Welcome back to Portman Road for the first home game of the new season and a real challenge for the players against a club I expect to be in the promotion picture come May.

Burnley worked to a budget when they went into the Premier League and they've been able to keep most of the players they had last season and invest in their squad this year as well.

Sometimes you can throw £30 million at it when you go up and still get relegated. You've got to try and get the balance right. You've got to take a bit of a gamble to strengthen your squad, as Blackpool are finding out now but you can't go too far. Hull are perhaps an example of that, leaving themselves with players on big wages.

Burnley might say they didn't quite get it right because they got relegated but if they go back up again this year, it will have proved to be a wise decision. They have a good squad and like Middlesbrough, if you are above them or near them at the end of the season, you will be at the top end of the table.

We've obviously had a good start to the season with wins at the Riverside and Exeter in the Carling Cup in midweek and some of the young players that have come into the side have grabbed their chance.

While it's always encouraging to see young players coming through the ranks and getting into the first-team, no one is getting carried away. They've only played two games. When those boys have played 500 games, they can say they've made it.

The number of injuries we've had over the last month or so have hit us hard and when you look at the number of teenagers we had on the bench at Middlesbrough, it emphasis how short we are. We are well behind the likes of Middlesbrough, Burnley and Sheffield United in terms of strength in depth.

We've got to keep battling away, stay in the mix until we get the likes of Damien [Delaney], Connor [Wickham] and Mark Kennedy back.
Mark will be out for about three weeks after picking up a hamstring injury at Middlesbrough last week in his debut for us. He'll prove to be a good signing, as will Marton Fulop. Both have played at the top level and will provide the experience we need.

We also added Conor Hourihane to the squad over the summer. He's one for the future and I'm delighted we've been able to bring in Andros Townsend into the Club on loan from Tottenham this week.

He's a lad with a lot of potential and had been involved with Spurs' first-team through their pre-season. We've had good reports on him and he will go straight into the squad for today's game.

We've seen how young players coming here on loan can make an impact, with Jack Colback last season but it took Jack three months or so to find his feet and not many young players go out on loan and end up being their club's player of the year. Andros will need time as well. We shouldn't expect too much from him too soon but hopefully we can get the best out of him and he can return to Spurs a better player for his time at Ipswich Town.

On top of the young players we'd like to bring in on loan, if we can add two or three experienced players to the squad then we will be happy. We are constantly being linked with players and the situation changes by the hour but it's possible that we could have one or two additions to the squad next week, and players going out as well.

I don't get bogged down by what's going on behind the scenes though, especially when we have a match on. I leave that to the owner and chief executive. I focus on what I can control and working with the players I have. I don't want to waste my energy on things that are out of my hands.