Ipswich Town have bullish message for League One rivals amid Sunderland striker links

Ipswich are looking to bounce back strongly and are aiming to win the title next year after enduring a nightmare 2019-20 campaign following relegation from the Championship with Paul Lambert’s side falling away badly and finishing the disjointed season in 11th, eight points adrift of the play-off places.

They are looking to strengthen this summer and adding a striker to the squad is seen among Lambert’s top priorities, with Wyke’s name mentioned in reports, though it is understood he won’t be leaving the Stadium of Light this summer.

The club’s general manager of football operations, Lee O’Neill, told the East Anglian Daily Times: “Our objective is to try and get out the league – 100%.

“And it’s not just ‘let’s try and finish in the play-offs’. The first objective, once again, is to try and win the league.

“Going into League One was a steep learning curve. The coaches have done a lot of reviewing about why things didn’t quite pan out the way we wanted. We learnt a lot from last year and can’t make the same mistakes again.

“We’ve seen some clubs stay in this league for four and five years and we don’t want that.”

On transfer business, he added: “We do need to make some additions to the squad and hope to be able to do that over the next few weeks and months. It won’t be easy, because of the financial hit we have taken, but there might also be some opportunities for us too. There are going to be a lot of free agents available.

“So yes, we are going to try and sign players. We need to strengthen the squad. We want to be back in the Championship and pushing forwards.

“We’ve done our scouting, we know the areas of the squad we are focusing on and we have some targets.”

Sunderland finished three places above Ipswich in 8th but missed out on a play-off spot and are facing up to the reality of a third season in League One with Phil Parkinson aiming to make several signings.