A point at Burnley will do nicely following the unexpected exploits at the Riverside

It seems this summer has been a case of will the last one out please turn off the lights as players continued to leave Ipswich Town without the hoped-for influx of new arrivals.

The majority of players that have left or are still to leave, in my opinion, are players that have failed to take Town to the next level. Take for example Owen Garvan. Now here is a player who played over 170 games for us, a good footballer, but lacking in the pace department, which with some element of speed would have seen him playing at a higher level.

He was dubbed the new Steven Gerrard, but not fit to lace his boots from where I have been viewing you Owen. I’m sure he will feel at home down in south London with what seems half a Town team.

Keane has done what has been asked of him, slashed the wage bill, and just three permanent additions so far. But Sparky (Mark Kennedy) and Fulop are excellent signings at this level and will bring a great deal of experience to the team.

There is a lot of youth in and around the squad with rumours continuing surrounding new strikers coming in – Jason Scotland and Ross McCormack appear to have leapt to the front of the queue. After McCormack’s team mate, Michael Chopra, was linked throughout the summer, I for one do not see him coming to Portman Road. If it was going to be done, I think it would have been by now.

Scotland is a proven striker at this level with pace and power who knows where the onion bag is. At around a million, he would be the kind of player to fire the goals to push us up into play off contention.

Too many of the seasons in recent times have failed to deliver. Maybe this is the one, with the optimism levels somewhat lower than in recent times, where we could be the surprise package? At the moment the squad is paper thin so hopefully Messers Keane, Clegg and Evans will recruit the right type of players to push us in the right direction.

After Saturday’s great and somewhat surprising victory at favourites Middlesbrough, Town entertain relegated Burnley at Portman Road this Saturday in what is bound to be a tough first home game of the season. I will be swapping my normal seat in the Sir Bobby Robson stand to join the prawn sarney brigade in the South Stand, Sir Bobby suite, courtesy of tickets I won in an end of season raffle at the player of the year awards night!

Who knows what team Keane will be able to field with Edwards and Kennedy already ruled out, although new signing Andros Townsend should be part of the squad.

Burnley will be determined to bounce straight back to the Premier League at the first attempt and have only lost a couple of players since their relegation in May. Personally, I would take a point to go with the three earned at the Riverside. That would be a good start with tough games to follow against Burley’s boys at Selhurst Park and the Robins of Bristol the following week.

I’m ever the optimist and fully back Keane to have us firing somewhere near the play off places this season, given the right signings.