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Fifteen Years
Written by Bubba32 on Friday, 19th Feb 2016 13:17

Fifteen years, a lot can happen in 15 years. People have got married, had kids and even divorced in that time. Some might have developed their career and others may well have seen the stagnation of their football club, Ipswich Town.

As it stands, the Suffolk club is now the longest-serving football team in the Championship. A record, seen by many as pretty horrific, and one which most fans are sick and tired of hearing. But I ask you, has anything changed since we were relegated from the hallowed halls of the Premier League? In short, no.

George Burley tried his hardest to bring back the glory days but failed miserably. After his departure, Joe Royle took the reins and the free-flowing football began. The former Everton and Oldham manager started slowly but came into full swing soon into his tenure at the club.

Games were won and lost by the odd goal, a new era of football came to Portman Road and with it the arrival of Darren Bent, Tommy Miller, Ian Westlake, Matt Richards, Pablo Couñago and Shefki Kuqi.

Royle's pragmatic approach wasn't to everyone's taste, however, results were positive and the run at the league was happening. This ended in heartache as injury and loss of form to key players proved the difference between promotion and play-offs.

A loss to West Ham in the play-off semi-finals ensure Ipswich remained in the Championship for another season. it would appear that this was beginning of the same old story.

Jim Magilton seemed to have found a formula to success but was shipped out the door quicker than you could say ‘out’, and then there’s Keane.

Roy Keane, Man United’s mercurial midfielder, strength of an ox, wits of a hawk and the temperament of a raging bull. Keane joined the club as a supposed saviour, new team, new budget and a new owner.

And at first it appeared to work, three wins from his first three games in charge. A summer to navigate and negotiate new deals with existing players and scout for new additions. Some might have said a change was going to come, and yet this fell on deaf ears with the Irishman.

A patchy start to the season led to panic acquisitions and an apparent fix-up job, yet most fans began to see this as a new dawn in management. Keane’s pedigree was known to all within the football world, having taken Sunderland from nowhere to the summit of the old Second Division and subsequent promotion.

Cynics amongst us would say that all he did at Sunderland was spend his way to the league title, picking up Premier League has-beens and weathered footballers without much thought for the future of the North-East club. Some would also argue that this proved to be the case as shortly after promotion to the top division, he left for pastures new.

As Keane became embedded within the make-up of the Suffolk club, reports of disarray amongst the players, coaching staff and manager started to make the headlines in both local and national papers, all whilst the team failed to build on their blistering start under Keane. By Christmas, the club was staring down the barrel of relegation, an unheard of thing in this small part of Suffolk and yet it appeared to be reality.

Ipswich’s owner, Marcus Evans, a man who has invested in the club and brought it from the brink of liquidation, began to see fans' disapproval of the Irishman’s tactics, techniques and general demeanour. How could a once successful footballer, who had tried his hand at management and proved both popular and successful, fall from grace so quickly and so heroically bad?

Keane had always the sort of reputation one would revere, with both admiration and fear. And yet the Ipswich experiment failed, horribly. Case in point, the sale of Jordan Rhodes to Huddersfield Town. A product of the Ipswich Town Academy, Rhodes appeared to have the midas touch. Quick, strong and an eye for goal, his worth became apparent from the very beginning. Something Keane didn’t see and one would say that all that was seen were pound signs.

Fans will argue that the sale of Rhodes left a bad taste in the mouth, as with money scarce and promotion a dream, to have kept a player like him at the club would have certainly seen a different kind of future for the club. Hindsight being a wonderful thing. Ultimately this mistake proved fatal for the Irishman’s tenure and soon the door was shown to him as well.

In stepped Liverpudlian Paul Jewell, again a man who was able to take both Bradford City and Derby County to the promotion party. Again a mix of experience, both playing ability and management style.

Nothing could go wrong, right. Why would it? Here we have the recipe for success. How wrong we were. Within months of Jewell’s management, the club seemed to go from bad to worse and not even I, a fan of the club for nearly 20 years, could’ve imagined the depths of despair one might reach, sitting and witnessing the implosion of their football team. The less said about Jewell, the better.

This had to stop and it did, for once Evans made a decision as decisive as his business model. Jewell was sacked and in walked Yorkshireman Mick McCarthy. The ex-Millwall, Celtic and Manchester City defender knew what was needed, some sort of stability.

When McCarthy took the reins, Ipswich were lying second from bottom with the worst record in the league. He started with a win, helped by league journeyman DJ Campbell and it appeared that McCarthy’s ethos of building the team from defence to attack was working. By the end of the season, Ipswich’s form was heralded and it’s wildly believed that if he’d taken over sooner, we would’ve finished in the top six.

Things were looking bright, a summer to rebuild and buy for the future and for once, as a Town fan, a new hope and confidence oozed from the team. Fans appeared happy and, yes, the football was dire at times but results are important, regardless of the playing style.

McCarthy’s first full season in charge fell short of the dream. Ipswich finished just outside of the play-offs and yet both his and the team's resolve was unwaivering despite the bitter disappointment of finishing ninth. All they needed was another opportunity to prove to all the nay-sayers that this club was on the rise, back to good old days of Ramsey, Robson and Burley.

Another season followed and another promotion push, this time finishing sixth. Who would we play in the play-offs, Ipswich’s oldest rival, fellow East Anglians Norwich City, themselves having had a stellar season.

Now you would hope that the good times continued and they almost did. Paul Anderson’s equaliser in the first leg of the play-off semi-finals at Portman Road was a highlight and window of opportunity for the Suffolk club to share their high and lows with some of the richest clubs in the world.

However, reality dawned and the dream of crashing the promotion party, was just a dream and the nightmare followed. Christophe Berra’s red card and a second-half capitulation, once again, proved the difference between the East Anglian rivals.

Summer came and went, and again, new promises and new players were brought in. Another chance, another stab at promotion, another reason to feel hopeful that maybe, just maybe we might end the nightmare of the Championship, a league comparable to the Premier League in its uncertainty and unpredictability. One minute you’re riding high up the league and the next, mid-table mediocrity.

And as we enter the latter end of the season, Ipswich sit in eighth place, three points from the play-offs. Defeats away to Bristol City and the like have hampered the confidence within the club. And I, like many other fans, seemed resigned to another season of high and lows in the England’s second tier of football.

I also know that things can change overnight and who's to say we don’t make it, who’s to say we aren’t hosting the likes of Chelsea, Manchester City, Liverpool and competing with them next season?

I’m hopeful, albeit worried that we fall at the final hurdle. Investment has been patchy, with players tied to contracts, over and above their worth. McCarthy claims that this team doesn’t need any additional faces.

Whilst I may well agree with this, results have been poor and new additions could’ve sparked some kind of revival in the club’s fortunes. Again I’m speculating and would love nothing more than to be proved wrong.

Barnsley-born McCarthy has steadied the ship. He’s changed the club culture and it would appear that he’s become ‘one of our own’ but we yearn for more. We deserve more and with every season, expectation grows. An expectation born out of a proud history where once, we were kings of Europe. Will we return to the summit of European football? Will be host the likes of Barcelona and Bayern Munich? I hope so, but in my lifetime, I’m not sure.




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Facefacts added 16:42 - Feb 19
My highlights over the 15 years. The goal that never was at Watford 2007 FA Cup Fifth Round after Dan Harding's shot crashed down off the bar. Beating Arsenal in the League Cup Semi Final first leg. Pablo Counago's late winner against Coventry. Reaching the play offs last season, and a ray of hope at Tommy Smith's goal at Carrow Road. Surviving relegation in Mick McCarthy's first season - I remember thinking for a long time, there was no way we were going to stay up.
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kuyski added 17:01 - Feb 19
In my lifetime,can I see my lovely horse run at full speed and fighting again in PL again ?I hope so?
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bluesince84 added 18:08 - Feb 19
Good article that. There has been so much negative lets do a post run on your single best memory. Mine was play-off semi-final against Bolton. That nght was the single most spectacular night of football i have ever witnessed. Sure there were amazing moments the season after, magic, the whole thing, but THAT night , could it ever be repeated. When magilton scored in to the top of the goal, , i momentarally left my body and experienced as close to euphoria as I've ever experienced. The closest i come to that at the moment is if im able to sneak my burger in my pocket through the turnstyles, small victories.............
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ChrisFelix added 08:25 - Feb 20
Very good blog. We all wish for the great years to return, but football has changed (for the worse) since the 70s. Just to comment Jewell never took Derby to the championship party.He was a disaster there also. You probably mean Wigan
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Mullet added 10:46 - Feb 20
Not sure hindsight has helped you here. Keane sold Rhodes very early on, it wasn't "fatal" for his tenure at all.

Burley was already on downward trajectory there was no reverse of that at all really once we were down.

Jewell as pointed out was almost as bad at Derby and Sheffiled Wednesday as at us.

The idea that the Championship is "a nightmare" is ridiculous. Especially when we've been top, middle and bottom in those 15 years. We've only just started to get close to having a run at promotion. This is already feeling a lot like Burley's years of "nearly" seasons and small groups of vocal fans not having patience or vision beyond last week and next week.
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Portman51 added 18:53 - Feb 20
Happy to be proved wrong but, frankly, with the current administration and management we'd more than likely spend the next 15 years in the Championship as well. I'd be fine with that IF the football was entertaining and demonstrable progress was being made, but in my view it isn't. What's so difficult about building a solid first eleven playing football on the ground from their strongest positions with competent squad players slotted in when form or injury dictates. If we're unwilling or can't afford to buy them, then work hard to improve what we've got and give them a chance to play, but not all together! What on earth do the coaching staff do all week? Asking the same dozen players to boot the ball upfield and run until they drop isn't going to cut it. Neither is another summer at the bring-and-buy sale, getting rid of one lot of dead wood, taking more from others just to make up the numbers, and patching with loanees. Finally, quite why people obsess about the play-offs is beyond me because, just like cup semi-finals, there's something in the club's DNA which almost always means failure even if we get there. It really has to be top two for us, and if that takes another Sheepy-style 5-year plan with a new and visionary management able to see it through, so be it.
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OldClactonBlue added 15:33 - Feb 22
You're right MM has indeed "changed the culture". But not for the better.
Many of us will never accept that we should not have a team about whom we are proud in footballing terms.
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