Conor Chaplin says the Town’s pre-season training camp in Austria ‘ticked all the boxes’ as the Blues stepped up preparations for their Premier League return next month.
The Town forward says the Carinthian visit was a great success as the trip culminated in a 1-0 friendly victory over Ukrainian champions Shakhtar Donetsk.
"It’s been a really good, productive week with lots of hard work. A beautiful place to come as well, so it probably ticks all the boxes that you look at for a pre-season tour.
"We’re probably a group that doesn’t need to team bond too much anymore, but it’s good for the new signings. We’ve got a lot of new staff and new signings so it’s important for them.
"For the group that’s been here solidly for a couple of years now, we don’t need to bond too much more, we’ve had that and had those experiences.
"It’s been a really productive week with a lot of work on the training pitch. That’s the main thing that you’re looking for from a week like this is to put the work in and to also have time because it’s lovely weather all day long, so you can have a lot of time throughout the day to work on tactical bits which is also less physical as well.”
The Blues made two similar trips to Austria a year ago, with Chaplin highlighting how the club have continued to step up a level under Kieran McKenna.
"Yes, the club have really tried to do that again,” he said. "We had that last season when we got promoted to the Championship, the club did well to make the lads feel as if the club’s gone up again in certain levels and standards and facilities. And they’ve done it again.
"Obviously we’re waiting for the training ground, there’s no quick fix, it’s just going to be one of those things that comes with time and you’ve got to wait for that. But definitely the way we’re doing things, it definitely feels like a Premier League club and it’s gone up a level.”
By his own admission, pre-season is not a time Chaplin has enjoyed in the past. However, since moving to Ipswich, the Town man says he is focused on using the time to improve himself on and off the pitch.
He said: "I think you have to enjoy feeling your body getting fitter all the time and becoming more robust throughout the weeks. Definitely it’s been something I enjoy, probably more so in the last few years rather than when I was younger.
"Rather than just trying to get through pre-season, it’s trying to find ways to get better. That’s something I’ve tried to look at over the last few years and how I can become a better person and a player.
"I’m going to have to get better, definitely. I think the majority of us are going to have to come on again, just like I did last season. I became a better player last season, definitely, and I’ll have to do that again. It’s an incredible league to play in, I’m just so excited to get the chance.”
The Blues have made five signings so far this summer, with Omari Hutchinson, Ben Johnson, Jacob Greaves, Liam Delap and Aro Muric all joining the Town squad.
While Hutchinson and Muric, who were both present in Austria, did not feature, the former as his workload is being managed and the latter having only joined up on Wednesday, Chaplin says the settling in process for the new arrivals has been ideal.
"They’ve all got their own characters and qualities that they bring to the group in their own way and we’ve seen a lot of that already from all the boys,” he said.
"It’s been really nice and it’s probably the biggest plus-side to coming away is that you get to spend a lot of time with the new lads and figure out what they’re all about.
"It’s quite seamless now when new lads come in. I probably anticipated more coming in this season than in the last few seasons in terms of numbers, but it’s such an easy group to come into, such a strong culture that you fit into it really straight away, or if you don’t you soon find out the culture is how it is and lads seem to fit in and adjust themselves to that. It’s exciting for all the lads.”
On Hutchinson, whose loan from last season was made permanent for a club record fee, Chaplin says he always felt the 20-year-old would return.
"I had a feeling,” he said. "He loved it, the lads loved him, he got on really well with everyone inside the changing room, he’s such a good lad - humble, hard-working, everything that we represent as a football club, really. I had a feeling that he’d be back and thankfully, he is.”
Victory in Town’s opening public pre-season game came courtesy of a Sam Morsy goal against a Shakhtar side who will be competing in the Champions League this season. While the result is largely irrelevant, it showed the Blues can compete with some of Europe’s best sides.
"We weren’t bothered about the result at all, I’ll be honest,” Chaplin said. "But like any game it’s nice to win, you’d rather win than not.
"They’re obviously a very good team, we had to dig in at times and show a really good side defensively, which we’re definitely going to have to show this season.
"It’s something we wanted to show today and see how we can be in a low-block and a mid-block and protect the goal and on the flip side of that how we can transition towards goal.
"After 15 or 20 minutes we really grew into the game and became the better team, which is the biggest positive to play a team as good as that and come out feeling we deserved to win.”
Having spent the majority of the week in the beaming hot sun, heavy downpours fell at kick-off and lasted the duration of the game, something Chaplin was thankful for.
"It was absolutely lovely, I’ll be honest,” he admitted. "It made it a lot easier for the players to run around. You weren’t gasping for air like we have been all week, I think the rain took the humidity down as well and the temperature was the lowest it’s been all week. It was a little bit of English for us.”
Asked if he was eager for the season to start, Chaplin said: "It’s still four weeks away so it seems a little while away for us yet. We’ve got a lot of work to do until that comes, a lot of good pre-season games as well are really exciting for us with some good outfits that we’re going to be coming up against that’s just going to prep us for the league.
"But I can’t wait for that to come, it seems a little while off yet but I’m sure it’ll fly around.”
Liverpool and Manchester City in the opening two matches of the season is about as tough as you’re going to get anywhere in world football. Chaplin is relishing the opportunity to begin with those matches that the fixture computer has thrown Town into.
"It’s probably a really good welcome to the Premier League but it’s fantastic for the football club and fantastic for us players to start with those two games,” the 27-year-old said.
"A home and away game like that is a baptism towards the Premier League but we’re so excited and we can’t wait.”
Asked whether he has had to pinch himself over the success of the last two years, Chaplin quipped: "That time’s gone now, really. I don’t think you can use energy on that now, that’s gone.
"You just need to focus on how you can be a good Premier League player and be a good teammate for the lads and try and get better for the challenge that is the Premier League.”
He added: "I had time to reflect and watch a lot of videos and stuff like that on social media, on my own phone of the celebrations and things like that, which is always nice.
"As soon as we’re back into pre-season, I think that’s behind us and the fans can bring up that on social media and you get to enjoy watching the video here and there every so often on social media, but for us it’s just back to improvement every single day.”
Finally, Portman Road has seen plenty of developments over the last few months ahead of its first hosting of Premier League football in 22 years, with work on floodlights, television cameras and the introduction of VAR among the changes.
"I was down there a little while ago,” Chaplin said of the stadium. "There’s a lot of work going on. It’s just amazing, we’re probably not going to see it come to fruition until maybe the first game or maybe we’ll train there beforehand, I’m not sure.
"I’d imagine we’ll train there before the start of the season for the new lads. Would be good to get down there and see it all finished.”