Ipswich Town will step up their pre-season preparations this week as they arrive in Spain for a training camp. Alex Jones takes a closer look at the friendly fixtures coming up when they return…<\/p>\n
The Blues will have a five-day training camp in Spain this week (Image: Ross Halls)<\/p>\n
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SPAIN TRAINING CAMP<\/p>\n
Town have jetted off to Spain for a camp in Murcia.<\/p>\n
The Blues will be training in La Manga from Monday to Friday, where temperatures are expected to go well above 30 degrees every day. The week will end with a behind-closed-doors friendly against local lower-league opposition.<\/p>\n
Town will host Osasuna in Colchester at the end of the month (Image: PA)<\/p>\n
OSASUNA<\/p>\n
Osasuna are Ipswich\u2019s first opponents in a public friendly, travelling to the Colchester Community Stadium on Wednesday, July 29th (7:45pm).<\/p>\n
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The Pamplona-based side narrowly avoided relegation from La Liga last season, having lost six of their last seven games, finishing above the bottom three on goal difference.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, they recently lost star winger Victor Munoz to Liverpool for a reported fee of \u00a334m. Ipswich were linked with their centre-back, Enzo Boyomo, earlier in the transfer window.<\/p>\n
Their manager, Luis Miguel Ramis, joined back in June, having left second-tier club Burgos to take over at the Estadio El Sadar.<\/p>\n
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The two-time Copa del Rey runners-up will also play Norwich City at Carrow Road in pre-season.<\/p>\n
Oxford United were relegated from the Championship last season (Image: PA)<\/p>\n
OXFORD UNITED<\/p>\n
Another double-header game, two years on from the mad dash between Cambridge and Stevenage. Ipswich will split their squad for two friendlies once again, starting with Oxford United at the Kassam Stadium on Saturday, August 1st (12pm).<\/p>\n
The two clubs are certainly familiar with each other, having faced off 10 times since January 2020. Town have won just two of those games, while the U\u2019s have claimed victory three times.<\/p>\n
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Oxford secured promotion to the Championship in 2024, spending two years in the second tier before suffering relegation last season. They made a managerial chance at the end of the season, replacing former Ipswich youth player Matt Bloomdfield with ex-Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey.<\/p>\n
Ex-Blue Greg Leigh is still part of their squad, although he hasn\u2019t featured since January. It remains to be seen how Oxford will approach their summer business, having been hit with a transfer ban that is expected to run until January at the earliest.<\/p>\n
Ipswich fans will head straight from the Kassam Stadium to Adams Park for the clash against Wycombe Wanderers (Image: PA)<\/p>\n
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WYCOMBE WANDERERS<\/p>\n
As soon as the full-time whistle is blown in Oxford, many Ipswich supporters will head down the M40 to get to Buckinghamshire, where the Blues will face Wycombe Wanderers at Adams Park.<\/p>\n
The two teams last met in April 2023, as Town closed in on promotion from League One. Goals from George Hirst, Conor Chaplin, Wes Burns and Freddie Ladapo sealed a comfortable win on Suffolk soil.<\/p>\n
Since then, their highest finish came in 2024\/25, when they ended up fifth. They were beaten over two legs by Charlton Athletic in the play-offs, with Cameron Humphreys on loan from Ipswich in the heart of their midfield.<\/p>\n
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Last season, Wycombe finished 11th, 12 points outside of the top six. Michael Duff has been in charge since September 2025.<\/p>\n
Town will return to Portman Road under the lights against Ligue 1 opposition (Image: PA)<\/p>\n
LE HAVRE<\/p>\n
Ipswich will finally return to Portman Road on Wednesday, August 4th, hosting Ligue 1 side Le Havre under the lights (7:45pm).<\/p>\n
The Dean Club have won the Ligue 2 title a record six times, most recently in 2023, when they returned to the top flight after 11 seasons away.<\/p>\n
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They have since been able to stabilise at the highest level, although they have finished no higher than 14th in that time, narrowly avoiding the relegation play-off spot.<\/p>\n
It looks to be a busy summer at the Stade Ocean, with Le Havre losing key players Arouna Sangante, Issa Soumare and Yassine Kechta, among others. Former Middlesbrough midfielder Didier Digard has been in charge since 2024.<\/p>\n
Rayo Vallecano were beaten by Crystal Palace in last season’s Conference League final (Image: PA)<\/p>\n
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RAYO VALLECANO<\/p>\n
A second Portman Road friendly comes just a few days later, with Spanish side Rayo Vallecano visiting on Saturday, August 8th (5pm).<\/p>\n
Arguably the most unique club in La Liga, they are the only team from a \u2018barrio\u2019 (neighbourhood) in the division, playing in the working class Puente de Vallecas district of Madrid. The club and supporters are known for their strong leftist identity.<\/p>\n
On the pitch, Rayo have been incredibly successful for a club of their size, returning to the Spanish top flight in 2021 after just two seasons away. Aside from 2023\/24, they have finished comfortably in mid-table every year, even qualifying for Europe in 2025.<\/p>\n
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Fans might remember their run in the UEFA Conference League, where they reached the final, losing to 1-0 to Crystal Palace in Leipzig.<\/p>\n
Manager Inigo Perez left the club at the end of the season to take over at Champions League side Villarreal, with Benat San Jose replacing him.<\/p>\n
A trip to Union Berlin will wrap up the Blues’ pre-season preparations (Image: PA)<\/p>\n
UNION BERLIN<\/p>\n
Ipswich finish their pre-season preparations with a trip to the German capital, facing Union Berlin at the Stadion An der Alten Forsterei on Saturday, August 15th (2:30pm BST, 3:30pm local).<\/p>\n
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The Iron Ones, like Rayo Vallecano, have strong working class, leftist roots, and they are completely fan owned, with 72,172 members as of June 2026. There are many incredible stories of the lengths many supporters went to in order to keep the club alive during tough times.<\/p>\n
They reached the Bundesliga for the first time in their history in 2019, even qualifying for the Champions League in 2022, where they finished bottom of their group behind Real Madrid, Napoli and Braga.<\/p>\n
Union were at risk of relegation last season, but managed to turn things around to survive, notably appointing Marie-Louise Eta as interim head coach in April, making her the first woman to manage a men\u2019s team in a top five European league.<\/p>\n
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Former Switzerland international Mauro Lustrinelli is currently in charge of the club, having left FC Thun in May.<\/p>\n
Town fans visiting the Stadion An der Alten Forsterei will get to tick off a unique ground tucked away in the east side of Berlin that many supporters don\u2019t get to visit due to the size of the stadium and the incredible demand for competitive matches.<\/p>\n
Ipswich have been allocated around 2,400 tickets for the game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ipswich Town will step up their pre-season preparations this week as they arrive in Spain for a training…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131922,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[99],"tags":[64123,112,64124,64121,64126,64125,190,64127,3958,64119,13927,1491,64120,64117,21059,49864,3464,3049,64128,64118,4949,2353,3469,3963,64116,64122],"class_list":["post-131921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-berlin","tag-arouna-sangante","tag-berlin","tag-conor-chaplin","tag-crystal-palace","tag-enzo-boyomo","tag-freddie-ladapo","tag-germany","tag-greg-leigh","tag-ipswich-town","tag-kassam-stadium","tag-liverpool","tag-napoli","tag-osasuna","tag-oxford-united","tag-pa","tag-rayo-vallecano","tag-real-madrid","tag-spain","tag-switzerland-international","tag-the-blues","tag-training-camp","tag-union-berlin","tag-villarreal","tag-wes-burns","tag-wycombe-wanderers","tag-yassine-kechta"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116950727869806733","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}