Welcome back to Portman Road for our last game of 2009 and I'd like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy New Year.

Looking back on the first half of the season, it's been one of frustration and disappointment - although the signs have been far more encouraging over the last six or seven weeks in terms of the football played and the chances created.

We should be seven or eight points better off than we are but things are starting to take shape. I'm getting to know the strengths and weaknesses of the group of players we have here - as are my staff - and hopefully that will stand us in good stead over the coming months.

I'm not saying I was happy to experience the start we had but sometimes these things happen for a reason and the most important thing is that you learn from it and move on from it and I think we have proved that we have done that over the last few weeks or so.

Although I've only been a manager 'two minutes' I've been in professional football a long time and I understand the pitfalls of the game. That's why I have to stand back from a situation and look at the bigger picture. Even when things were going well when I first started out in management at Sunderland, I never got too high and I've not got too low here when results have gone against us.

We had a very disappointing start, there's no getting away from that but it was important for me to understand what the Club was going through, the changes I was making. I was trying to stamp my mark on the team and in defence of my players, I didn't help the situation by making lots of changes to the side - although some were forced on me with the injuries we had.

As much as the players must take credit for the way they have responded to the challenges we have set them, the fans have also played an important part in getting behind the team and myself. Some people may look at me on the side of the pitch and think I'm some sort of machine.I'm not and I really appreciate the support I have received. I'm not really one for going out and about but if I am out with my wife and family, the fans have been very supportive.

My family have settled into the area very well. We enjoy our quality of life and the fact that they are happy makes my job a lot easier. Imagine at the start of the season when we were losing games and then if you're going home and your family are unsettled. It's a double whammy.

It's the same with the new players here. It can take a while for them to adjust to new surroundings. They have to get used to the ways of the Club, the traditions of the area and the way people are. They will have to find doctors, schools, and the like. I've seen top, top players take a year to settle into a club and that's why I've been a bit more tolerant and patient with some of the new players who have joined us and not hit the ground running. They have to be given the benefit of the doubt.

I live in the real world though. People don't want to hear me saying 'I've settled in well and I'm really enjoying living in Ipswich' when we are not winning football matches. We work in the results business and our results have not been good enough. They have to improve in the second half of the season.

The transfer window opens again in three days time and while I have one or two areas that I would like to strengthen, I'm more concerned with getting players out and I mean that in the nicest possible way.
Kevin Lisbie is coming back to us from his loan at Colchester and David Norris will be playing again very soon and we simply have too many players. We have a lot of midfielders here, a lot of strikers - good players that need to be playing games. They are footballers and footballers need to play football.

I don't believe in any player writing off six months of his career and if I can get some of our players out I will. Pim's a great example. He's a good, young player who is playing games for Brentford. He's doing well and they have a good player so everyone benefits.

Brian Murphy is one player that will be coming in for us. He can't be registered until after the Blackpool FA Cup game but he's been with us for a few weeks and the first impressions are very good.

He's been brought into challenge for the No.1 shirt and we may look to get another 'keeper in as well. I also like having three senior 'keepers pushing for the jersey and we are obviously without Wrighty [Richard Wright] for another three months or so.

As I said, there are one or two target areas that I feel we need to improve in but I'm not daft, without looking at the nitty-gritty of the figures, we have a lot of players here and we can only play 11.

We have invested in players since I've been here and the Chief Executive and the owner will be quick to remind me what I can spend and what I can't. If my hands are tied until players move on then I understand that. It's part of my education as a manager and of course, when you are in the Championship the loan market becomes important.

Supporters tend not to worry too much about the business side of their club - they are really concerned with who is out on the pitch for them. I can remember Sir Matt Busby saying years ago that it's no good having the money in the bank, fans want to see it on the football field but more and more clubs are heavily in debt now.

We've seen it in the Championship recently with Watford's situation and perhaps it's more evident in this league because the prize is so great. Clubs are taking a gamble to make the step up but it's got to be a calculated gamble.

We've spent money on young players like Lee Martin and Grant Leadbitter, knowing that if it doesn't work out, it's still a good investment. If you pay £30m or so for a player who is in his 30s, like Chelsea did with Andriy Shevchenko, then you are never going to get that back.

It's a balancing act. You've got to pay the right price for the right player and get the wages right as well. You don't want to be saddled with a player on £20,000 a week if you don't go up. A lot of Championship clubs have taken a risk over recent times and are paying for it now.

Today's visitors, QPR, are one of the clubs with money behind them and they have some good players and a good team.
Paul Hart is in charge there now and they have had a few managers over the last couple of years. The fact that they have changed so regularly proves that it doesn't work, not just at QPR but at many clubs.

The successful clubs seem to be the ones that give a manager two or three years. It's taken me a few months to get a feel for this Club. If I left tomorrow, maybe it would take the next man in the same sort of time. Ipswich is a club not known for chopping and changing their manager though- so I've been lucky in that respect!

QPR will believe they can finish in the top six this season - like a lot of clubs - and as been said many times, in this division any team is capable of beating any other. We've seen what a decent run of form can do for the likes of Swansea and Nottingham Forest and looking at the league at the moment, all bar top spot looks up for grabs. I felt Newcastle would be the team to beat before we kicked off this season and I think they are away at the top.

January will be a key month for a lot of clubs - both in terms of the transfer market and the heavy schedule of games with the holiday period. When you have three games in a week, as we have now, injuries are always a concern. It's prevention of injuries that's the secret. You are always going to get a situation like we had with David Norris, where he just got injured but we do a lot of work through training programmes and analysis to keep the risk down to a minimum regarding hamstrings, muscle damage that sort of thing.

Our fitness coach, Antonio Gomez, is obsessed with 'not leaving it on the training field' and I think we were guilty of that at the start of the season. When a new manager comes in, players are keen to impress, trying to get ahead in the pecking order and maybe the fitness levels were not as good as they should have been in games at the start of the season.

We've learnt about the players from that and I think we've had a better balance in that respect over the last six weeks.

There's a World Cup tournament to be played at the end of this season and it may include Tommy Smith.

New Zealand are keen for Tommy to be involved with them and I've spoken to him and said it would have no effect on his career at Ipswich - knowing the travelling involved - if he decided to follow up their approach.
If he gets the opportunity to play for New Zealand - and it's still a big if because he will have to impress their manager - then my advice is go for it. He's only a young boy and he's got to try and reach for the stars. If he wants to play in the World Cup, then go and do it.

He's obviously not played in any of their qualifying games but New Zealand won't have a big range of players and it will be down to the manager to take the best squad of players he can to South Africa.

It's the first time New Zealand have qualified for the finals in 28 years so there won't be too many opportunities. If Tommy makes it, then good luck to him.

Have a good New Year and enjoy the game.