When I sat down to think about my programme column for today's game I made a note not to use the words draws and disappointing when reflecting on the year - but I haven't been able to avoid it!

As much as we have improved over the second half of the season, we've drawn 20 games in the Championship and that leads to the disappointment of where we are in the table.

It's certainly been a learning curve for me and I'm a 100 per cent better manager for the experiences of this year than I was when I first walked through the door.

We've had a year of finding our feet - unfortunately it has taken that long - but I'm much the wiser for it in terms of knowing where we are and what we need.

Maybe coming in two games from the end of the season, as I did last year, is not such a great thing for a manager. We won both games and maybe I got kidded a bit but I'm under no illusions now what we need to progress.

I'm hoping it will be a busy summer because we need to bring in four or five big characters into the dressing-room. The spine of the team needs to be stronger and we have struggled all season with our left-back position. With Jack [Colback] going back to Sunderland, we need to bring some balance to the left side as well.

Finding a goalscorer is obviously the priority. When you see that your top goalscorer has eight goals, you know you are not going anywhere.
I have four or five players in mind that I'd like to bring in and one or two of those players are out of contract but as much as I'd like to get things going quickly, that rarely happens. Patience is often the name of the game and although it's not ideal, sometimes you have to wait until pre-season gets well underway before things move on. If we have to wait, we will wait. The most important thing is that you get the right players, players that are going to provide something different to what we've already got.

While we need to change the dynamics of the Club and bring in those new players, I'm also aware that we have to trim down the squad as well.
Our injuries are down 25 per cent on the previous year - which is down to fitness planning - and we simply don't need as many players as we have had this season.

That means letting players go and I've spoken to the squad this week and told them who I see in my future plans at this Club and who I think needs to move on.

There have been some very hard decisions to make about good senior professionals, lads like David and Richard Wright who I have decided not to give new contracts.

I judge players not just on what they do on the pitch but the off-field side of things as well, how they act within the community and there is no doubt that David and Richard are a big loss to this football club. It's the same with Pim [Balkestein] who we are also letting go. They are all good, honest professionals.

It doesn't mean I don't rate them. I do. They will get fixed up with new clubs because they are good players but I have the opportunity to make changes and take this Club in another direction and that's what I've got to do.

Ed Upson is another player that we won't be offering a new deal. He is not 18 anymore, he needs to go out and play games, which is what he has done at Barnet recently. He's had a taste of it and needs to be playing first-team football every week.

We've got a lot of the younger lads that we are still speaking to about contracts and we will have news on them over the next few weeks. Liam Trotter is one. He's done very well while on loan at Millwall and we think the lad has a chance of being a player. We offered him a new deal. Whether he signs it or not, we will have to wait and see.

There are also a number of players here who are still on contracts but that I've met with and told them that I'm looking to bring in new players and maybe they should look at finding a new club in the summer.

I'm being honest with them. It's nothing personal. It's the way football is. They are good players but like I said, I need to make changes and sometimes players just have to accept that.

I know that if a manager told me that I wasn't in his plans, I would be looking to play elsewhere but it maybe that some of the lads I have spoken to will still be here next season. That's very likely to happen and they will be treated with respect but I won't be changing my mind about them over the summer because I've had a year working with them. I will have the nucleus of a group working with the first team next season and the rest will be with the reserves.

I've been told that we have given debuts to 19 players this season and that's a lot of players, too many players. That's probably an indication of the disruption we've had. We've used five goalkeepers for starters.

Using that type of numbers won't get you promoted so we do need some stability. Whether the changes I want to make in the summer eventually leads to that stability remains to be seen.

Among those 19 debutants have been a fair few loan players and without those players, we'd have been in big trouble.
They have all come into the team and given us a boost. Jack, Stern John, Asmir Begovic, Murph [Daryl Murphy], David Healy, Liam Rosenior. They have all played their part and whether we do a deal with some of our loan players, we will see over the weeks ahead.

Some managers I have spoken to are not great lovers of the loan system and question whether players are 100 per cent committed when they come in but that has not been my experience at all at Ipswich. They have all given us a lift.

We can't depend on loan players next year though. You never know when they will be called back. I was dreading a call about As and it came. We will need one or two no doubt but our focus will be on permanent additions.

I also expect to have more younger players in our squad next season. Connor [Wickham] has obviously made a lot of progress this year. Shane O'Connor has come in and done well and Billy Clark has had a look in our last two games. One or two of the other youngsters may get a chance this afternoon as well.

Tommy Smith is another and I might take the opportunity to watch him in action in South Africa this summer, if he gets selected for New Zealand.
I've had one or two offers from TV companies to work at the World Cup and I might surprise everyone and go. I said might!
It would be a good opportunity to see Tommy in the World Cup environment though and watch some games. As a manager you are always watching matches anyway. Not necessarily to watch a particular player, just to enjoy a game.

We've got a decent break after today's game before pre-season starts at the end of June and we will look at what worked and what didn't work last year before confirming our plans in the next two or three weeks.

We squeezed a lot in last summer, perhaps too much but we didn't pick up too many injuries. I'd like six or seven games, building up to a high calibre match at Portman Road. We had five or six great days in Portugal and ideally I'd like to play a couple of games over there but to do that you've got to be at the top of the Championship or in the Premier League to be attractive enough to pick up friendlies. That's the aim.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank my staff for all the hard work they have put in this season and the fans for the support the players and I have received. We have not given you much to shout about but hopefully we can finish the year on a winning note against Sheffield United this afternoon.

Finally, I'd like to welcome Kevin Blackwell and his staff to Portman Road this afternoon. I'm sure Sheffield will be looking to finish the season on a high as well so it should be an entertaining 90 minutes.

Enjoy the game and the summer.