Buckle up, Blues fans - Keano's in town

WOW - what a week...Portman Road has been more eventful than Coronation Street and Albert Square combined.

Town beat Norwich, Derek Bowden is axed, Simon Clegg is appointed, Jim Magilton and John Gorman get the boot, Roy Keane sweeps into Suffolk...if I was an employee at Ipswich Town I would be feeling a little nervous right now.

The perennially patient Marcus Evans went into hiring and firing overdrive after Sunday's derby win. Heaven only knows what sort of massacre he would have embarked on had we lost to the Canaries.

New boy Clegg yesterday promised Town would recruit a high profile appointment and the club certainly didn't let us down. 

Like him or loathe him, fiery Keane is an A-lister on Planet Football.

When the outspoken Irishman offers his thoughts on a subject, journalists fall over themselves to hear what he has to say.

I imagine (and Tommy Miller and Jon Stead could probably testify to this) that players also tend to listen when Keane voices his opinions.

In the main, his track record as a coach is impressive. Keane assumed control at Sunderland with the Black Cats in the mire, short on confidence and even shorter on quality.

But within a season, he had transformed the Wearsiders into league champions.

This was achieved with oodles of money, of course. And not all of it was particularly wisely spent. The words "Michael Chopra" and "five million quid" should never be used in the same sentence.

And investing another £9m on a goalkeeper raised a few eyebrows, too.

In all, Keane splashed out £80m during his two-and-a-half year stint at the Stadium of Light - a figure which will certainly not be at his disposal at Portman Road.

There are also concerns over the condition in which he left Sunderland prior to his resignation last December - third from bottom and on the type of downward spiral which prompted genuine fears of relegation.

But for now I hope fans can look to the future with the optimism which has been sucked out of Ipswich Town in recent months.

Keane has breathed colour and life into a club which appeared tired and anaemic.

Whatever criticism you throw at him, no one can accuse the former Manchester United midfield general of being dull, boring or black and white.

So buckle up, Blues fans - because wherever Keane takes us, the next few years should be one hell of a ride.