Ipswich Town

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Ipswich Town have added former Premier League defender Mark Hudson to their first team coaching staff.

The 42-year-old has been appointed as set-play and first-team coach.

Hudson made nearly 500 professional appearances as a player, representing the likes of Crystal Palace, Cardiff City and Huddersfield Town.

He began his coaching career in the Terriers' academy setup before taking caretaker charge of the first-team on two separate occasions.

The Englishman then joined Cardiff as first-team coach before being appointed manager during the 2022-23 season. He went on to spend the 2023-24 campaign coaching in the Premier League with Sheffield United.

Hudson has been working with the Ipswich squad during pre-season and flew to Germany with the group on Wednesday for the club's training camp.

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Conor Townsend is looking forward to the challenge of playing at Premier League level once more after joining top-flight newcomers Ipswich Town from Championship club West Bromwich Albion.

The left-back, 31, who had a year left on his contract, has moved for an undisclosed fee.

Townsend played regularly for Albion during the 2020-21 campaign, their most recent season in the top division.

The Baggies missed out on promotion from the Championship last term, losing in the play-offs to Southampton.

Townsend, who has signed a two-year contract, told club media: "To play in the Premier League again is a big challenge for me and this kind of opportunity doesn't come around very often so I jumped at the chance.

"The move came around quite quickly and I'm excited to get started. I have had good conversations with the manager and everyone speaks very highly of him, so I'm looking forward to getting started and working under him.

"I played against Ipswich twice last season and both were very tough games. What the team was able to achieve last season was special, so I’m excited to be a part of it now."

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Mike O'Leary is retiring from his position as chairman of Ipswich Town.

Chief Executive Mark Ashton will take on the role of chairman in place of the 71-year-old, who has been in the post since 2021.

During his time as chairman, Ipswich have won successive promotions from League One to the Premier League.

O'Leary said: "As I approach my 72nd birthday, I know that this is the right decision.

"My family home is in Worcestershire, some 200 miles from Portman Road. The considerable travel involved in continuing to serve as chairman has been taking its toll.

"Reaching the Premier League was always the dream when I became chairman in 2021, but I never dared to believe that it would happen so quickly.

"I have a strong sense of ‘mission accomplished’ as I prepare to say my farewells."

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Sam Morsy says Ipswich Town are "preparing for the biggest challenge of them all" in the Premier League after extending his contract until the summer of 2026.

The Egypt international midfielder and club captain, 32, has played a pivotal role in the Tractor Boys' successive promotions from League One to the top flight, and will appear in England's top division for the first time in his career.

"We've had unprecedented success during the last two years, which is something I'm honoured to have been involved in," Morsy told club media, external.

"It's great to feel the club and the manager's commitment to me at such an exciting time for everyone, as we prepare for what is the biggest challenge of them all.

"My family love living in the area and the supporters have been really good to me during my time here, so I'm excited for what's ahead as we continue this journey together."

Manager Kieran McKenna added: "Anyone who has seen Sam play will know how consistent a performer he has been over a significant period of time, which has been vital in everything we have been able to achieve together over the last two seasons.

"The leadership he has shown has been key in building a strong culture, which underpins everything we do, and I know Sam is excited to now have the opportunity to test himself at the highest level of the game."

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Ipswich Town, external and Newcastle United, external have posted tributes on social media to their former manager Sir Bobby Robson on the 15th anniversary of his passing.

Robson, who also spent eight years as England manager between 1982 and 1990, died in 2009 aged 76.

Robson won the FA Cup and Uefa Cup during his 13-year spell as Ipswich boss, as well as two runners-up finishes in England's top division.

In his final role as a full-time manager, he took Newcastle back into the Champions League and led the Magpies to a third-place finish in the Premier League.

Pat Nevin
Former footballer and presenter

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Players like Manchester United’s Rasmus Hojlund are already suffering from hamstring injuries two weeks before the season even starts - and they say the modern preparation regimes are better, safer and more scientific!

They probably are better. At least the players do not have to go through some of the borderline sadistic routines that previous generations did. Back then, after a decent length of summer break, pre-season meant working incredibly hard over a short period of time to get yourself back in top condition fast.

Sprinting up and down gigantic sand dunes against the clock until many players were physically sick was de rigueur, alongside other road runs and track work.

Here is the weird part: I used to look forward to that, the way a class swot looks forward to exams. Being smaller, lighter and a committed long-distance runner all my young life, even before I became a pro footballer, it was, if not exactly a piece of cake, then certainly much easier for me than most of the rest of the team.

I have asked many modern managers what they would prefer to do in a perfect world during their pre-season. The most common answer is "just about anything other than what we are forced to do now!"

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Ipswich have confirmed defender Corrie Ndaba has joined Kilmarnock on a permanent deal.

Ndaba, 24, joined Ipswich's academy in 2016 and spent last season on loan at the Scottish Premier League side, making 37 appearances in all competitions.

Ndaba made five senior appearances for the Blues and has also had loan spells at Ayr United, Salford City, Burton Albion and Fleetwood Town.

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Pat Nevin, former Chelsea, Everton and Scotland winger writing in his Football Extra newsletter:

The pre-season friendlies are in full swing and let's be straight about this, the players generally hate these games, whatever they say.

They clearly haven't had enough rest in the summer, it is a grind getting your body back into peak shape, especially if the accumulated injuries from last season haven’t been allowed to fully recover.

The games themselves are weird affairs, where you would like to win but that is nowhere near the most important thing. Fitness, integrating new players, possibly a new manager and sometimes a new system are each more important. You also know full well that it is a hotch-potch of a team selection to give players minutes. The fans, mass media and social media will read far too much into every game and every performance.

From within the team itself, there are different motivations. A young or new player being given his first chance will be racing about like an overexcited spaniel. Other experienced players will be easing themselves back into it, the primary concern in their minds is to be fit and healthy come the first weekend of the Premier League season.

‌Deep down they don't worry if they get thumped by Celtic or DC United on their US tours, nobody at Chelsea or Aston Villa will remember or care about these results in two weeks' time.

‌Unless of course you are a DC or indeed Celtic fan. The Celts just beat Chelsea and Man City. Now that is impressive pre-season form or is that just Scottish bias.

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After Ipswich Town's 2-1 pre-season defeat by Fortuna Dusseldorf, we asked you to have your say on the game.

Here are a selection of your comments:

Malcolm: I hope that this game wasn't a warning about how Ipswich will play in the forthcoming season. The first half was dreadful, being totally outplayed by a second division team. Looked like too many players not knowing who was on their own side.

James: We need a lot of reinforcements to come in, we looked really average. It's going to be a very tough season in the Premier League if we play like we did today.

Pithers: Defeat doesn't mean much at this stage. However, this potential injury to Burns and a lack of Omari and Broadhead could be worrying.

Shaun: Main objective is to increase the fitness levels and getting the new players used to the system - fingers crossed we didn't pick up any injuries. Result really does not matter. It's all about Liverpool on the 17 August.

David Lockwood
BBC Sport Editorial Sustainability Lead

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Los Angeles or Chesterfield? San Diego or Salford?

The pre-season destinations of 20 Premier League clubs may be varied, but the issue remains the same - the impact of so many flights.

Half (10) of the clubs have flown to the United States for friendlies; three have travelled to the Far East and the rest are in Europe and the UK.

Manchester United's pre-season schedule see them flying almost 13,000 miles playing fixtures in Norway, Scotland, and across the US. Chelsea and Tottenham are also expected to fly in excess of 12,000 miles.

In contrast, Everton will fly the least, with just one fixture outside the UK in the Republic of Ireland.

Spurs and Newcastle also played an exhibition fixture in May - three days after the season finished - for which they both flew to Melbourne, Australia, a game Alan Shearer described as “madness”. Add in those air miles and both teams will have travelled in excess of 30,000 air miles in the close-season, equivalent to more than once around the globe, to play in non-competitive matches.

Newcastle and Spurs both have a target to be Net Zero by 2030, while Manchester United and Chelsea are in process of establishing an emissions reduction plan.

Net Zero requires the reduction and removal of all 'non-essential emissions' - so are these games essential?

Wycombe's David Wheeler is a leading sustainability campaigner in football and told BBC Sport: "These games are only necessary in the sense that the clubs want to make more money and grow their fan base".

He added: "The vast majority of players don't want to be away from their families, they don't want to be travelling around the world after a full slog of a season. They're overworked and injuries have gone through the roof, so there is a synergy between player welfare and planetary welfare."

An estimated travelling group of 30 flying 12,864 air miles business class generates around 200 tonnes of CO2 - the equivalent of 500,000 miles driven by an average petrol car, or the entire annual emissions for a year of 16 people in the UK.

Tottenham said it is "committed to minimising its environmental impact" in all its operations, "which will take time and effort". The club says it "ensures" all teams travel "as sustainably as possible throughout the season". It "measures, manages and reports on travel emissions" and will offsets "where possible."

Read more about the Premier League's pre-season air miles here

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Ipswich manager Kieran McKenna says midfielder Nathan Broadhead will likely miss two months with a hamstring injury.

Broadhead, who played 38 games in the Championship last term, will not need surgery.

"Nathan has seen a specialist so doesn't require surgery but it's going to be a couple of months. So he will be a loss," said McKenna.

McKenna hopes Omari Hutchinson and Axel Tuanzebe will be back in training next week but the likes of Harry Clarke and Ali Al-Hamadi are recovering from surgery and haven't joined his training group yet in pre-season.

"We are a little bit light on bodies. The boys training and playing games are getting good exposure," added McKenna.

"I think we have added some good qualities but we all know we need to keep trying to improve the squad over the next couple of weeks for the massive challenge we have ahead. That is something everyone is working very, very hard on."

McKenna watches his side lose 2-1 to Germany's Fortuna Dusseldorf on Saturday and after the friendly he said: "I think it was a useful workout for sure. That's what this stage of pre-season is about. It's about setting challenges for what is coming up. Today was one of them against a good side who are getting ready to start their campaign next weekend. We'll certainly be stronger for that level of challenge.

"It was good to get a couple of players close to 90 minutes at this stage of pre-season."

Were you at the game or did you follow along from home?

What did you learn?

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The Premier League season is fast approaching and clubs are continuing their pre-season preparations.

Here are the teams in action on a busy Saturday.

All times BST

Nick Mashiter
BBC Sport Football News Reporter

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Ipswich and Blackburn remain in talks over Ireland forward Sammie Szmodics.

Rovers, though, are becoming frustrated with how long negotiations are taking for their star man, having started over two weeks ago, while the Tractor Boys are not prepared to pay an inflated fee.

With Rovers' Championship season starting at home to Derby in two weeks the issue is disrupting their preparations and there is a sense the matter needs to be resolved soon.

The clubs are yet to agree on a fee, with Ipswich having had multiple bids rejected for last season’s 27-goal Championship top scorer and both parties remain apart in their valuation.

Colchester-born Szmodics has been open about his desire to play in the Premier League.

A move to Suffolk would give the 28-year-old the chance to live closer to home.

Szmodics' goals kept Blackburn in the Championship as they finished 19th, three points above the relegation zone.

He signed a new deal until 2026 in November, leaving Rovers in a strong bargaining position.

Ipswich Town are preparing a bid for Sunderland winger Jack Clarke, with Tottenham set to get a major part of any fee having negotiated a 40% sell-on clause when they sold the 23-year-old English player to the Black Cats. (The i), external

Want more transfer news? Read Wednesday's full gossip column