After the dramatic ups and downs of the season past, 2011/12 will be a season where consistency should be the main focus.

Paul Jewell is the man I believe will bring this back to Ipswich. He has started this from the moment he walked in the door, stepping away from Roy Keane's way of managing and promoting players to the starting line-up because of their training ground work and not because of what they are capable of.

Now he needs to deliver in the transfer market. The core of our team is up there with the best in the Championship, but we need those players with that something special to push on and gain promotion. Undoubtedly we need a striker who will score 20 goals a season, every team needs a forward who will score consistently and that is something we lacked greatly.

Danny Graham or Kris Boyd would be my personal preferences as they proven goalscorers. Connor Wickham is a stunning talent and he needs the support of a consistent goalscorer beside to emphasise his ability.

Keeping Jimmy Bullard is vital to our promotion push. If he's as happy as makes out he will sign for us and become part of our promotion push. At 32 he's no spring chicken and this is his last chance to be part of something at this stage of his career. However he needs support in midfield.

Josh Carson has stepped up and proven he is capable of playing at this level (his Northern Ireland call up backs this up), whilst Lee Martin looks a changed man since his return from Charlton.

However, in this area we need a character in the mould of Roy Keane or Paul Ince who will anchor the midfield. This role is not suited to Grant Leadbitter, he is to clumsy to effectively play this position.

In defence we improved dramatically since Jewell took over, but we still lack discipline. In my opinion Gareth McAuley leaving is a good thing as I believe he is often overexposed and his timing is not the best. Signing Darren O'Dea permanently would be a great start. Damien Delaney needs a centre-back partner whilst Carlos Edwards has excelled at right-back. Behind the back four we have two steady goal keepers and that bodes well for forthcoming season. This is the one area we do not need any extra signings.

All in all the upcoming season promises to be one of excitement and consistency, let's hope Jewell makes the signings we need to make that step up to the Premiership to replace Norwich after they've been relegated!

DiamondGezzer added 11:00 - May 12 Agree with most of the blog, but sorry not about Darren O'Dea. He may have tried his hardest, but for me it fell somewhat short of what is required.
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Sindre94 added 12:56 - May 12 Agreed with most except boyd and odea,I would love it if we get sharp
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cwb91 added 14:04 - May 12 "Signing Darren O'Dea permanently would be a great start". Great start to what? Any respectability that this article may have gained, was totally abolished by this ridiculous statement. On top of this howler, you seem to seriously overplay the ability of the current squad, and our ability to sign players of Graham's or Boyd's ilk is questionable.
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nickyblue added 16:05 - May 12 As a club in England and Europe we still have a good ability to pull in big players, such as Jimmy Bullard for example. Danny Graham is going to want to play for a team more likely to be competitive in the championship and that is us. He's not quite Premiership level and playing for a team like Ipswich would enable him to further his career. Darren O'Dea is not to everyone's taste but there is no other left back available to us that is any good. If town sign a decent 20 goal a season striker, a holding midfielder and a strong centre back we will be there or there abouts.

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SouperJim added 17:29 - May 12 Gentlemen, you forget that O'Dea is a centre half who has been filling in for us at left back. He has shown many qualities that we should be looking for in new signings and that some of the existing squad lack, a will to win, a willingness to get stuck in and some professional pride for a start! We could do much worse.
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Ipswich24 added 17:42 - May 12 O'Dear is pants
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michaeldownunder added 19:40 - May 12 When Delaney played at full back he was pants too, but not to bad at centre half could O'dea be the same?. Myself I think that we should go for St. Ledger at Preston
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Surco72 added 08:40 - May 13 I dont get this pat ourselves on the back mentality ? We have been poor to average for the last three seasons . As a whole our defence has been wanting throughout that time with clean sheets limited and cannot remember how many times we have let in silly goals and then totally capitulated afterwards to be on the end of a drubbing or the game over within a couple of minutes . To look at them as individuals- "Edwards has excelled" !!! Hardly ,quite clearly not a right back and has been at fault for a number of goals by being out of position and leaving us exposed . Kennedy too old and often found out . Delaney headless and looks poor if not alongside a good player on top of his game ,good game 1 in 4 ? Mac often held that defence together and when he was off form we looked dreadful ,simple fact and need a big replacement. In midfeld we need a holding commanding figure to play with Bullard or Leadbitter (as if we even get Jimmy he will only play half of the games at most ) We need another goalscoring midfielder from wide Maybe Ambrose worth a punt ? And two strikers ,one to battle and put his head in where it hurts and a poacher .Roberts and Sharp ? This would aid Wickham and Murray no end . In conclusion we need a stronger keeper,new right back,left back ,centre back ,wide left midfielder,holding midfielder ,scoring midfielder and two strikers find them Jewell and we will be laughing otherwise it will be mid to low table again, it will be a long summer i fancy

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Solly added 16:02 - May 14 'Paul Jewell is the man I believe will bring this back to Ipswich. He has started this from the moment he walked in the door, stepping away from Roy Keane's way of managing and promoting players to the starting line-up because of their training ground work and not because of what they are capable of.' So, 5-1 and then 4-1 defeats to Norwich and Swansea is consistency is it? Going to Cardiff and winning then getting done by Reading etc at home is consistency? Jewell has barely made any changes to his strating line up since he arrived, so how you can say he picks from what he sees on the changing room beggars belief. Next season will be better, but it won't be consistent and players will be picked on past form, not training ground performances.

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4dy added 17:26 - May 16 at this time of year we all like to play fantasy football and who would make our team promotion material.if you look at the league you just have to prepare your team for a long hard scrap looking at the teams who finished in the top places especially flippin nobwich. class can easily be smothered in the championship,ask craig bellamy. didnt do a lot against us did he.i believe that since the days of magilton we haven't managed to sign the players that would complement our team.i think if jim had managed to get nugents signature we could very well have been a major force in the league,but we always seem not to be able to do this,while nobwich didnt really have what you would call one of the strongest sqauds but they could put the ball in the back of the net to compensate for an average defence. thats all that is wrong with our team,i think we got all ingredients except goals .i feel confident that jewell may be able to tip the balance in our favour when it comes to signings.billy sharp played well against us but didnt score enough to put donny rvrs in the mix . i think we are going to have to dig a bit deeper into the coffers to get what we need.

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Brazils_Bathrobe added 13:43 - May 17 Unfortunately consistency hasn't been a problem over the last few seasons. We consistently miss chances, consistently leak goals and consistently fail to protect leads or stage comebacks. We consistently put bad runs together and have consistently signed average/bad players. We're consistently viewed as an average at best Championship side with a lovely ground to take points home from. Even Motson had a dig the other night when he said West ham will have to get used to not being a Premier side quickly and accept they are playing at the level with the likes of Barnsley and Ipswich! Next season is HUGE for us to turn this around and PJ knows he's got to deliver.

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jas0999 added 14:39 - May 22 Unfortunately I can not see us progressing next season. PJ has much to do - and it will be a big ask to make the top 6 - particularly if you look at our current squad (which is minus McAuley, Norris and Bullard now). I can also see attendances at PR falling next year - possibly as low as 14-15K - IF PJ persists with this horrible one up front (Scotland isolated). Tough times ahead and forme O'Dea would be a poor signing.

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