By Chris Bevan

Parkin joined Ipswich for £450,000 in June 2005

The Suffolk club rejected an approach by the Sky Blues for the 25-year-old.

Parkin told BBC Sport: "I was not sure what was going on until I saw my name splashed all over the local paper but I am focused on staying at Ipswich.

"You never know what is going to happen in football but I don't think people here have seen the best of me yet."

Parkin moved to Portman Road from Swindon for £450,000 in June 2005 but missed most of last season through injury, scoring five goals in 17 League starts.

He was left out of new manager Jim Magilton's squad of 16 for the opening-day defeat by Crystal Palace but is still pleased with the way things are shaping up for him after the misery of the last campaign.

"It is definitely a case of making up for lost time," said Parkin.

"I have not shown what I am capable of. I showed it in patches last season but then to be ruled out for so long was a real blow.

We know we need to significantly improve on last year and the manager wants us to really set our sights on the top six and even automatic promotion Sam Parkin

"First and foremost, I just want to get back to playing football and enjoying it. Enjoying it and scoring goals is important because I didn't enjoy the very little football that I did play last year."

Parkin is enjoying the challenge of life at Portman Road under Magilton, who succeeded Joe Royle as manager in the summer.

"It is a new era but having had Jim around as a player before he went into management means it has been quite a smooth transition," explained Parkin.

"Jim is trying to play an attractive brand of football like we did under Joe.

"There have been a few little differences but the biggest is that there are new coaching staff so we are just getting to know them."

After back-to-back play-off semi-final defeats, Ipswich's promotion campaign petered out last season and they finished a lowly 15th in the table.

Parkin knows they must do much better this time - but also knows the Championship will be no walk in the park.

"You just have to look at the squads that West Brom and Birmingham have got and you can see they are going to raise the bar a little bit," he said.

"I don't think Sheffield United or Reading were fancied that much to run away with this division like they did last year - but this time those two are definite favourites.