"It's time to put on make-up"

"The waiting is nearly over. Ipswich kick off their season against Coventry this weekend and our official online bookmaker bet365 go 17/10 that we start the season with a win."

The City website on the other hand hasn't been trumpeting the odds on a City win. Hopefully they are better than the odds of England drawing the Fourth Test.

Personally I am looking forward to seeing the best-named goalkeeper in the history of the game (other than Bertie Beanpole) play for the Tractor Boys - Shane Supple.

Since taking over at Portman Road the glowering Mr Keane has brought in the following players:

• Tamas Priskin, 22, striker from Watford for £1,700,000
• Damien Delaney, 28, left back from QPR for up to £1,100,000
• Lee Martin, 22, winger from Man U for an undisclosed fee ( he started against us at Old Trafford in 2007)
• Colin Healey, 29, midfielder from Cork for £70,000 - who is well known to us as an ex-loanee and a victim of Youssef Saffri's tackling.
• Jack Colback, 19, midfielder on loan from Sunderland until January (the more alert will recognise the name from the Sunderland Echo post about Jordan Henderson - perhaps there is hope after all)
  
• Shane O'Connor, 19, midfielder from Liverpool's Academy after a trial (footballing trial that is)

Reflect on this quote from the ever reliable wikipedia about Ipswich's owners: "Evans is particularly attracted by Keane’s track-record as a winner and also his experience of gaining promotion from the Championship and he is expected to pour millions into a promotion push for the 2010 season. Evans is understood to have offered guarantees to Keane about a significant summer transfer budget."

Now do the signings above fit the bill of a significant summer transfer budget? Admittedly they are considerably more impressive than our incoming so far but not perhaps what the Ipswich fans were expecting. But there are of course still 22 shopping days until the lockdown.