Ipswich Town respond to 'Chequebook FC' tag as former Portsmouth boss hit back at comments from Charlton Athletic, Rotherham United, Bolton Wanderers and Oxford United managers

And former Blues boss Paul Cook feels other third tier managers are focussing on his current club, as they act like the heavy hitters he views the Tractor Boys to be.

Cook and Ipswich chief executive Mark Ashton has responded to the outfit being branded ‘Chequebook FC’, as they carry out some seriously impressive summer recruitment.

Ipswich this week splashed the cash to land George Edmundson from Rangers with talk of a £1.5m asking price and initial fee in the region of £750,000, while Conor Chaplin arriving for £750,000.

Both players have interested Danny Cowley this summer but deals didn’t reach a conclusion, with the head coach talking of being ‘blown out of the water’ by rivals.

Other bosses such as Charlton’s Nigel Adkins, Rotherham’s Paul Warne and Oxford’s Karl Robinson have all remarked on Ipswich’s level of spending.

Speaking about ‘Chequebook FC’ comments at a fans’ forum, Ashton said: ‘Paul and I were having a chuckle about that the other day, because someone did point it out to us.

‘I used the word player trading at the start of this and we've had a lot of players that have gone out and we think that we've got good value for them in the current market and we’re protected moving forward.

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‘That’s not just in percentage of sell-ons but also additional payments on games etc, so we’re happy with the deals we’ve done.

‘What people forget is that we've sold as well as bought. We've moved out one hell of a lot of salary, because we have a salary set of protocols to work to and adhere to. We must do that.

‘So we’ve had to move out to move in and moving out some of the players has been as challenging as bringing them in.

‘All we're going to do is focus on us. Ipswich Town is the priority.

‘It makes me chuckle because if people are talking about us like that we might be concerning one or two.’

Cook echoed that statement and believes his club are simply acting in a manner the most powerful outfits in any division do, after the club’s American takeover this year.

He added: ‘From a manager’s point of view it’s always ironic when other managers speak about us.

‘They always say we’re not interested in what other clubs do, but they’re speaking about us.

‘So they are interested in what we’re doing.

‘From a manager’s point of view we will never focus on any other teams in our league.

‘We know historically big clubs have been in this league.

‘When I was manager of Wigan, for example Sunderland paid £4m for Will Grigg. Big clubs in divisions will be big clubs.

‘So I feel Ipswich Town are acting like a big club - and that’s exactly what we want to deliver for the fans.’

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