Good fun last year, hopefully going this year too :)

would be nice if Trotter could play for us again, i dont understand why so many people get in his back, his from the town youth and we dont get many players coming through anymore so we need to be behind them, in my eyes Trotter should start every week, its just unfortionate when he was playing the whole team were bad and he got the blame, give him another chance keane.

mmmmmm gotta say i dont agree, he was very poor, not much awareness and gave teh ball away a lot

but he has a big presence and intimidate opposition players, ive seen a few of his games for millwall and he has been outstanding, i dont think one more chance would be too much to ask since our youth system is so bad these days we might aswell make the most of what we have got.

Joe youth system so bad?
Wickham, Clark, Eastman, Smith, plus many more - its not that shocking?!

yes but how many of these get a chance at first team level look what has happened to rhodes and we got hardly nothing for him aswell. we dont need big money signings with players with big names he have young hungrey players that need to be given a chance.

Wickham has, Smith has, Eastman has, Clark has, and im sure there was another one who got a taste of first team football.
Rhodes we got good money for for an untried youngster in this league, if he turns out to be another Bowditch then we wont be to botherd will we, I think you need to look into the youth team before slagging it off.

im not slagging the youth team off, just that these players dont get a decent chance to play you summed it up "a taste" whats that 10 minutes? End of the day i feel trotter is worth another go after watching some of his performances at millwall.

No Smith has had quite alot of first team games, Wckham has, Eastman did until he got himself sent off, - you cant go throwing in youth players all over the pitch wheres your experience????

now girls, you both make good points

we didnt play wickham for 3 weeks as scouts were watching what good was that?
shows no intent to do anything what so ever, trotter has a a lot fo games under his belt now i say stick him in, at least see how he does in pre season anyway, otherwise he will be going on a free, which is more of our youth wasted.

I'm pretty sure 1- he was away with England - 2- if he wasn't then we were protecting him from the scouts as we were praying he';d sign a contract with us - dur.

And he wont go on a free, we'll get compensation.

yeah he was away with england sitting in the stand good one! haha. you probally the sort of fan that just wants us to spend silly amounts of money signing big name players and then somehow easily get promotion well it does not work like that.

I think he means England U17s where I think he played twice out of 3 games (rested for 1) and scored 3 goals, not certain because the FA seems to have taken off the match reports.

As for Trotter, I've only seen him play v Newcastle, and he was one of the worst players on the pitch apart from Bruce who was playing with an injury. Doesn't seem to provide anything other than a hard tackle in the middle of the park at Championship level. I'd say he can go and blood in Clark instead, much better option in the middle of the park.

As nice as it is to bring through youngsters we can't just play them out of blind faith that they might get better.

yes fair point i just think trotter has potential.

Trotter was poor early in the season and I don't know why Keane persisted with him in that awful run when we just couldn't get a win. That said, the whole team was indeed poor at the time. Trotter is only 21 and if Millwall win tomorrow he will have got promoted from League One twice in his spells, which is a good achievement. He is perhaps worth giving another shot, although it is hard to see where he would fit in with Norris and Leadbitter already in the middle and perhaps another "man" on his way.

As for Rhodes turning into another Bowditch, I think his 19-goal Huddersfield season has already seen him prove himself as the better player when Bowditch has never scored more than 10 in a season.

Day trip to Southend with the match in the evening?
Sounds like a plan!

some good debate on here.

in regard to going with youth to develop from within, its essential to a football club. i think we have a decent pool of talent in the youth set up with some good young pros pushing for first team football. yes, they need game time to gain experience but these are young players, there is no need to rush them in.

also, it is important to get the balance right between youth and experience. i think in the final game of the season it showed how using too many youth players together can be difficult, young players need the assurance of playing with solid and consistent first team players.

not every young town player can be thrown in at the deep end. connor wickham is the exception. only time will tell how good he can become but he is a very exciting prospect. i imagine wickham will improve at quite a rapid rate in the next few seasons, given his size and strength and current ability. it will be easier for him to progress playing at this level and i feel he could well be ready for the premiership in 2-3 seasons, whether we will be ready to go with him, is another question. i hope so.

i also believe jordan rhodes is good enough to make the step up to playing championship football. it does seem a shame that he was sold before ever really getting a go. he was sold to free up money for keane to bring in players he wanted, had all of these signings been successful then i dont think the rhodes issue would be of such importance. still thats not how things worked out.

we did get good money for rhodes tho and i think its counter productive to rue him being sold. its sad to see young players or fan favourites leave the club but some times the team needs to move in a new direction.

i think it all ties in with how things have gone with keane as manager. he must be allowed the time to make the whole squad completely his. mistakes will be made and the transition will not be easy, as we have seen. personally, i am in support of the majority of changes keane has made. i do believe the general calibre of players he has been able to bring has been an improvement for us. i also agree with alot of the decisions hes made in terms of players that have left.

ultimately it is down to keane to manage his players and forge a winning side. if he can assemble his squad, as he wants, given the resources he has and still cannot achieve the targets he has set with marcus evans then he will be sacked. it will be a failure for keane as a manager, not for ipswich. we will carry on, a new manager will come in with new ideas. we have good players, a great stadium, an above average fan base, youth in development and an owner willing to back his manager.

as a club we are changing and moving in a different direction but the job is not done yet.