this week [last Friday] I will sit down with the players and talk through that values and behaviours piece as a collective because it’s really important.
"Engagement in our community is not just going to be words, it will happen and it will grow.
"Our behaviours on the pitch and the discipline that we show on the pitch will be expected, performances will lead to results.
"We have to have a set of values that underpin that and one of those will be that everyone within this football club will run towards adversity.”
Looking at the transfers to come, Ashton says he’s not a fan of leaving things late: "I don’t like doing ‘last-minute.com’, I like to be set fairly early so we know where we’re going and I think we are on that trajectory. We’re getting ourselves set, [we’ve got 10] in.
"The other thing I would say to the fans is this, we all want to get out of the blocks quickly, we all want to win every game. Trust me, I’m exactly the same, but 10 players in are going to take a little time to gel.
"They’re going to take time to get to to know each other. It’s a 40-plus games season, a lot more with the cups, it’s going to see the depths of the squad to see us through a successful season.
"And seasons are built, seasons are not won in August. Championships are not won in August.
"We have to be realistic about this, we want to compete right at the top end of this division and be ultra-successful but we’ve got to build it. Come August 7th, we start.”