happy days think il open a carlsberg,thanks grunt for all the memories,oh i remember now there wasnt any,what a waste of money he was

if he's read any of the inane comments some people have made about him it's not surprising he wants away. Good luck in the future Grant, go easy on us if you play against us.

BlooooCD dont forget the amount of penalties he's missed or had saved this season!

Yeah GOODBYE Leadboots! incredibly disappointing for 2.65M, even more disappointing is the boards attempt to renew his contact earlier (or lack off so he wouldn't leave on a free). Alot of work for PJ to do in the transfer market.

Bullard Hyam Drury Stevenson, dont really need Leadbitter

Stats don't lie. These are from www.football-league.co.uk

2009/10 Shots on goal 91 (2nd out of all Ipswich players) goals 3 (1 pen). Assists 8 (1st out of all Ipswich team)

2010/11 Shots on goal 98 (1st out of all Ipswich players) goals 6 (5 pens). Assists 5 (2nd out of all Ipswich team)

2011/12 Shots on goal 64 (3rd out of all Ipswich players) goals 3 (1 pen). Assists 2 (joint 5th out of all Ipswich team).

The most telling statistic is - last season more shots on goal than ANY other player yet only one goal from open play and that was a BIG deflection v Middlesbrough in that 3-3 home draw!!!! Not to mention very poor free kicks and corners. Played well at start and end of Ipswich career (good assists that year) but a poor investment overall. I'd be surprised if he set the world alight with his next team.

Error in my recently posted stats!
This season it was 5 goals (2 pens).

if he wants a change then so be it. I doubt it was a question of money and he's not worth paying over the odds. three years isnt bad so I'm happy that we look elsewhere.

Hyam/Drury/Martin/ - Carson/Stevenson/Edwards/Bullard or who else PJ wants to bring in! That's how I see it.

So a £2.6 million player who has arguably been our best player over the last few months walks out of the door for free and some idiots on this board are celebrating.

Sometimes I think this club has the supporters it deserves!!

Best news out of PR since Keane went...i'd like to say thanks for all your efforts Grant but seeing as there wasn't much effort,I won't.

Good luck to who ever's stupid enough to get lumbered with you.

Can I challenge this "did well in his first season with us" nonsense. This man has never come near to justifying the outrageous fee that the dark Lord coughed up in a blind panic at the end of Aug 09 until the last month or so when , oh surprise surprise, he's got no intention of staying and wants a new fat contract. Lets be honest , the vast majority of us would have been screaming blue murder if the club had at any time before March this year entertained the thought of offering this man a new expensive contract. Until this point , he had given us nothing. If I were in the opposition, I would be delighted to have seen him on the sheet. Square passing, slow, no serious goal threat, can't tackle to save his life...what exactly did he ever ever show that could hurt the opposition??!!

Now , of course, in this cynical modern world of player power contracts , its all energy, scoring goals, "want to stay" , "not about money", "need a fresh challenge" blah blah. The club have embarassed themselves by being hung out to dry and revising deadline after deadline in the mistaken hope that there was ever any chance of him signing. Wouldn't be over critical of this, football simply reflects the wider transactional , every man for himself , no loyalty, get what you can , screw everyone else society in which it operates but it doesn't feel great does it. So....

1. F*** him, move on and yes, absolutely, lets finally wake up to why a single aaron Cresswell is worth 10 grant leadboots.
2. Glad seen sense on Bowyer but , as others have identified, why on earth has been ahead of the Hyam's of this world in the last few weeks???
3. Have very little confidence in the clubs ability to strengthen in the areas we need. Player after player slips through our fingers in favour of mighty clubs like brighton and co.
4. for Gods sake, Wickham on a season long loan is a no brainer!!! he wasn't ONeills choice, is no where near first team and sunderland need him to be playing. If we can't pull that one off the God help us.
5. Don't you just love it when Jas' old "love you Roy" tendencies show themselves in his "all the best Grant, you were great to begin with" tosh. Had PJ wasted 2.6 mn , - yes £2.6 f***ing mn!!!!- on a man who has delivered so little, I wonder what we'd hear
6. Why on earth aren't we cancelling Ellington's contract?
7. yes, Sindre agree on your call to arms. Big reservations about Jewell's judgment but the alternative is to disappear into an endless swamp of h32 style depressing self flagellation.

This "should" open the door for Hyam/Drury next season BUT I have no faith in PJ giving Hyam his chance..i'm sure Jewell's already got his crayon's out and is drawing up a list of equally useless midfield replacements for Leadboots.

Washbrook, agree with all you say apart from getting Wickham back. I can't see the point, it's goal scoring strikers we need as Chopra is too inconsistent and Scotland is ok but not good enough to get many more than 10 at most. We've been goal shy at times recently and another proven striker (Wickham came good towards the end of his time with us, but always potential more than anything else) the problem is. where are we going to get this 'proven striker' that I'm proposing from? But then, that's what the scouting network is for.

What's also concerning me is that our summer list is now growing! We've been poor this season as too many players have needed to bed in. In my opinion we now need as many players as we did last season as quality utility players aren't in abundance!

2 goalkeepers
2 central defenders
1 right back
1 left back as cover
1 left midfielder
1 central midfielder
1 striker

Shirt number 6
Skill 6
integrity 0

Keanish, by your reckoning, and I'm pretty much in agreement with it is that we need nine new players. Season 2011/12 all over again then, too many players at once, where will we get them from and are we going to see another squad built on loans?

As there's no-one coming through from the youth ranks it looks a little grim doesn't it buryblue77? The only place i can see where we can trim is possibly a goalkeeper and we get utility players in.

I think the left midfielder should also be able to play left back so i wouldn't spend the money on Murphy and too be honest, i don't think much of Murphy as a target man which i think Jewell is after so this wouldn't be the most exciting or logical of signings for me even though he's done well at times.

In all reality though, given our recent problems, the central defenders and strikers have to be out-and-out in their positions to solve our problems! This Jason Pearce situation has got me on a bit of a downer and it's not even the end of the season yet!

It does look grim Keanish, and here was me thinking just a week or so back that we'd only need 4-5 players, that's now an absolute minimum.
Utility players (don't we need another Micky Stockwell) is a way to go, Cressy has the LB spot as his own and we do have Joe Whight so maybe we could forget about getting a LB. Martin could always play LM and Stevenson could play in the role behind the main striker, which brings me onto another concern, goals. We have lost or drawn a few games this season where we had multiple attempts on target but nobody to put them away, Chops is too inconsistent (but is that just down to personal problems?) and Scotland, improved as he has been this year isn't good enough to be a leading scorer. I've seen a few people suggest we get Wickham back on loan, but he wasn't prolific for us and after a difficult first season at Sunderland and injury it could take him a while to get going.
I've been pro PJ and still backing him, but my optimism for the season ahead is slowly falling away.

bury blue77. Well, who knows about whether Wickham will fulfil potential but all I'd say is a) he is a fantastic talent b) sunderland can't give him games c) we MUST surely to God be first in line if they want to ship him out to get experience d) getting any other "proven" goalscorer will cost squillions even if we could possibly get him to come here. Am thinking about Sharp, Austin, Mackail Smith etc etc. We just have to get real methinks.

KEANEISH...you are allowing understandable depression over Pearce to exaggerate our needs. My list would be more modest , a single player right through the spine ie keeper, cb, midfield and striker. Bury blue is right, the last three years have surely told us that revolution is counter productive, incremental evolution is the way forward even though it implies need for scarce resources of understanding and patience.....

Yeah bye Grant ... I'll miss your corners... Joke!

I think we miss Norris and Mcauley big time but I don't think we will miss you... Shame we paid so much in the first place.

It's only 5 mins ago that we would all have happily waved goodbye to him. Quite frankly when he's been at Ipswich so long and shown very little, it says all you need to know when he suddenly starts to play well when he's in the shop window again. Let's replace him with someone who gives his all, all the time and not just when it suits their own circumstances.

It's only 5 mins ago that we would all have happily waved goodbye to him. Quite frankly when he's been at Ipswich so long and shown very little, it says all you need to know when he suddenly starts to play well when he's in the shop window again. Let's replace him with someone who gives his all, all the time and not just when it suits their own circumstances.

Unrestrained joy! I shall now have to change my user name so not as not to offend any player we have who may choose to play in white boots. Although being old fashioned I still feel boots should be predominantly black, maybe with the odd stripe! By the the stats above seem to be a bit remiss as not to mention the countless corner that fail to get passed the first defender, or the fact that "shots at goal" still count as long as they don't go out for a throw in, you also fail to mention the number of forward passes he made in his tenure at town.....
oh that's right there were none!

Yes!
At last! Bye.
Thanks for not a lot.