Manager Paul Cook says he had great support from the club’s owners, who he says couldn’t be more different from those who were in charge during his time at Wigan Athletic, and has no problem with them getting excited or that excitement overspilling every now and then.
The US-based Three Lions, Brett Johnson, Berke Bakay and Mark Detmer won’t be at Saturday’s game as travel restrictions from the States were relaxed too late for them to make the arrangements for this weekend.
However, they have sent messages ahead of the game via social media along with Ed Schwartz, who represents ORG, the investment firm which manages funds on behalf of Arizona's Public Safety Personnel Retirement System (PSPRS), on the Gamechanger 20 board.
Cook says he’s had great backing from the trio: "We get great support from the board, unbelievable support, absolutely unbelievable. The guys are so energised by the club, they are so passionate about the club, and they really are committed to Ipswich Town Football Club, and it’s great to see.
"Obviously, from my experience at my last club where we never ever met the owners, we didn’t know them. They were obviously in it for not the right reasons.
"I think our owners are the total opposite of that and I’m sure at the minute they’re that excited that they might overspill now and again.
"And why can’t they be excited? They want to see the fruits of their labour going into a good project and a good club.
"Basically, everything that Ipswich Town has been and is and my job as the manager now is to play my part and try to deliver that success for them.”
Asked whether tomorrow is the real start of the Paul Cook era at Town, he said: "If you look back at the six months I’ve been here, the amount of turnover in players, the ownership change — this club has been a massively changing club.
"I look back on my time here, and I was devastated I couldn’t do better with the games [at the end of last season], I’ve got to tell our supporters that I was absolutely devastated I couldn’t have more of an impact on the team, but that’s life.
"We had a lot of disillusioned players, we had a lot of unhappiness and we had a lot of different emotions going on in one building.
"All the emotions that weren’t driving the club towards success, all emotions that in my world now will leave the building or have left the building or must leave the building.
"For us now going forward, there is one common theme, we are together as a football club, we’re together as a group of people, and if people don’t want to be a part of that, then there’s no problem.”
Saturday will be the first competitive game in his time at Portman Road with a crowd with around 20,000 expected.
"Again, as I say to our supporters, I’ll always go out and clap them before the game, especially away from home. I’ll go to the visiting end and clap them just to thank them for the support and travelling to watch us,” he said.
"At home, I’ll clap them as I come out. At the end of the game, I think it’s always the time for the players and the rest of the staff to acknowledge the support and we just want to continue a cycle this season, a continuous cycle of everybody at the club playing their part.
"People don’t realise how important the little things are, the guys on the gate who welcome you, supporters asking for autographs, the people who clean our dressing rooms, right through the card, the people selling the tickets, all the office staff, the commercial staff — everybody at our club is working towards one goal, and that one goal is seeing a successful Ipswich Town football team.
"And our job is to play our part and be thankful for the support we’re getting from everywhere.
"We’ve got to make sure that on Saturday and Tuesday night that we are making people proud and that’s something that I’ve always wanted as a manager, and it’s something I pride myself on.
"People look back on my career and at all the clubs I’ve managed to turn whatever was going wrong right, and that’s something that I’ve got to do at Ipswich Town for our supporters and my bosses.”