Championship Q & A: Ipswich Town

We get the views from Vital Ipswich editor 'Blueblood' on their thoughts ahead of the 2009/2010 Championship season.

1. Your name and Club Supported

Blueblood, the mighty Ipswich Town

2. Your League Position last season

A mediocre 9th

3. Your Prediction For this Season's Position Finish

Top six

4. Transfers In

Troy Brown (Fulham/free), Shane O`Connor (Liverpool/free) - both of these for our youth team... Damien Delaney (QPR/around a million), Lee Martin (Man U/£1.5 million), Colin Healy (Cork, £70,000) and Jack Colback (who!? Sunderland/season long loan)

5. Transfer Out

We released 13 players including Ivan Campo, only Billy Clarke will be playing next season in the Championship with Blackpool. We have sold Veliche Shumulikoski (I suggest you copy and paste that!) to Preston for around £400k, Danny Haynes to Brizzle City for the same price. Most fans were outraged that we have sold teenage sensation Jordan Rhodes to Huddersfield for a fee that could probably rise to £1 million. Kevin Lisbie has also gone back to Col U on a season long loan.

6. Have you made enough signings for the new season? Are they the right signings?

Keano said he only wanted 2 or 3 - I agreed but two positions out of the three that needed strengthening have been sorted out with the arrivals of Damien Delaney (although I am not too impressed with what I have saw so far.. Give him time though I`m sure he will be okay) and Lee Martin.

Martin looks a very good buy and you can see why he has been on Man Utd`s books for so long. Colin Healy from Cork - nobody knows much about him so its unfair to comment, but apparently he would be worth well over a million if he came from another Championship team, we got him for £70k because Cork are in dire financial trouble and it`s the Irish league anyway, they don`t command big fees.

We still need to sign a striker or two - Tamas Priskin looks a good bet to come in because we need a player with an aerial presence, Jon Stead can`t win a header but I love him anyway. The other one we all want is Giovani Dos Santos...

7. What are the expectations amongst the fans for this year?

Promotion, don`t care how.

8. Key player(s)

Gareth McAuley at the back, our captain and the ever-reliable (I hope I don`t jinx it) Richard Wright. Jon Walters and David Norris as ever are the backbone of the team.

9. Your thoughts ahead of the new Championship campaign, are you confident or worried going into the new season? How do you think your year will pan out?

Confident. We now have a manager in Roy Keane who knows how to get a side promoted, have a 100% record under him in the league. I think we will get a play-off spot at least, but I`m quietly confident of automatic promotion. If I were a QPR fan, I would be less confident. And as for Newcastle...!

10. Predict the Top 2 and Play-off winner and the 3 clubs to go down -

Top two - Ipswich and Middlesbrough
Play-offs - Sheff Utd (winners), West Brom, Reading and... Peterbrough
Relegated - Plymouth, Barnsley and Scunthorpe.

Thanks to 'Blueblood' for answering our questions.

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