Please log in or register. Registered visitors get fewer ads.
McCarthy Delighted Squad is Sorted Early
Monday, 29th Jul 2013 06:00 by McCarthy

Boss Mick McCarthy is delighted to have assembled his squad by the end of July, ahead of the start of the season at Reading next Saturday and well in advance of the end of the transfer window on Monday 2nd September. Speaking last week, the Town manager said he was after one more player and on Friday added Manchester United midfielder Ryan Tunnicliffe to his squad on loan, his 10th addition of the summer.

McCarthy is pleased to have made early acquisitions as planned: “Yes, of course I am. I think we’ve done well with our signings and we’ve got a good squad. I’m delighted with the squad that we’ve got.

“I think we’ve got some good players and we can look forward to a good season with the team that we’ve got.

“One or two are still getting [up to speed]. Ryan Tunnicliffe hasn’t played at that level, he’s been training, but it is different.

“Big Christophe is about four games behind everybody else, but Tyrone Mings came in and was excellent at left-back when Cressy went off [during Saturday's 3-3 draw at Notts County].

“He couldn’t do a lot about the first goal, it just hit the inside of his foot and dropped to Danny Haynes. All in all, I’m pleased. It was great to see Tayls back, it was a great finish from him.”

He says he’s got cover in virtually all areas: “The balance of the squad is good. We’ve got Elliott Hewitt and Freddie, two right full-backs, we’ve only got three centre-backs, it would be nice to have four of them, but you can only play two.

“We’ve got two keepers, two left-backs, two wide lefties, Tabby and Ando [Paul Anderson] can play anywhere, then there’s Carlos Edwards. We’re fine there.


“We’ve got a decent balance and with Ryan Tunnicliffe coming in we’ve got four central midfield players and four strikers.

“So we’ve 21 players that I’d say are first-teamers, first-choices, without having a fourth centre-back. Two players for every position.”

Eight of McCarthy’s 10 signings have been Bosman free agents, a type of deal he believes is more and more prevalent at Championship level - “It is with the Financial Fair Play rules” — but feels he wouldn’t have done much better if he’d splash a significant amount of cash.

“We haven’t signed anybody [for money, aside from £50,000 Jack Doherty] but I don’t know whether we would have got any better players if we had gone and spent a shed load of money. Probably not.”

He says Michael Chopra’s departure was always planned and the money saved on the now-Blackpool striker's wages has gone towards paying the players already signed: “I think I’ve done that money already, to be honest with you.

“It was in the budget that Michael was going to go and that’s allowed us to get the other players. Good luck to him, he’s on to pastures new and we’ve got four good strikers.”

One of that quartet, David McGoldrick has probably been the pick of the Town squad during pre-season and McCarthy pondered how much the one-time Notts County man might have cost had he still been in contract: “He’s a player and, talking about Bosmans, what would we have had to pay for a player of that quality had we not signed him on a Bosman?

“We got him sorted out last season and I’m thrilled with him, he’s great. And Murph, he’s on fire at the moment as well."

He was similarly delighted Paul Taylor’s brilliant freekick in Saturday’s 3-3 draw at Notts County, David McGoldrick having struck another excellent set-piece goal at Gillingham: “And Ando put good deliveries in.

“It’s nice [to have set piece options]. We’re saying ‘Quick, get it across the keeper’, but you don’t have to do anything if you smash it in the net from 30 yards.”

At the end of last season McCarthy said he hated pre-season, but admits this one was amongst the more enjoyable preludes to a campaign proper: “When I say I hate it, I hate it [because] there’s no pressure on us and the pressure starts now for next week against Reading and against Stevenage and Millwall, for results.

“I just hate the fact that they’re non-competitive, although this was a competitive game and they’ve gradually got more and more competitive. But they just don’t mean anything, do they?

“I hated it as a player because on the first day of the season I had my match head on. When I was playing in pre-season friendlies I just wanted to get through them and not get injured.

“And I feel a bit the same now. But I think it’s gone well. I’ve been pleased with them. I would like to have finished with a win, but the second half has taught me a lot about certain individuals and the team that we’ve got.”

Had 2012/13 started when McCarthy took over at Town on November 1st, they would have been sixth in the Championship and he says he’d like to emulate that play-off form over the season to come: “We’ve got to be aiming at that, of course. And we’ll see.

“We’ve got a difficult start, but I don’t think anybody will be rubbing their hands thinking ‘Happy days, Ipswich are coming here and they’re going to be a soft touch’, because they know we’re not. We’ll aim for as high as we can possibly finish.”

Elsewhere, former Blues trialist Bongani Khumalo and ex-loanee Richie Wellens - who left Leicester last week - are on trial at Doncaster and played in Rovers' 2-1 friendly victory over Bradford on Saturday.


Photo: Action Images



Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.



BlueMachines added 06:32 - Jul 29
I'm sure most of us Town fans are as relieved as MM. So much optimism going into this season. Can't wait to get started!!
0

cammeray added 06:39 - Jul 29
Great that everyone (manager, team, fans) is so confident going into new season.
I think Taylor might just be the wildcard this season and bang in a hatful. Looking forward to Saturday.
0

Jimmy86 added 06:51 - Jul 29
Im quietly opitmistic about the season ahead and absoloutely buzzin for reading away (got my ticket so see ya there!!) And its great to see the squad assembled before kick off with young hungry players, who want to play for the manager. 1 slight concern is despite the ffp crap our man behind the scenes has hardly put his hand in his pocket!!! We all thought if chops was offloaded the money saved on his wages would allow mick more money to play with in the transfer market. Whoops wrong again!!! The budget was clearly next to nothing. Anyways onwards and upwards coyb
0

MitchtheITFCman added 07:05 - Jul 29
I would not mind Richie wellins back
0

1RWR added 07:43 - Jul 29
Jimmy86: you'll find that ME will get his cheque book out come January if (& I think we will) we're in the top 6 or 8, one good signing & one big push etc etc!
0

50yearsablue added 07:44 - Jul 29
Jimmy86, I don't think you have read the article fully before commenting. Read it again and you will see what MM said about the Chopra savings. Getting a load of quality players for free is good business but they do need to be paid so how can you criticise ME as MM is happy with his squad and has every position covered?
0

Fatboy added 07:54 - Jul 29
Does this leave the door open for Titus Bramble (with reduced wage demands) / A N Other centre back to bring us up to 22 "first-teamers"?
0

cooper4england added 07:58 - Jul 29
Agree fatboy. Titus as a holding midfielder allowing hyam to push up then 4th CB when required. Longer titus stays unattached I could see this happen.
0

Jimmy86 added 08:17 - Jul 29
Not criticising ME and its obvious mick is happy with his squad and i did read the article properly, i just think ME has hidden behind the ffp to rain in his spending. Ffp limits how much owners can put in, i understand that, but i also believe mick should have been given a better budget to work with. Not unhappy with the way this summers gone and hold much hope for the season ahead
-1

Stato added 08:21 - Jul 29
My only concern is from 4 forwards we have one number 9 and three number 10's. Where are the goals coming from when McGoldrick gets injured or hits a rough patch ? I can't see them coming from midfield either. Someone remind me who our leading goalscorers were last season ... DJ got something like 10 ? Murph about 5 ? McGoldrick 4 ? and I think Cresswell 3 ? No doubt Smithy got a couple but Frank only scored against Palace (2 in 16) and Taylor wasn't prolific at Peterborough.
0

DanLyles added 08:56 - Jul 29
I think one of the key ingedients to a successful team is having partnerships all over the pitch. We know that Smith and Chambers can be very solid together at the back; Cresswell and Tabb look to have a good understanding on the left and I don't see any reason why Hewitt can't develop a similar partnership with Anderson on the right. I hope Skuse's passing will compliment Hyam's dynamism in the engine room. McGoldrick and Murphy have looked very potent in pre-season and played up top together several times last season.

Anyway great to see such a hard working eleven with some great options from the bench too.
0

itsonlyme added 09:21 - Jul 29
Bossman - I agree totally. I have been saying for a while I do not know where the goals are coming from especially if McGoldrick and say Murphy are either injured or off form. I am sure we will be very difficult to score against so I guess we can look forward to several 1-0 wins or 0-0 draws??
0

oldbluestu added 09:39 - Jul 29
Why do people always blame ME for the lack of spending?
FFP is aboit income, it's really simple if more fans started attending the games the more money we would have to spend on players under the FFP rules.
It really is that simple, if Town had more true fans we could spend more on players
0

meekreech added 09:40 - Jul 29
Regarding MM's budget :- Perhaps he has not broken in to the major part of it yet , maybe he is holding back until January to assess the position and if any changes are needed . Maybe he has been extremely crafty in assembling a good squad from hungry players of character without spending lots ( proving it can be done and with players ready to come to " this backwater " ) showing a more talented side to management !
0

shiminywho added 09:42 - Jul 29
What a difference a year makes! All the recent signings make sense - no ex-premiership has-beens looking for a final money-spinning deal before collapsing into retirement and no loanees looking to rebuild their career. I genuinely believe that we now have the right infrastructure, quality and, most importantly, attitude to make this a memorable season. Travelling from Northumberland to Reading on Saturday - can't wait for kick off - more excited than I've been for many seasons. Thanks, Mick and Terry, for all that you have done at Portman Road and good luck for a successful season.
0

warktheline added 10:01 - Jul 29
Well done MM.Competitive season ahead.Top eight finish or higher,reasonably confident me.
0

WhoisJimmyJuan added 10:13 - Jul 29
I cannot fault the quality of signings this summer, and I like the fact that they have been done quietly and with the minimum of fuss. I am cautiously optimistic about the season ahead, but recent summers have seen optimism evaporate so many times, I daren't dream too much. Summers 2009 (Keane just in) and 2011 (Bullard, Chopra, Bowyer, Ingimarsson JET etc in) saw wild optimism before a ball was kicked in anger. But I live in hope.....
0

Michael11 added 10:46 - Jul 29
As Mick's said, We could have spent millions on the players we've brought in this summer and we haven't really spent a penny. I'd still like to see us sign a striker that really knows where the net is though. However, if we don't then McGoldrick, Taylor, Murphy and Nouble should all have goals in them.
Haven't been this excited for a new season for a long time, if we can keep Mick for the whole season then i think we'll definitely be competing up the top of the table.
0

Lightningboy added 11:07 - Jul 29
Fair play to Mick,he's worked absolute wonders this summer..brought in some really decent looking signings and all at good ages aswell - no over the hill journeymen.

Really really optimistic that we can have a good season at last and fancy us for a play-off slot - unlike Steve Claridge's prediction of 16th in the People yesterday! - Let's ram that back down his throat please.
0

TotalBlue added 11:36 - Jul 29
I have done some looking into FFP not an easy subject to find out but this is what I have managed to extract please correct me if I am wrong..

Any club breaching the rules and NOT getting promoted to the premier league: Automatic transfer embago until they file accounts for a period fitting with FFP.

Any club breaching the rules and Getting promoted to the Premier league will pay a "TAX" as follows,
(a) 1% of the excess between £1 and £100,000;
(b) 20% of the excess between £100,001 and £500,000;
(c) 40% of the excess between £500,001 and £1,000,000;
(d) 60% of the excess between £1,000,001 and £5,000,000;
(e) 80% of the excess between £5,000,001 and £10,000,000; and
(f) 100% of the excess over £10,000,000

I can now see why ME is trying to fit into this so tightly as if you fail to get promoted surely that would mean at least 1 seasons transfer embargo which surely means relegation to league one. If we were to be promoted and Lose 10mil we would be fined 10mil which would mean transfer dealing would be very tight and again surely relegation to the Championship.

All I can say is keep up the good work Mr Evans... and of course COYB!!!!!!!!!!!!
0

TractorBoy666 added 11:38 - Jul 29
BossMan - McGoldrick was here not for many games? He got 2 goals in one match, could have easily got a hattrick, so think what he could do in a whole season? Taylor also back from injury will add more goals. You don't see the teams that got promoted have top, top goalscorer's so I don't see there is much to worry about there. Can't wait until Saturday!
0

Taricco_Fan added 12:05 - Jul 29
So am I, Mick, so am I.
0

Nthsuffolkblue added 12:11 - Jul 29
I think many here seem to think the quality of a player depends on the fee paid. Town history over the last 3-4 years or more should quickly scotch that myth. Now that Bosman transfers can't demand the fees in wages due to FFP, surely attracting the best Bosman transfers (which Town under MM seem able to do) is a much better ploy than simply lining rival club's coffers to get a player who is still in contract.
0

Marshalls_Mullet added 13:24 - Jul 29
Jimmy86 your are a very funny man.

Money saved by offloading Chopra?

After paying him off we have probably saved ourselves say £8k per week.

What do you think we are paying the 10 players we have brought in!??!?!?!

Excellent business by MM. And Ill even quote him here;

“We haven't signed anybody [for money, aside from £50,000 Jack Doherty] but I don't know whether we would have got any better players if we had gone and spent a shed load of money. Probably not.”

0

Jimmy86 added 13:57 - Jul 29
Marshalls mullett i had no idea until i read this article that chopra leaving was actually included in the budget. I know the players we have brought in wont play for free and have beeb impressed by the signings we have made and the ffp has had an effect on the championship as a whole, which limits what ME can put in, so hopefully if the team does well we will get bigger crowds and then bigger revenue as a result. Lookin forward to the new season coyb
-1


You need to login in order to post your comments

Blogs 295 bloggers

Ipswich Town Polls

About Us Contact Us Terms & Conditions Privacy Cookies Advertising
© TWTD 1995-2024