CEO Mark Ashton says he and his staff are very focused as the club goes into a summer preparing for life in the Championship both from an on-field and off-field perspective.

“It’s 38 days until the players return for pre-season and 78 days before we start competitive league fixtures, so myself and the staff behind the scenes are very focused,” Ashton told Sky News (from 27 mins).

“There are a number of things to do. Player trading begins now as the transfer window starts to open and on top of that we have all the infrastructure projects, a major investment of £2.5 million into a new pitch and infrastructure projects in the stadium.

“And all the financial planning around the Financial Fair Play that comes with it, so a very busy time for us.”

Ashton has no concerns that manager Kieran McKenna, who is contracted to the Blues until the summer of 2025, will be anywhere other than Portman Road next season.

“I would think so, he seems very happy,” he said. “I think the stability that we have as a club, the stability that the ownership group brings here, we’re well-financed and we’ve moving forward in all directions.

“I think Kieran understands the journey he’s on in his career. I think we’re a perfect fit for each other. This is potentially a huge club with huge opportunity and to have him leading the team and taking us forward on the pitch is something we’ve very, very pleased with.”

Work on the pitch is already well under way, while the demolition of the old Staples and Better Gym building behind the Sir Alf Ramsey Stand is not far off completion.

Reflecting further on the financial aspects of the 2022/23 campaign, he added: “The whole club has moved forward. If you look at our retail, historically, even in the Premier League, this football club had only turned over £1 million-ish in retail. This year, we’ll break through £4 million in retail.

“We averagely sell around 12,000 shirts per season, last season we sold 50,000, so financially and off the pitch as well as on the pitch, the club is moving forward on a very steep upward trajectory.”

Photo: Matchday Images

Nomore4 added 12:04 - May 21 Ebantiass….I've looked at Wigan…. And the summer strengthening consisted of free transfers and loans. They set themselves up for immediate struggle and relegation. And 100% can't be compared to us.
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Len_Brennan added 12:07 - May 21 @Blues1 - I've had to smack your bottom on here before for misrepresenting or repackaging what I had posted; by all means disagree with what I say or argue against it, but please don't start off by disingenuously narrowing & reworking the point that somebody else makes in order to launch into your latest defensive guff about people expressing an opinion on a fans messageboard being moaners. Tell us again about how anyone saying that we needed George Hirst back in August were wrong ... and moaners. That we didn't even need anyone else to come in as cover for Freddie, because the players we had were enough, and if someone worried about him getting an injury, they would be ... moaners. Maybe you'll want to disparage anyone who said that we needed a steady focal point up front & not have a constantly rotating forward line as ... moaners. Perhaps you still think that someone who makes an observation that we need to play a quicker, more direct style, particularly against sides who come to park the bus are ... moaners. That those who suggested we needed to vary the types of goals we were trying to score, as some teams were working us out & stifling us were ... moaners. etc. My comment above speaks for itself & I am happy that most people on here will read it as an acknowledgement of where we are as a club & what can be achieved in a relatively short time when you have a good structure, good management team & ambitious owners.

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Ipswichbusiness added 13:11 - May 21 Luton Town is a good example of how a small but well managed club can prosper in the Championship, despite distorting factors such as clubs going down from the Prem with parachute payments. Anything they can do we should be able to do, probably better. Norwich have quite a lot of problems with diminishing parachute payments. I can see them having to move on their high paid (that is, better) players. It will probably take them two or three transfer windows to sort themselves out.

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shakytown added 01:54 - May 22 Think back to what the Burnley manager said. He thought we were about the best team they had played this season and they murdered the championship. Im sure we will sign more players and there might be some surprise departures as well but just get behind them and good things will happen.
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ElephantintheRoom added 09:47 - May 23 Wait until the gurning Ashton is told that Ipswich Town toenail clippers were once readily available
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