I am growing a tiny bit concerned that we are running out of time to make a good deal. This will prove unpopular to some, but I would rather have nobody in than a couple of Coke or Toure's in last minute.

For the few who say "who shall we sign?". Adam Armstrong, Paddy Madden, Billy Sharp, Sam Winnall, Bradley Dack, Reece Burke on loan (to sort out our rb situation), the list goes on and on.

Facts are facts and we have won 2 league games out of 5. Stats do not lie, we need reinforcements. But the right kind of reinforcements.

Stats are stats until we finish 6th or 7th and then go out the window and suddenly style matters. Yet now we seem to playing a bether styles it's all about the stats.

Mick can't control the officials so perhaps give him a break on those 2

There is no doubt in my mind that McCarthy will surprise us with the signings if past form anything to go by. Webster, Grant and Ward have given me some faith again in his scouting / signing abilities so suspect the underwhelming Burnley links are a smokescreen. Can see Shelton Luton and Kai Kai signing but a permanent too (up and down midfielder please Mason, Maarten Martens, Dack?)

Could do worse than giving Jay Emmanual Thomas another chance.

From a Burnley supporter when I asked their opinion.

"Knightly - fantastic creative and fast winger with zero end product. Think he has been in bit of a rut and maybe a change of club would suit him.

Jutkiewicz - I would drive him there, bloody god awful footballer. Never scored a league goal for us, looks like he can't be arsed".

Leon Best anyone?

Well if you keep reffing the games rather than the officials we will win the league blue and true or we get back to facts and league points ... 2 wins in 6 competitive games played this season. As MM said its not about style its about results

Surco, I could happily accept that argument if it were applied consistently but as the many in the negative nanny brigade know it is not.

Mick has delivered the most consistent and highest finishes this team has had since Joe Royle yet no credit is given for doing so. On the contrary you and many others have slamed hi and they style of play for the last 4 years. Suddenly now things have changed, we are moving closer to the "style" you crave so now its a complete about face and all about stats

As I said rank hypocrisy and a level of spin on a par with aCorbyns chief advisors, you can't have it both ways.

10.15 to.Newcastle anyone? Plenty of room to sit down

Surco72
I see what your saying but it's not like we gave a goal away because of a mistake or caught by a sucker punch!!!
We were on top and put the ball away and it gets taken off us.
Yes stats are stats but sometimes things get taken out of your control.

Mick, Marcus or any of the players can't be held responsible for that

DEANTAZ- you don't say!!!

😂😂😂 love it when the fans give a player a battering before they even sign , let's be positive boys and girls these two both have proper sick graphics on FIFA ! As does Leon best FIFA 17 career mode be looking sweet

And for those saying he hasn't scored in X amount of games..... Neither has Freddie Sears and you'd sign another player like him. More to the game than goals

BlueandTrue - Are you seriously bemoaning bad officialdom for the reason we haven't won four games??? If we were better than the opposition we'd have beaten them like the below average display that toppled a poor Barnsley side or the very poor display that beat a woeful Preston side.

If it's due to luck you think we're not better off or havent won more convincingly, I'd counter that by asking why we haven't been more ruthless in front of goal or why we switch our system to safe guard a point.

Did Leicester win the league because they had more luck when awarded 13 penalties last year? Should the scum have beaten us because they were unlucky when hitting the post or having one cleared off the line? Perhaps Wolves penalty should have been an automatic goal?

We haven't won our games as we haven't done enough the same reason Wolves and the Scum never beat us. It's irrespective of refereeing decisions and a non-sensical argument when our performances have been, on the whole, below average. We're 10th because we deserve to be 10th.

Keanish, firstly I thank you for making an attempt at counter argument and entering a debate.

To a certain extent yes I am. We did do enough to beat both wolves and scum and had a legitimately scored (match winning) goal ruled out against each. We have have been on the end of 3 match changing decisions,no one can doubt that. Had the officials made the correct call we would be sat here having won 4 out of 5 with 12 juicy points.

But my point is wider.

Your response offers a prime example for which I also thank you as it makes my point nicely, you suggest that Norwich were equally as unlucky and that bad lack is not an excuse but I disagree. Firstly as you say, they hit the post IE did not hit the target. We put the ball in the back of the net from an onside position, there is a difference. In that's intance Norwich lacked the ability to finish the move, in ours the officals lacked the ability to see. Luck has no bearing on Norwich hitting the post. The second example of scums bad luck is a ball being cleared off the line, well again thats not luck is it? That's good defending on our part, that's us having our man track back and do his job. You should be praising the commitment from us, instead you are happy to put that down to bad luck for scum. Yet not a legit goal being ruled out for us? Why can't you credit the defender?


At the end of the day had correct decisions been made we would (probably as I won't assume we would have scored the pen) have been 2-0 up and flying and judging by the we played I think we would have won.

Similarly you state we beat a poor Barnsley side, that's poor Barnsley that beat poor Derby I suppose? Poor Barnsley who beat poor QPR? Poor Barnsley who put 4 past Rotherham at the weekend (Rotherham may or may not be poor but 4 past anyone in the same league is cerialy far from poor), poor Barnsley who have lost 2 league games thus far this season against us and a presumably poor (yet top of the table) Huddersfield?

This is indicative of the attitude that I can't fathom, as per my first post if we win we beat a poor side regardless of who they are, if we lose we lost to a poor side regardless of who they are and if they are top of the table then they were just poor against us but strangely nobody else? Perhaps we made them play poorly and should be given credit for that? But no, always the negative spin regardless of facts. Now I conceed sometimes (and particularly last season ) we play terrible football but I think having you're 3 most creative players out for half a season has an impact on that and so the teams 7th place last season should be viewed slightly more favourably.

For the most part I agree with you at the end of the season we will end up where we deserve but on that basis we deserved 7th, 6th and 7th the last 3 years in which case people should have been a lot happier over that period and Mick deserves more than the first 5 games of the season before his own fans start calling him a @#%!. Especially after 3 game changing decisions in a week that ultimately, which ever way you try and cut it, cost us 6 points.

That's not to say I don't think we can achieve more or that we should not aim higher, but equally we were such a mess 4 years ago and slowly but surely the team is transforming. First to tough to beat, then to competitive, now hopefully on to contenders. That doesn't happen in a couple of seasons on a shoe string. During that time I have seen complainsts about signing over the hill.plates as the average age of the team gets lower each year (currently 23 ish), company's about not spending when we have spunked wads on Chopra, Scotland, Bowyer and the rest. The squad has and is evolving.

Consistately some people do Town down and call themselves supporters and I don't understand it.

If anyone asks me who I support I tell them the Mighty Ipswich, finest team in the land. Now I know it isn't true anymore but none the less I love them, so i won't whinge about signings who haven't been signed (for the record I'd take Kightly only).

So next time we have one ruled out for no good reason give the team and management some credit, ,they after all did what they are supposed to.

Next time a boy in blue clears one of the line stand and applaud the man for doing his chop, don't suggest then that we are lucky because it's not so. Give what is due and roar the team on and you know what, if you and some others do, maybe the team will hear that roar, feel it, sense it and be soured on to attack again, get back to clear the line again and again and again.

BlueandTrue is spot on.

Stats tell us we've always finished the whole season well under MM. When that particular stat is mentioned the Realists chirp in with their arguments about style etc..

Now, while the team is attempting to play a bit of ball and things (including two woeful offside flag decisions) have gone against us the Realists jump in with "Stats".

Consistency please.

Or else just own up and say you have personality difficulties with MM and no more.

The resident whingers make this board something I try to avoid these days but I salute TrueAndBlue for stating some truths that need to be stated. It says that Knigjlu and Jutkiewitz are on Mick's list but it does not say how long that list is. I expect him to pull a rabbit out of his hat just like he did with Ward. No one saw it coming. He's looking for a straight replasement for Daryl. I hope his name is Omar.

Dont think a lot of people are too enamoured with this rumour,as that is what it is.
WE have had fine words from Milne now on several occasions and the actions have not matched the rhetoric previously,and we shall know on Thursday whether this time it will be the same.

Until then I shall keep my powder dry.

I think we should persevere with Sears & Pitman unless we can get anyone better in.

TrueBlue - you're taking extracts from it to put an argument forward that really has no substance to the "wider point" - its also a little sanctimonious and condescending too but its easy to sound like that on here when trying to put a point across, i'm probably guilty of that at times.

We're all grateful to Webster for clearing the ball off the line and saving us from a defeat and to get back there and do it is good defending but the wider point in both examples is what led to them hitting the post (which is always unlucky, we all know this) or seeing an effort cleared off the line? Mistakes. And its these mistakes MM will be focussing on, not praising people for last ditch defending. You said that we should have beaten Norwich? Really? Not the game i was watching, a point was a fair result. We didn't do enough to win the game and neither did they. In fact, we settled for a point when MM switched to a 4-5-1 from a 4-3-3 for spells in the 2nd half. Is that unlucky or lucky? It has no bearing, it simply states that we didn't do enough irrespective of an offside goal. We were excellent the first 20 and then went off the boil, for that, we ended up with a point not a win. Thats not bad luck, it was what we deserved.

Your points focus on the results or the incidents but not the actual game as a whole or the build up play. If you were at the Barnsley game you'd have seen how poor a side they are. We were terrible and they were worse. They were all over the place defensively and had zero thrust going forward. If it wasn't for two mistakes, it would have been a clean sheet. You point to their recent results and maybe they have improved, but on the day against us they were terrible. That's not a dig at MM or taking anything away from us, they were terrible and we were bad. Those are facts. If we play like that every game, we're in trouble, but we've improved...for periods of recent games.

Its not negative spin regardless, its the reality of the situation. We've barely played a full 90 minutes of good football this season and we're making costly mistakes. I see people like Bohslegend citing that we've improved the way we play. Have we? How? Because we string a couple of square passes together? The ball still goes long, still into channels and is still percentage based tactics. If you're happy with this approach then fine, and yes, it'll get results but we can't bemoan luck for switching systems and not either doing enough to win games or get results, that's down to tactics and ability. Have we been un lucky? Sure, they should have been goals. Were Norwich unlucky? Sure, hitting the post is always unlucky. Luck should never be used as an excuse though, it doesn't bear any weight. Football is 90 minutes not a couple of incidents that don't go in our favour and we haven't been doing anywhere near enough over 90 minutes to warrant wins in some games for which, as manager, MM has to take the flack.

My summary is that its been a poor and inconsistent start to the season on the back of a miserable previous campaign and poor pre-season. Sure we've been unlucky but we've also not been good enough. We're naive at the back, ponderous going forward (with the exception of Ward and Bishop) and lethargic up front.
What are the positives? A hat-trick for Ward, a solid 20 mins against the scum and a decent showing at Wolves.

Being a Town supporter isn't always about being able to see the positives, its about being able to see the negatives and objectively criticise or discuss. And, many feel there's a lot that needs to be criticised at the moment and i'm one of them because, with the exception of spells against Norwich and Wolves, i demand and want to see a lot more from my team and the manager.

Blieandteuesince82 and Keanish - good debate lads. Shows that we can disagree through reasoned argument rather than some of the lazy insults that several on here resort to 👍

Keanish-superb analysis of where we are,your points mirror my thoughts,i surrendered my 26 year running ST this season and have only attended the norwich game and that will be the last until changes are made.The Norwich game only reminded me what i was missing ,poor quality,poor player positioning no plan B when we had a chance to push on and get a result.I get feedback from friends who attend and in Felixstowe today i spoke to someone who said the preston game was an awful spectacle-so little has changed,if you enjoy games like that then good luck but its not for me.

Keanish-superb analysis of where we are,your points mirror my thoughts,i surrendered my 26 year running ST this season and have only attended the norwich game and that will be the last until changes are made.The Norwich game only reminded me what i was missing ,poor quality,poor player positioning no plan B when we had a chance to push on and get a result.I get feedback from friends who attend and in Felixstowe today i spoke to someone who said the preston game was an awful spectacle-so little has changed,if you enjoy games like that then good luck but its not for me.

If people on here don't want us to have an opinion on speculation.. Then this site should stop speculating... I still think we should be signing Armstrong on loan.. But then maybe the 20 goals he scored last season weren't the right type of goals for Mick!! maybe he's looking for experienced goals!!.. Too negative.. Too sarcastic..

........ it seems that all our 'Scouts' do is get paid - and help run the 'Scouts'.

Keaneish ........ great post. What decent, sensible supporter, could justifiably disagree with any of that ?