Mick McCarthy insists Jay Tabb’s decision to snub better financial offers from elsewhere proves the Portman Road feel-good factor is alive and kicking.

The Blues boss convinced the former Town loanee to make a permanent switch to Suffolk, along with Daryl Murphy, David McGoldrick and Cole Skuse, despite interest from Birmingham and Middlesbrough.

New Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations could still see McCarthy outmuscled financially in his pursuit of further new faces, but the 54-year-old believes Town’s end to last season gives him a fighting chance.

The former Wolves boss also played down the significance of Ipswich’s geographical location when signing players – an issue that irked Paul Jewell and Roy Keane before him.

“The likes of Jay Tabb, David McGoldrick and Daryl Murphy did enough last season to convince me to sign them, but we did enough to entice them to want to stay,” said McCarthy, who also confirmed that he had spoken to Guirane N’Daw’s agent about a possible return for the Senegalese midfielder.

“Daryl Murphy wanted to stay. He has been here about ten years and is due a testimonial!

“Tabb had better offers financially but wanted to stay here and that’s the nice thing.

“I heard you can’t get players here. You can if the circumstances are right and it doesn’t matter if you are 80 miles away from wherever.”

McCarthy rescued the Blues from the spectre of relegation, amassing 53 points from 33 Championship games to lead the team to safety and admits the bar has been raised.

“There is a bit of optimism around the place,” he said.

“There was no pressure on me when I came to the club and everyone thought we were going to be relegated.

“It’s different now and we have that end-of-season expectation which adds pressure but that doesn’t bother me.

“The momentum is with the players, that is how they feel having heard one or two of them, because of what we achieved last season.

“They feel there is chance of going forward and being competitive.”