The dispiriting and uninspiring defeat to Norwich was undoubtedly a poor performance. The passion was lacking, the creativity, as many of us have highlighted already, was sparse and it was another instance in this fledging season where a defensive error has cost us.

Judging by the subsequent fallout, I see that some supporters are sharpening the proverbial blades and have deduced that Mick McCarthy is a terrible manager, who advocates a terrible playing style and should be fired.

Not only is that incredibly wishful thinking, it also offers a microcosm of the fickleness and short-termism that has permeated into contemporary football.

Now I may risk alienating myself from several of you but I struggle to believe that by sacking McCarthy we will magically transform into a promotion-chasing side. It's a naive concept, and in context of the bigger picture at Portman Road, it is highly unlikely to change anything.

Firstly, I believe we have to bite our tongue and acknowledge that, after starting our 13th season at this level, we are a mid-table Championship side at best. The club has stagnated, and with the slashed budget and reduced spending, promotion is not going to be realistically achieved by a change in management.

McCarthy led us to a ninth place finish last season, conveniently forgotten already by some of his detractors, and that finish represented a very successful improvement on previous campaigns. Particularly if you take into account the frugal ownership and the previous stints of Roy Keane and Paul Jewell we all had to endure.

As I argued in a post only a few weeks ago, we won't be making any real progress if there is no investment coming from the board. Without investment, you don't get promoted. Some people quote Burnley (seemingly an exception that proves the theory in recent years) but they spent £200,000 in transfer fees the year they went up.

That's more than our club has spent cumulatively in the past four transfer windows. The last time we spent any discernible money on transfers was the summer of 2012, when Scott Loach and Paul Taylor were signed. The last first-team player we spent a decent-sized fee on was Anthony Wordsworth, a year and a half ago, and that was only £100,000.

While this fiscal conservatism undoubtedly balances the books, particularly to compensate for the fees splashed out during the early years of Evans's ownership, this cautiousness does not often translate well on the pitch.

Take into account that we let our best defender go, to join the exodus of talented youngsters that comes through our ranks, and the board don't seem to want to spend the cash. That, and the fact our league competitors are spending money, makes it a slim chance of progress from last season's impressive, yet overachieving finish.

While FFP can make spending difficult, I believe McCarthy, and more pertinently, Evans, are guilty of using that system as an excuse to reduce spending. The downfall of this approach, as myself and several others have discussed, is that while we are operating in a limited market, our competitors are securing talented, in-demand footballers from other clubs who, in most cases, want that footballer to remain.

Within this context, it's unfeasible that Evans would sack McCarthy and pay out the massive compensation required. With another sacking, there could be a perception of the Portman Road hot seat becoming a 'poisoned chalice', we're going through managers fast when, traditionally, we are not viewed as that sort of club. Plus, will Evans splash out on a large salary in the wake of the firings and cutbacks? I very much doubt it.

Now, while the football is not pretty, we were in with a shout for the play-offs last season and finished in the top half of the table. We have not seen a season like that since the early days of Jim Magilton's tenure.

The reality is that Norwich City, a club that has spent the previous three years in the Premier League, and have retained most of their quality players were always going to be favourites against us.

As much as it pains me to admit it, they have a higher calibre of players. Now the playing style can be dull and, when results are not coming our way, it can be an incredibly impatient and frustrating experience.

However, this squad is simply playing to its strengths. We are a tall side, we are a physically imposing side and so, naturally, set pieces are going to be our primary source of goals. This is moulded to McCarthy's ideology and so, if McCarthy was to go or be fired, Evans would need to hire a manager with a similar philosophy to get the most out of the existing squad. Otherwise an extensive overhaul and clear out will be needed, and that, in an ideal world, would cost money.

I believe McCarthy can get us to the Premier League, but it is going to take time, and more importantly, money. If he does not have the funds then we will have to settle for being a mid-table side at best.

The sale of Aaron Cresswell would ideally have freed up funds for us to sign players in areas where we need them (right-back, central midfield, maybe a winger and a striker), but that doesn't seem to be the case.

David McGoldrick, our primary goal threat and arguably our best player, will probably not hang around if he continues scoring and a bigger club comes calling. I hope some cash is freed up before the window shuts otherwise I think we're in for another long season.

ingyblue added 13:04 - Aug 28 Good blog I for one agree
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truthhurts added 13:46 - Aug 28 Very good blog, and I also agree with every single point being made here. You are quite right. Getting rid of Mick would leave the replacement man with nothing to work with (in terms of changing our style of play). People - and the man himself - go on about his past successes at both Sunderland and Wolves, and how that could benefit us. True, to a limited point. Both those sides had better players than what we currently have. We have always been a passing team (even in Keane's and Jewell's days they attempted this far more than Mick) and, put bluntly, this doesn't suit us. It's all well and good saying this has worked in the past, but move on man - life does! Things in life become outdated and predictable, and need freshening up. Same can be said for our playing methods. There is no plan B. Can anyone honestly say they expect us to get back and win a game having gone 1-0 down!!?? There is no chance. Our mentality is play for a 0-0 and hope to scrape a win if we're lucky. That mindset fails miserably once we're loosing. I appreciate there are some people who have had season tickets and watched Town for longer than me. But I have had my season ticket for 15 years, and also go to a reasonable amount of away games too. I think this allows me a certain amount of freedom to have a moan at the Club and its playing style. Put in simple terms, I am now bored rigid with what is served up week after week. There is no sign of any changes on this front either. Some others have mentioned playing 3-5-2, and I tend to agree. We have 3 solid, Championship central defenders that would fit into that perfectly. Then have Hewitt (who in my mind is being wasted by not playing more regularly) and Mings as fullbacks. Use Hyam or Skuse to protect the back 3, and then attack from there using more attack minded and pacey players. Let other teams worry about US instead of us worrying about THEM for a change! Fingers crossed for O'Neill getting the boot, and ireland come calling....

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Stato added 13:56 - Aug 28 No surprise but I disagree. The loss to Norwich is irrelevant in forming my opinion as was never convinced by McCarthy but certainly grateful for his first season wonders. Finishing 9th should not be celebrated, it's just not good enough. As Mick has only just signed a 3 year contract we are stuck with him and as a supporter I hope he does well but he won't get us in the play offs and attendances will continue to fall as his approach is too negative and too boring. I'm not a fan of Evans either and his Portman Road tenure should not be celebrated as we were mid-table championship side when he arrived owing circa £30 million and now we are a mid-table championship side owing circa £90 million. However the blog misses the point that Evans doesn't pick the team or decide who to buy. McCarthy has made his own team. McCarthy thinks Gerken is Championship standard, that 442 works EVERY week home and away, that there must ALWAYS be a big lump up front, that it's ok to have a midfield where not one of them last season scored as many goals as our lowest scoring defender and who sends quite an expensive asset from his restricted budget out to one of our rivals !!!! McCarthy is to blame for the dire rubbish being served up and the debate about Evans should be separated rather than confusing the issue by bringing him in to get McCarthy off the hook. If Mick was given £10 million he would just buy an expensive big lump rather than a cheap one. Unfortunately he won't be going anywhere soon but hopefully this is his last contract with Town.

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Nuggets added 14:19 - Aug 28 Fair enough Bossman, but I disagree with a few points. Last season's finish and form should be 'good enough' considering where we ended up in the last five or six seasons. While the playing style has contributed to the decline of attendances, this decline gone on over the course of many years as we have spent more seasons fighting off relegation than competing for promotion. Most importantly though is the price. It's ridiculous that it's cheaper to watch some Premier League matches, and, in some instances, cheaper to book a flight and match ticket to watch a Bundesliga game than it is to watch us at Portman Road. With the budget being cut and a serious underinvestment in the club over the past couple of years, I thought Evans could afford to drop prices a little bit. McCarthy does pick the team and make the signings, yes. But the blog addresses the fact that by not having any money to spend, McCarthy is limited to the free transfer market, which, when it comes down to it, is mostly made up of players that other clubs deem not to be good enough. After a good season and an opening day victory, it's only the last few weeks that have put McCarthy in the spotlight and ignited this widespread criticism. Regarding your jibe about the cash, I seriously doubt he would waste money on one player. Look at what he did with Wolves when they got promoted, brought in three or four good players in positions that needed reinforcement and, hey presto, he got the side promoted. While it's not always that clear-cut and guaranteed, we could do with some quality in the right areas.

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Sorry added 14:41 - Aug 28 Very realistic analysis of the whole situation, particularly the cost implications of sacking Mick and going back to the drawing board in terms of style. It's just incredibly unlikely that we sack Mick and appoint a genius who turns our current players into a slick, passing team that tears other teams to shreds. Pretty much the only realistic way we'll get promoted is by becoming insanely good at grinding out results (a la Hull a few years) or by getting lucky with a few academy kids and freebies signings (like Burnley last year). It's not going to happen just because we get in a new manager. That said, Mick certainly doesn't help himself. Picking Tabb and signing Sammon were always going to wind people up, especially with existing frustrations about negative, route one football. Mick's set up teams to play direct attacking football in the past, so I've no idea why he's so keen to pick a fight with the Town support.

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naa added 14:57 - Aug 28 Excellent blog. The key point, that many fans seem to refuse to grasp, is that we are a middling championship team. It's pains me to say it, but we are. We have the spending of a lower table team, the last few seasons (bar last year) have all been spent in the lower reaches, and yet for some reason people think that just because we have a great history we should be in the Prem and if we are not it's the manager's fault. Obviously, this is rubbish. We are what we are. We have no spending power and an average squad (though one better than it should be given the spending). Why, exactly, does anyone think that we should be doing better than we are? Of course, if only Keane and (to a lesser extent) Jewell and Magilton hadn't wasted all that money when Evans was splashing it about. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not happy with the style of football, and I do believe it is possible to play nice football on a budget, but you are right to say that we are too far down this road now. A player overhaul would be required to change our style (at least 5 players) and, of course, a new manager - something that hasn't been that successful for us of late. Let's just hope that as the season progresses Henshall, Stewart and Marriott will get runs in the team and things will start to look up. If not, and if Tabb becomes a mainstay (not that Tabb is a terrible player, it's just that his appearance is indicative of a very conservative gameplan), then it could be a long hard season for us fans.

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The_Tomonator added 15:32 - Aug 28 Good read and balanced. its just embarrasing that we are here contemplating the effects of a change of management.
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theobald1985 added 15:53 - Aug 28 totall agree with bossman there is no excuse for playing the type of football we play -its not down to funds its mcarthys way. he has been allowed to bring in countless players not many of which have been overly impressive. he would rather start bajner who could not last a half than give marriot a go. What we need for better or worse is to get back to being a team that plays attacking football on the deck play to win and implement the same style through every age group of the youth to the first team. Evans does not help but mick has choices and makes the wrong ones consistently to my mind

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Stato added 17:16 - Aug 28 In fairness Nuggets I don't think that McCarthy is going to damage the club in the same way Keane did and to a certain extent Jewell too. He was never my choice (nor was Darren Ferguson) and we all have to be impressed by his first year miracle act regardless of what tactics were involved. By doesn't anyone remember the over used example of the form league table that was produced in that first year of how we were 6th in the division for the period of McCarthy's tenure. So last year wasn't progress. I also accept that McCarthy has done really well in the past but the same has to be said of Jewell and Keane so that doesn't cut it with me. Mick has now had what 70/80 games and as yet there has been little sign of him moving away from this whole negative don't concede approach and in fact we have gone backwards as the defence is letting in more goals now than when he first arrived. I like Berra but the Chambers/Smith partnership was statistically stronger than the current set up and the Chambers experiment at RB has gone on too long. I'd be playing 352 with Smith, Barra and Chambers all in their strongest positions. Jewell got berated for playing Edwards at RB but Big Mick gets away with the same mistake. The Gerken experiment hasn't worked either and Mick has seen enough of him now to know that. He is a League One keeper or at best a back up for injuries. Tabb and Hunt are honest and hard working but are way past their best. Murphy was amazing last year but his overall record with us isn't amazing so him being in the first eleven each week isn't great either. Skuse started really well and Hyam has done well in patches but neither are under any pressure for a starting place and it shows. All of this is down to McCarthy. I hope he gets a result up at Derby so the "in Mick we trust" brigade can come and do their I told you so bit but regardless of that result I reckon we face a long hard slog where at times we will be close to the play offs but with more of our fans getting bored and more asking for a change. The Evans stuff is another issue entirely and plenty on here put him forward as our saviour which he isn't and if we are playing FFP then the club doesn't need a rich sugar daddy and what it needs is an astute football man not someone who may be using it as a tax vehicle or a networking facility for his corporate entertainment business. My overall view is that the club has deteriorated over the last decade or so and too many of our fans are accepting of our under achievement. I just don't buy into this whole passive acceptance of us be doomed to mid table championship level for the rest of time and thank god Ramsey, Robson and Burley didn't buy into it either. We are a bigger club than Southampton, Palace, Burnley, Leicester etc etc etc by any measure you like and us politely applauding the drivel currently being served up each week will do nothing to drive the changes required to take us back to where we should be .... targeting a return to not just the Premiership but challenging for European football again.

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brittaniaman added 20:39 - Aug 28 I do not know why Mick persists with Gerken, but we all think he has had enough time to consolidate, he seem no better now than when he first pulled the jersey on !!!! Why MM did not persist with getting Henderson in or Westwood,, there is 2 goalkeepers who are better than we have got ?? Charlton could afford it and so could Sheffield Wed. so why cant we ???? we seem to be dragging our heels on strengthening behind other clubs, who I am sure have got no more money than us, (which is nothing) ?? But we all hope that there are a few surprises in the near future so we must not get to down hearted !!!!! THINGS WILL BE CLEARER AFTER THE DERBY GAME !!!!

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Sorry added 23:45 - Aug 28 @Bossman: sad to say, but on no measure (other than trophies we won more than 30 years ago) are we currently a bigger club that So'ton, Palace, Burnley or Leicester.
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Superblue95 added 00:50 - Aug 29 Dave hockaday is available
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ITFCOYB added 11:58 - Aug 29 This is a good debate. I actually agree with both sides of it and i don't think they are mutually exclusive. One argues that in the present circumstances we would suffer if we didn't have Mick and the other that we are not as exciting or worth watching while we have him. Both are right, i think. Can i suggest a stay of execution while we see how FFP pans out? And hope that Mick's reputation lands us a couple of exciting loanees? We have a solid foundation for the next Gio to come and set us alight, i think. COYB - and to the faithful who go to watch each week - thanks. You will be rewarded because the contrast of success when it finally comes will be all the more apparent and sweeter for it.

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commuterblue added 12:56 - Aug 29 I agree we shouldn't get rid of McCarthy. A few comments Burnley might have spent 200k on transfers last year but they also sold their star striker for 4million when austin went to QPR. so they hardly reinvested into transfer fees. I would argue player salaries to turnover is a better measure of ambition than just trasnfer fees. if we think about transfer fees only then berra, mcgoldrick and murphy are less ambitious than signing, say, mings. And on salary to turnover, we probably have one of most generous boards (well owner). of course fulham will spend more they have 20 million of parachute payments. evans plugs another 3-4 million every year to finance salaries. which of course leads to why our other turnover is lower. gates are low. under joe royle they were much more. it is a question open to debate as to what lead to better gates - results or playing style. but of course there are other factors too such as the recession which will be less keenly felt if you have parachute payments.

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ITFCOYB added 13:11 - Aug 29 More good sense from the commuter. Best thread i've seen in a while, this one.
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Nuggets added 17:05 - Aug 29 Commuterblue, Yeah Burnley offloaded Charlie Austin for big cash, but bear in mind they are a club that, upon reflection of the previous few years, spend cash. I don't want to get into a year-by-year account of their spending, but the year before their promotion season, they spent a fair bit on several players which contributed to their success. So I think it's a bit dismissive and a little simplistic to claim they achieved promotion without investment as the numbers don't lie. I don't know how much we spend on wages per annum compared to our league competitors, but with the much-trumpeted cut wage budget, I speculate we're probably mid-table. As a club, our turnover probably isn't high. There's the theory that if you lower the price of tickets, attendances will rise which, on the surface, sounds fairly straight-forward. If the prices were lowered and attendances barely rose, then we'd be losing even more money. That's where Mick's playing style would really come under the radar. But I think it's just natural apathy permeating into the fanbase. We've been in this division for over a decade and, bar last season and back in the mid-00s, we haven't made a credible push for promotion. I believe that factor, coupled with high prices and, as you say, the economic climate, will naturally result in supporters turning away from the games.

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Walk_the_Wark added 19:36 - Aug 29 Simple answer- YES IT WOULD
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MVBlue added 20:15 - Aug 29 Good blog. So we start to think, do we now look daft with Marcus Evans plastered across the team strip when he's not investing any further in the playing staff? I'd think changing the owner not the manager would be better. Hope i'm proved wrong but i'm concerned as to what Marcus Evans is wanting as a future direction. Marcus, is it not worth giving Mick a couple of million to get us 6th an above? He can achieve that for us Marcus, with finance.

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Pip50 added 20:57 - Aug 29 That's' alright then .... put the lights out when the last supporter gets fed up with the entertainment value.
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IvorFeeling added 22:58 - Aug 29 good blog but i disagree. Can't accept that with the right policy we can attract and develop talent that will play football and be competitive. McCarthy was the right choice to keep us up but is not the right manager to develop a squad with a low budget. His default fallback is tough, gritty players who run and can feed off the long ball. There is no back up plan and the world of football has moved on considerably over the past 5 years and beilieve the McCarthy and Warnock style of management is now dead in the modern game. Would be more than happy to be proved wrong

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RegencyBlue added 23:21 - Aug 29 I cannot understand why our improvement last season, albeit a modest one, has not been built on. Instead of strengthening the squad we seem hell bent on weakening it. I cannot believe MM is voluntarily doing this - why would he because all it is doing is making his job even harder - so whats going on? For me our owner is the biggest problem we have. Whatever his plans for us were when he bought us they clearly didn't work out and there is no sign of a plan B. Whoever manages the club in these circumstances will struggle IMHO.

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BlueBadger added 18:19 - Aug 30 I think the OP, and others forget what an utter utter mess we were in under Paul Jewell. We couldn't score, couldn't defend, the squad was full of short term contraxcted players and loanees, disinterested(the loanees and short termers), demoralised(everyone else) playe) and headed for League One. That MM has come in, steadied the ship AND challenged for the playoffs is nothing onshort of miraculous, particularly given the conditions he's having to work under with freebies and el cheapos. At the time of writing, we are a point better off than we were last season having played two relegated sides and one tipped for promotion. We are working under both the shadows of FFP AND the waste of the two previous incompetents in charge. changing now wuld only lead to disaster, I fear.

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Whitecaps_Fan added 18:22 - Aug 30 Good blog
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WindsorBlue added 00:53 - Aug 31 We have got the best man for the job. Once we can move on from the past, embrace the future of long-term mediocrity, we can start enjoying football again. I have fully embraced it, and cant wait for the next match. Not for free flowing attacking football, I've got Sky for that..but for a laugh with your mates, a few beers, a sing and shout, and the buzz of a potential win or last minute equalizer (ie Birmingham last tues)....that, I don't get from Sky...and a season ticket is cheaper!! Once we understand this, promotion becomes a massive bonus... I understand we want to win every week, but if we did I kinda think it would become a bit boring, expecting glory each week, the taste of winning is not so sweet, and losing is more bitter still (I'd still take it mind you). Having worked with a Chelsea Season ticket holder, moaning about being 2nd or 3rd in the Prem (poor lad had so many pens, books etc thrown his way when he did) sums it all up IMO. There is always something to moan about (not that this blog is a moan, very balanced)! just thought I'd help put a different perspective on it. These blue and white Citaloprams they dish out in the club shop are working well!! Good Blog!

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Gcon added 22:59 - Sep 8 Good blog. I agree. However, it's good to see balanced & intelligent arguments put forth by those that don't agree!
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