Daniel Babb, pictured for Ipswich Town U21s last season. (Image: Ross Halls)
Daniel Babb, pictured for Ipswich Town U21s last season. (Image: Ross Halls)
Former Blues defender Daniel Babb has been reflecting on his spell at Ipswich Town and what the future holds. Ross Halls spoke to him after his departure from Portman Road....
Daniel Babb was a regular for Town's U21s over the last two seasons, having joined the Blues from League of Ireland side UCD in February 2024.
The20-year-old right back featured in impressive wins in the Premier League 2, but his 2025/26 season was cut short after having ankle reconstruction surgery back at the start of 2026.
Daniel Babb in action during his spell at Ipswich Town. (Image: Ross Halls)
He was one of many youngsters to be left go in the summer, but praised the club on how they dealt with the news.
"The club were quite good in communication with me," Babb revealed. "It kind of turns into more of an ongoing conversation rather than getting hit with something as a bit of a surprise one day, so like I said, I had a few conversations with the staff at the back end of last season.
"Obviously, I was injured around the same time and it kind of just started going that way, and then it was about looking at next steps and and how I could make the most out of what I had at that minute to then set me up for my next step."
Daniel Babb in action during Ipswich Town's U21s clash with Bundesliga side Borussia Mönchengladbach in 2024. (Image: Ross Halls)
Babb had already made 10 senior appearances in the Irish top-flight prior to making his move to Suffolk and shared why he decided to head to Town.
"Yeah, I was I was incredibly blessed to to be playing senior football already in Ireland and had a good amount of experience playing international youth football as well," he reflected.
"And off the back of both of those things happening, there was a bit of interest from Europe and England. And after going into a few places, I decided that Town was the place that I wanted to be.
"I remember after the first time I came over, I had a positive feel and one thing that always stuck with me from my time here, was the sense of community, like even just around the club from the kitchen staff to the kit man.
"Like everyone everyone's just so so friendly, so caring. You can have a conversation with almost anybody and I love that feeling around the club.
"It was a whole kind of new experience for me. I just turned 18, and I moved straight over. So, obviously, at 18, I thought I knew everything. I thought I had the whole world figured out, but yeah there was definitely a lot of things that I needed to learn!"
Daniel Babb worked under John McGreal for the last two seasons. (Image: Ross Halls)
During his time playing for the young Blues, he was managed by John McGreal, and he praised the former Town defender.
"I learned a lot about mindset from him", Babb said. "He takes everything in his stride, that's the best way to put it as people probably look at him and think he's a bit old school.
"But for someone who's considered a bit old school, he takes on all the new ways of doing things from coaching to the changes in analysis, for example, from the time where he played to what it looks like now. He took in his stride and tried to provide the best for his players."
Daniel Babb singled out Leif Davis has a first-team player who helped him. (Image: Ross Halls)
The Irishman trained with the first-team during his two-and-a-half-years in Suffolk and singled out current Town star Leif Davis for his guidance.
"There was some very helpful people, but one that stands out straight away for me is Leif as he always been very good at making sure that you're okay generally," he revealed.
"Like, it doesn't even have to be too specific, but just always a friendly face around the training ground.
"It was a great experience to be able to be around the first-team and seeing how they work, trained, approached the game and their mindset going into that and and the way that they show up every day consistently ready to work."
Daniel Babb in action last season. (Image: Ross Halls)
It's been quite a journey off the pitch for the club, with two promotions to the Premier League and the academy gaining Category One status.
Babb has been part of that transition and reflected on that change: "There was a lot of consistent change over my time at the club.
"It was a jump like standard-wise from playing Cat 2, but it was again something that you probably saw from the results at the the start of last season that the lads done very well to kind of just take in our stride.
"Our first game was against Derby and I remember the first half we were all over the place. Like just organizationally, and it wasn't it even like, okay, right, this Derby team are levels above us. It was we were playing within ourselves.
"We were playing like we were respecting them too much. Like, wow, this is Cat 1 now. That type of way.
"And I remember the talk at half time just being like, just go play our game. Go do what we've always done and then we managed to come out the second half and and turn the game around.
"The main difference at Cat 1 level is execution. Like, if you give teams a sniff, you'll get punished for the little things, while at Cat 2 level, you might have got away with it one, two or three times.
"There were a whole lot of lessons for me personally and I see them as blessings because they they have let me grow into the person that I am today. And there's a lot of things that I can bring into my next chapter and where I go next.
"Overall, it was a great experience, I met some great people and built some relationships that will definitely last a lifetime."
Daniel Babb is looking forward to his next chapter after leaving Ipswich Town. (Image: Ross Halls)
The former Republic of Ireland youth international is still looking for his next club but is fully recovered from his surgery and working on a new mental health project called #BeThe Spark.
"It's something I'm very excited and passionate about," he enthused. "It is a movement that essentially is focused around interrupting isolation through encouraging people to have conversations and act courageously.
"Those are two things that mean a lot to me and two things that through conversations and speaking to other people who are struggling at certain times.
"We've got street interviews with people and spreading the message. Naturally, I'm quite a private person, so even doing this and starting to post on social media and having more conversations, they're all things that are quite outside of my comfort zone.
"If you're able to share whatever's going on for you in some type of way, that conversation might be able to open new doors, new possibilities that you just couldn't see yourself because you are kind of stuck in one channel, one way of thinking.
"And then the second part of that is a bit of tough love and it's all about acting courageously and it's about you kind of realizing that you're the captain of your ship.
"It's something that like through my experience in football again, we just don't speak about it enough. Like there's a lot of times where people kind of shy away from those type of conversations or they feel like it is a form of weakness.
"In reality, it's a strength to be able to to kind of open up about your vulnerabilities. I'm not saying to everybody - privacy is still very, very important.
"But to the right people finding that little core group, it could be friends, it could be family, it might be a girlfriend, whatever that is to you that you're just able to open up and take a bit of that weight off your shoulders.
"I want to be an example of doing uncomfortable things. So, it's about being strong enough and being willing to be uncomfortable enough to take a step that you probably never have before and that is just starting that conversation."
More information on Daniel's movement can be found here.