Dear Mr Evans, I am an old man and can no longer go to football matches but that does not stop me from being a staunch, lifelong Ipswich Town supporter. This I have been, as an adult, since before the days of Sir Alf Ramsey.

Today, in fact since you took over or, to be generous, possibly, even before that, there has been one ingredient missing from the club and that is the word 'pride'.

I have many very vivid memories. Among them Ted Phillips and his sidekick, Ray Crawford, being signed from Colchester United, who were then a Southern League team, and them both setting, what was then called, the First Division alight and Ted being described, in one of the national newspapers, as being 'Like a carthorse running down the field to score goals for fun'.

Of George Burley as a young lad on his first appearance for the Town overlapping down the right wing with his hands flapping as he ran. Of Warky, the normal penalty taker, missing from the match so three penalties being missed on the day we stuck six goals past Manchester United.

Of beating the mighty Barcelona 3-0. Of Kevin Beattie on the balcony of the Town Hall waving a placard which a supporter had thrust into his hands which read 'Kevin Beattie walks on water'. Of over 38,000 ardent fans cheering the Town on to stick five goals past Norwich and even more past the much fancied West Bromwich Albion. Oh the pride and the pride of the players in being allowed to play for Ipswich! That is what is missing pride, pride in the Town.

Mr Evans, you have spent a great deal of money, most of it wasted. A pity, it has got us absolutely nowhere. 'Football is a funny old game', that is an old saying but a very true one. It is not like running any other type of business and you are not the first person to discover that.

In our early days Captain Cobbold took advice from the chairman of Arsenal Football Club who had a great deal of football know-how and it paid dividends. Unfortunately, you took the opposite route and got rid of every single person at Ipswich Town who had, among them, a vast reservoir of football know-how. Again a pity.

You appointed Mr. Clegg whose credentials were excellent but, unfortunately, his football knowledge was zilch! That was a major error of judgment and we are still paying for it. Any true Town supporter could have told you that appointing Roy Keane was a disaster waiting to happen and many people did try to tell you. The rest is history.

Today we have Paul Jewell. He seems to be a very likeable chap and his football knowledge should allow him to turn into an excellent manager for Ipswich Town. Given time!

Unfortunately Paul has not made a good start. His signing of all those 'old hands' with Premiership experience has been a disaster. What have they got to play for? They are no longer young and hungry, they do not care what colour shirt they pull on, why should they? They have a 'contract' and are paid (overpaid?) an enormous amount of money so, why worry? Most of them do a total disservice to the person who signed them.

Mr Evans, I invite you to look, carefully, at our most successful times. In the beginning we did it with a lot of hard working players but with the addition of two people brought in from the Southern League, into what is now called the Premiership. I ask you!

During Bobby Robson's era we twice won the FA Youth Cup and those players went on to become the backbone of a team which was voted as the best team in Europe (which of course meant the best team in the whole world of football), with the addition of, initially, Paul Mariner who came from lowly Plymouth Argyle for £200,000 (remember Brian Clough at Nottingham Forest spent £1m on a far less able striker) and later, of course, by the two Dutchmen who cost, if I remember correctly, £100,000 and £120,000 respectively.

That is what a manager and supporting team with footballing know-how can achieve for you, but the basics have to be right. Here at Town, right now, they are completely wrong.

Six years ago (time flies) we again won the FA Youth Cup and where are those players now, right now, there is not one of them on our teamsheet, why not? That is where our problems lie.

During that time we had an excellent young Irish keeper, Shane Supple was his name. He suddenly gave it all up and went home to play Gaelic football, for fun. One of his reasons for giving up a very promising career was that when he eventually got into the first team, to his horror, he found out that some of his colleagues did not care if they won or lost!

That is why I am not sure when the rot set in here at Ipswich Town. Now I would advise that you Google this young man and read some of the things he has recently been saying, it may pay you to and he has, recently, been saying quite a lot! That is where we need to start.

Mr Evans, if I may presume to advise you, this is what I would do. Firstly I would look carefully round the footballing world and bring in an experienced chief executive from the best run football club I could find outside the Premiership.

Next, I would have that person and Paul Jewell in and sit down with them and prepare a programme to run over a minimum of three years. Firstly, I would propose a Category One Academy (it will pay for itself many times over in the long run) and I would put Bryan Klug in charge of it.

Next I would look at the existing team sheet and get rid of all players with the following exceptions: Richard Wright, Arran Lee-Barratt, Aaron Cresswell, Carlos Edwards, Keith Andrews (I would make him club captain, he cares, OK he was playing for his future when he came here but now give him something else to play for – The Town), plus Jason Scotland and Danny Collins, if I could keep him, and any other fringe players who have come through the Academy.

I would entice Jordan Rhodes to come back home and build the team to feed him, and bring his father back in in his former role as well. I would then look carefully at all the maturing Academy players and those who are in the process of leaving plus those who have recently been allowed to leave and, those I wanted, I would offer each of them a minimum of a two-year contract and make them want to prove themselves and want to play for the club they obviously love. That is important and, for them, first team football is equally important.

In the beginning we would have sufficient 'old heads' to steady the youngsters and I am certain in year one we would, at least, hold our own but after that and, providing we enrol some real 'scouts' to bring in the occasional quality player to fill a niche, I am certain we would then be back to where we used to expect to be and then the stadium extension which Mr Clegg was speaking of would become a necessity and you would be able to recoup the many millions club debt which is owed to you. Happy days.

As a point of interest I was recently reading that Athletic Club Bilbao only recruit from their Academy and only people local to them can enter their Academy. Food for thought there.

I wish you well.

An Ipswich supporter who really cares.

ianpeace added 22:51 - Dec 19 At first i thought this was a sarcastic and well written letter. Am i wrong?
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jutty added 23:09 - Dec 19 The sentiments here are, i'm sure, echoed by every Ipswich supporter We are sadly a club that is losing our soul and our identity. Well said Sir... I hope someone at the club is listening, but I doubt it
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NastyPasty added 23:35 - Dec 19 A very well written blog :-) Also makes a lot of sense. COYB
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Tractorboy24 added 00:56 - Dec 20 I (obviously) agree with the sentiment of developing our own, also that a lot of money has been wasted in recent years. I have the following issues though, the side which won the fa youth cup has done very little since even leaving town, only 3 I believe play at the same level. Mainly though, I think you may not have identified the strategy which I believe Paul jewell is in the process of building. He came in, in January, it will take approx 6 maybe 10 months to build the scouting network which he wants. To ensure stability, he bought in (proven) experienced players to steady the ship to allow the scouting network identify the (young) players to build this club. Now this will only allow town to do this in either the next transfer window or the summer. This is why I think we should wait until the end of next season to judge the current set up, so long as our position in the championship is not compromised. P.S. The issue with the ce is nothing, for example were Peter ridsdale (a man with easily 15 years experience of being involved in the background of football clubs) I would be seriously concerned and worried!

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ozzydog added 06:19 - Dec 20 Some good points,but not sure about the wholesale clear out of players, amongst the crap we do have one or two decent players. But yes a concentration on yoof and wise buys from the lower leagues would be good Spot on about the appointments of beano and smeghead,and the shameful sacking of Bryan Klug.
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piersmorganisatool added 06:49 - Dec 20 spot on for me! although i wouldn't hold out much hope Evans would take any notice at all, we will limp on for a bit before he decides to go (soooo many people on here call me nuts for this, but i'm certain this will happen) we will be in the mire without his money, but we have no direction with it either! the club and the fans have been here since the start, whatever happens we'll find a way to bounce back without evans.

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Kropotkin123 added 08:57 - Dec 20 In general a good blog, I'm sure the sentiments will be agreed on, even if the course of action you suggest isn't. On Bilbao: Bilbao is, to my knowledge, the biggest city in the Basque country. Importantly, there is a strong movement of nationalism and independence, which not only manifests in the the city's football club, but also in the locals, who are more likely from a wider area, to see the club worth playing for, for more than mere footballing reasons. Thus, although it would be a great academy principle to try and replicate, I'm not sure it would necessarily be something we could replicate, as the surrounding area doesn't have the same push/pull factors or indeed strength.

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dirtydingusmagee added 10:26 - Dec 20 Well said BillBlue, no pride ,no identity, and im afraid that has come about since M E came in,what ever his intentions were.Everything about the club has changed on and off the field.[I know some will say that was inevitable,others would say it needed to]but it has not brought anything into the club,other than x amount of mainly mis spent money.The terraces are with the exception of a few ,lifeless,the fog of apathy, and dispare has suffocated the support.Its fine the club saying these are hard times ,but the supporters are feeling the pinch and cannot be expected to cough up their hard earned cash to watch a team of over paid under achievers ,who are not putting their all into the job.Im afraid i cannot find the sympathy for the players with problems such as Chopra,[to name just one ]The club is in decline,and will not recover unless the heart and soul is put back.I live in Norwich,have supported Town since i was 16, 50 yrs,its a lot of expense for me to go to matches at home let alone away, 4 weeks ago i decided enough was enough,my precious time and money can be put to better use.I have given up .I can no longer go around wearing the blue and white scarf ive been proud of since a lad,the club i have followed for half a century is now fading into the mists of Stour like the Marie Celeste.Respect to those that will and can continue to follow ITFC, but the gate figures are showing that they are swimming against a strong ebb tide .

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JayITFC added 13:05 - Dec 20 I agree on pride, passion, etc. but you cannot compare the era of Crawford and Phillips to that of today. It's a different world. Fitness, diet, athleticism, preperation. It's a different game entirely.
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fourth added 17:37 - Dec 20 Yes I remember young Ted scaring keepers witless with his penalties. Listening carefully to the emotions raised in me by this blog, I see that I am VERY excited about getting a bunch of battling youngsters up through the system. When players walk around with headphones on rather than chatting possibilities and practising moves one is amazed.
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TheDalaiFarmer added 17:55 - Dec 20 Your memory is playing tricks old boy. Neither Phillips or Crawford were signed from Colchester. Phillips was signed from Leiston and made his first appearance in Division 3 South, and Crawford was signed from Portsmouth and made his first appearance in Division 2. We've also never had a crowd of 38,000 for a game against Norwich or West Brom as you state.
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are_these_the_days added 18:42 - Dec 20 The odd factual error apart this is an excellent blog. It seems that the shortcomings of recent managers is even more apparent to those of us who go back a long way - I do wonder whether ME regards the Keane era as disastrous as true fans -he got regular publicity from Keanes constant TV interviews.
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virginblue added 18:45 - Dec 20 It's strange that someone who acknowledges he never goes, seems to think that he knows who cares. Easy to say Keith Andrews cares (just because he's scoring goals), but it certainly didn't look that way when he couldn't be bothered to track his man against Barnsley - a failure which cost us the penalty.
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Cobbold_Youth added 20:40 - Dec 20 The Keane appointment was all about publicity. End of story. There are some players and staff who's dismissal he can never be forgiven for. I also seriously do not like having a chairman who will not show himself or communicate to the fans.
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CornardBlue added 21:57 - Dec 20 Spot on most of what you say and i hope Marcus Evans reads it, Keane took us backwards and it will take us years to recover. What we need i think is a general manager someone to oversee all transfers with Paul Jewell, speak to the media be the football face of ITFC and leave Clegg to run the other side of the football club. This person should be the legend John Wark, he has the respect of all supporters loves the club and would be great PR for Marcus Evans.

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rosseden added 01:52 - Dec 21 Top marks for sentiment. I wish the game of football still had its feet on the ground. It doesnt tho. The game as you refer to it changed in 1991 when the premier league was formed, the death of football as we knew it. And the death of the footballing dream where a club could compete with skill, youth and passion alone. . . . .
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rosseden added 02:02 - Dec 21 Oh, and as for comments like the one above about the club and fans being here before it all kicked off with ME. Expect to see a few clubs go totally out of business over the next few years. In previous generations the debts for a badly run club were manageable and people took them on. Now they aren't manageable and you need big investors. Look at the clubs with. 'big investment' like blackburn, watford, cardiff. These guys are barely afloat. We should be grateful we have someone putting it in as our debt isn't manageable in the current economic climate. I think we got ME at the right time. . . . .

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Dallas_Blues added 03:04 - Dec 21 Well said, couldn't agree more.
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tractorboy2434 added 13:33 - Dec 21 The club is run by 'old heads' with outdated ideas of how a club should be run, we need some forward thinking and that means a younger manager who has learned his trade in the lower divs, Karl Robinson of MK Dons is a good example, all of their players are playing for him and will probably get them promoted, Ferguson at Posh has signed nearly all his players from Div 1, 2 or non league and not spent a fortune, they are doing something right which is not the case at the Bupa Care Homes Stadium, the club needs a reality check.

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RegencyBlue added 20:20 - Dec 21 Evans got it wrong from day one and its cost him, and us, dear. Magilton and Keane between them squandered £20 million on average overrated players. Keane compounded his errors by destroying the 'backroom' of the club, getting rid of Klug who was one of the most qualified coaches in the country was a particular low point in my opinion. As for calamity Clegg where do I start! My only hope is that it is Clegg who is making the decisions because that means matters can be rectified by sacking him, sooner rather than later please. If on the other hand he is just implementing Evans wishes then god help us, because no one else can! How we find our way back to where the club used to be is the question. Unless Evans accepts his entire strategy so far has been flawed and effectively starts again I think we have many more years of watching dross, in front of falling gates, to come.

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llewej_tuo added 11:37 - Dec 22 The letter should have read .. Dear Mr Evans, please sack Paul Jewell as he is single handedly wreaking our club. Thank you
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owdboy1 added 13:05 - Dec 22 Like the blog and tend to agree with the sentiments - but like billblue I have supported Town for over 50 years. When I watch Premier League games on Sky I often wonder if we really want to be back there; nearly all the sides are full of foreign mercenaries and the smaller clubs are hugely in debt ( eg Bolton £110m ). The Evans period has been disastrous, but so were the last few Sheepshanks years and the end of the Cobbold time when we had to sell most of the Robson team. The Norwich experiment is interesting - young manager / lower league players - bet it won't keep them in Premier for longer than two years without spending bigger sums of money on better/ more expensive players.

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Marcus added 11:46 - Dec 23 How many of the previous youth cup teams went on to the first team? Anyone got the squads?
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fourth added 12:33 - Dec 25 I just had this vision of football where money is outlawed and players are unpaid. Amateur. What could be more healthy? Do we really need all of this sick idolisation of players, managers and teams? Doesn't this say a lot about supporters' lack of personal identity that some part of it needs to be supported by success by ITFC on the pitch ? Do we really want Manchester City to be successful because of money pumped in?? Why should we not get rid of the whole EUFA rubbish and overpaid FA staff and have our own local league?

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WickedBlue added 02:54 - Dec 29 Interesting blog though with a few errors that have already been pointed out. I have supported Ipswich nearly as long as the author and the one thing that didn't come across was the changing face of football over the years. It's rare to find the loyalty shown back then in today's football players. The only loyalty most show is to their bank accounts. Football has change for the worse and it will not get better with out taking the money out of it. Cap player salaries and transfer fees. That would lead to all the foreigners leaving which should allow clubs to produce more English players and perhaps bring more loyalty to the clubs they play for. This would bring more parity among the clubs and then perhaps we will be back with a league of 24 teams out of which anyone of them could win the title. A fools dream I know................

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