Blues co-owner Brett Johnson says he’s “cautiously optimistic” regarding the season ahead given the developments at Portman Road since the takeover in April.

Johnson admits he, his fellow Three Lions, Mark Detmer and Berke Bakay, and the other members of the new ownership have been given an easy ride up to now and knows their tenure starts in earnest when the new campaign kicks off.

“I think we are living in a honeymoon period here. As they say, the rubber is going to hit the road in August when we start to play and everyone gave us a pass, rightly so, for the tail-end of the season,” he told the Vertical Playpen podcast.

“Now we’ll start to be judged from August 7th and the home opener, August 7th from that moment on. That’s where it starts to get real.

“I’m such an optimist at heart and been very, very fortunate. I don’t take anything lightly relative to the challenge at hand, especially in League One, especially in England.

“But I’m cautiously optimistic that given the moves that we’ve made, bringing Mark Ashton in, having Paul Cook and his experience, I think those two are starting to make a very, very good team with each other and it gets me excited.

“I also think in a short period of time, Ipswich is now back on a lot of people’s radar screen. Players are starting to think that this is a club that’s on a move, I think other clubs are probably more interested now in terms of looking at maybe doing loans to us etc.”

He says Ed Sheeran’s sponsorship has also made a significant contribution in raising the club’s profile, particularly in the US.

“Ed Sheeran’s given an incredible boost over the last couple of months relative to his involvement,” he added.

“I was too busy to watch the England-Germany game, which I regret, I was travelling, but I understand in America they were talking about it on the broadcast. Stuff like that is fantastic.”

Photo: TWTD

blues1 added 10:17 - Jul 19 Beattiesbackpocket. Almost everything you've said on this post is spot on. Ir conception of the reason we didnt get category 1 for the academy is off the mark tho. Had nothing to do with the expense of it. In case you've forgotten, we missed out by .25 of a point when the assessment took place. Which was a ridiculous decision. Surely if being that close it should have been awarded. It does as saying tho, put us in a position where we have no control over young players leaving prior to having signed a pro contract. The unfortunate thing is, theres no way round that, as if im not mistaken, they cant sign a pro contract until they're 18 so cant even get them signed up earlier to prevent them leaving.

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TimmyH added 17:11 - Jul 19 I think the 'cautiously' aspect comes from the amount of comings and goings...with so many new faces in it will take time to gel...but how much time? and who knows maybe not at all.
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