Jose Mourinho claims there is a "media conspiracy" against Chelsea. Most pundits scoff at such a suggestion, but I'd like to argue that he is almost correct in his assertion. It's just that the team being unfairly treated is Ipswich Town, not Chelsea.

Take Town's most recent match, a 3-0 win over Charlton Athletic, in which Daryl Murphy continued his remarkable goal-scoring form and the Tractor Boys went back within a point of the leaders Bournemouth. It also extended Town's unbeaten run to 11 games.

On the same night, Derby County win 2-0 against Leeds United, taking them third. Derby's recent form is not bad, but doesn't compare to Town's. The Rams have lost four league matches in their last 11.

So which of these teams got all the headlines? In every national newspaper the next day, Derby were given a glowing report with a large headline, sometimes even on the back page. Ipswich were given a small mention underneath. I know because I looked through all of them. The Independent, The Daily Mail, The Sun, The Daily Express, The Times. All devoted three or four times as much page space to Derby as they did to Town.

This isn't the first instance of such unfair treatment, I've been noticing it for a while. The printed press are still barely giving Town a mention in comparison to the other promotion contenders. But why? Is Paul Dacre, the editor of the Daily Mail, a Norwich City fan? Did Mick McCarthy once have an affair with the wife of Henry Winter, the Daily Telegraph's football correspondent?

I'm afraid the truth is far more mundane. Whether we agree with them or not, the national press has decided that Ipswich Town's story this season is not as compelling as Derby's, Middlesbrough's or Bournemouth's.

Sometimes the media can appear to be biased against someone or something, when all the editors are merely doing is making a decision on which story they think is going to appeal most to their readers. They just want to sell papers. We can argue about whether or not their editorial decisions, in that regard, are the correct ones, but the decisions are made for a reason. Each one is a subjective judgment call made by a human being, rather than an objective analysis of what, statistically, is most worthy of page space.

So when Derby are given priority over Ipswich despite a less compelling victory, an inferior run of form and a lower position in the league table, it's because they are managed by a former England boss who is on the verge of a return to the Premier League for the first time in eight years, and because Town are managed by a man who has been there and done it twice before. Steve McClaren leading Derby to promotion would be a good story, I confess. It is an impressive comeback from the humiliation suffered in 2007 when he garnered the cruel nickname "Wally with the Brolly".

Bournemouth's story, meanwhile, is remarkable. Here's a club that came within one match of being relegated to the Conference only six years ago. A club with a ground capacity of only 12,000, that has never been in the top tier before, is playing a sumptuous brand of attacking football and is managed by a 37-year-old. Bournemouth in the Premier League would be quite the fairytale, I admit.

There is nothing particularly exciting to say about Middlesbrough this season, but, the simple fact that they were in the Premier League more recently than Town is enough to swing the minds of many newspaper editors that they are more worthy of page space. Other Championship teams such as Brentford, another rags-to-riches story, or Leeds United, whose recent history makes soap opera storylines look tame, are also winning more headlines than Town.

But maybe I'm wrong about all this. Maybe, like Mourinho, I'm being paranoid and suffering a bad case of myopia because of my own biased position. On the Football League Show, for example, I was convinced that Town's matches had hardly been shown by the BBC. But when I looked back through the programmes so far this season, I found Town's were just as likely to be one of the 'featured games' as Derby's or Middlesbrough's, and more so than Bournemouth's.

Then I discovered something that I think is quite extraordinary. As we all know, Town's recent form is scintillating. Murphy is banging in the goals for fun, our defence is rock solid, we've lost one in 20 and we're second in the table. But according to the bookies, the Tractor Boys are only fourth favourites for promotion. With most bookmakers, right now, Town are 5/1 to go up, compared to 2/1 for Bournemouth who sit just a single point above us. Surely it is the job of a bookmakers to be as objective as possible, to give the fairest odds? How can this make any sense? Or was I right all along?

Ipswich Town are flying under the radar, and not the subjective media, nor the objective betting industry, is able to see our success for what it is: an incredible story of how a team made nearly entirely from free transfers has seemingly come from nowhere to be on a relentless charge toward the Premier League.

Mourinho complains about the media, but the truth is that they adore him. They love to talk about his mission to become the first manager to win the Champions League with three different teams. But when was the last time a manager won promotion to the Premier League with three different teams? Is that not a worthy story? Is that not remarkable?

A month ago, after the last-gasp win over Charlton at The Valley which put Town in the automatic promotion places for the first time this season, Mick McCarthy was asked whether he was bothered if the media took his team seriously or not. "I think other teams take us seriously, which concerns me more rather than anybody else," he said in reply.

Mick doesn't care what the media says about us, and despite my longing to see Ipswich Town's success splashed across the back pages every week, neither should us fans.

https://twitter.com/JollyJourno

RegencyBlue added 17:00 - Jan 1 I wouldn't say the media don't like us, I just don't think they are taking us seriously because they haven't had to for a long time! We have pretty much come from nowhere as automatic promotion contenders and nobody saw it coming this season. It works in our favor because the less media attention there is the less pressure on MM and the squad so long may it continue!

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BlueSince93 added 17:32 - Jan 1 I've got no issue with this as long as if we were to go up, the efforts of MM, players and staff were acknowledged by the media. For now I'm happy for us to go about our business quietly, under the radar and away from the external media pressure.
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ThatsNotMe added 18:04 - Jan 1 It doesn't really matter. The newspapers you have listed are all ineffective sources of getting any kind of information for anything. You know the result and how well we did/are doing, so what does it matter what some right wing fear mongering rag chooses to try and lighten the mood after pages and pages about welfare 'scrounges' and the 'threat' of the middle east. Seeing as your name is JollyJourno, I would try to look outside of any kind of media bias from those sources and even Sky because it will never change, even for less trivial matters than football. Just stick to an independent, locally-based platform like twtd for info and don't worry about what people reading the Daily Mail are thinking about Ipswich.

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JollyJourno added 18:25 - Jan 1 Well yes I agree with all these comments, my line at the end of the blog is exactly that, we shouldn't care what the media says! I thought it would be interesting to analyse why it might be the case that we are getting less coverage, but quite frankly, I'm sure most fans don't give a hoot and quite right they are too. Nevertheless, it is frustrating when Mick doesn't get the praise he deserves.

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bugledog123 added 19:44 - Jan 1 Not sure if you heard the Today programme on Radio 4 yesterday morning, but they did a decent bit on ITFC and an interview with Terrry Butcher during their sports report. So some people in the media are aware of our success!
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NoCanariesAllowed added 21:06 - Jan 1 I did notice that Derby's game got more coverage than ours did on Tuesday, though that may also be something to do with the fact that they were playing Leeds, and you'll probably sell more papers if you lead a backpage with Leeds in it than you would with Ipswich. In the longer term, wonder whether it is less to do with the stories other teams offer, and more to do with the suggestion that some of the media still don't take us as seriously as promotion contenders. I dare say they are anticipating, expecting, that we will blink and slip up before the season is out Derby and Middlesbrough, on the other hand, perhaps have the greater depth to see it out for the long haul. I won't lie - back I early November, that's much what I was predicting as well. I think we've probably had about the same amount of coverage as Bournemouth, whose credentials are probably also still doubted by much of the media waiting for them to slip up. They've generally led the headlines ahead of us on occasions purely because they're top of the table and we've been chasing them. We've certainly had a hell of a lot more than Brentford and Watford, who are both promotion contenders too. To be honest, I don't think the coverage of us is that bad. When we were flying in September, I saw plenty of articles suddenly taking an interest in 'the £10,000 team'. And we're getting far more leading stories on sites like the BBC Sport page than we used to. We're certainly getting more Sky coverage as well, while I've been pleasantly surprised by the number of featured games we've had on the FLS. I wouldn't complain. Besides, when we get into the Premier League, we'll have more coverage than we know what to do with!! ;)

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zero67 added 21:16 - Jan 1 Agree with all the above but "the proof of the pudding" will be seen clearly if we come away with a win on Sunday...... like the rest of us I am loving every game and every minute at present and will relish in it all while it lasts ( and if it lasts until the final game all the better! ).
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rugbytomc added 22:59 - Jan 1 Did anyone read the bbc sport match report after the charlton game? They hit that completely wrong! Said we played much better than we did and got several of the facts wrong-such as saying murphys goal was from a corner by didz! But this misrepresentation in the media in this instance is to our advantage-it makes other teams worry about us more which will hopefully be a good thing

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Binner added 23:43 - Jan 1 Blog seems to me to be paranoid nonsense. For the last few weeks the national papers and radio stations have been complimentary about our progress and we have been prominent in their coverage. As for your suggestion that the bookmakers are not being objective or fair, don't you realise that, once the book is 'live,' the odds are determined by the amount placed in bets? If we are fourth favourites it is because more has been wagered on the other three.

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Stourbridgeblue added 00:38 - Jan 2 Nothing to see here. Move along. Under the radar is the best way forward.
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wkj added 08:44 - Jan 2 The last time we had a lot of media attention, it was down to Roy Keane's Press Circus. I like many really don't mind about our name being in lights, except for those Scoreboards after 90 minutes.
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blrmy added 10:02 - Jan 2 Try tuning on to Talk"Ipswich"Sport ;)
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TrumptonBlue added 11:04 - Jan 2 Never mind.
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WindsorBlue added 12:52 - Jan 3 Derby have been on sky loads over the last few months...and again on jan 10th. I don't care, I go to games, and don't read papers (I don't even have sky!). They will take us seriously soon enough!! Good observation though...I'm happy to fly low!!
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AlexanderFields added 16:35 - Jan 3 You say you looked at them all, jollyjourno - the newspapers, that is. But you obviously didn't look at the Telegraph, which went to town on Town. Never mind. Who cares what the papers say!
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OceanSpaceman added 19:13 - Jan 5 The Guardian are OK with Ipswich http://www.theguardian.com/football/football-league-blog/2014/oct/30/ipswich-mic http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/dec/18/tyrone-mings-ipswich Not too much I know (they have match reports also) but good coming from the only newspaper I read (so couldn't comment on others) Definitely wouldn't and could't comment on SKY/BT because they will never see any of my money!

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