Yes he saved us but it was four years ago you took over Mick, you can't keep dining out on that forever in a day Mick! The past is the past! We desperately want some hope for the future and right now you are giving us none whatsoever! If we can't beat Championship minnows Burton at home surely it's time to call it a day Mick!!!

Mick's not worried.

Evans isn't worried.

We are.

MM is 100% the right manager for this club in the current state of league football.

He plays the hand he is dealt with. It not his fault that Murph, Didz, Bish, Pits have been injured or left. Its not his fault the club went in to administration and have been limited since then, its not his fault the FFP rules are a farce and designed to limit progress of clubs such as ours.

He has brought in exciting and good attacking players to the club but hasn't had much of an opportunity to get a a settled team with the creative players available. He has settled the structure of the club and is actively involved with the youth team trying to bring players through. He has put together the core of a very good team that will keep us out of trouble and with more luck with injuries, a team capable of challenging for promotion

Cut him some slack, he has earned it time and again.

Mick's not worried.

Evans isn't worried.

We are.

Brian a mul,
You say he is trying to bring the younger players through,then tell me why did he drop Josh,why does he not give Dozzell a chance.Just stubborn would you say.!!!

Quote McCarthy "“Apparently I have. I've got lousy now, I'm no good, I can't do my job,"

Hurray at last McCarthy has said something we can agree with.

The only way Chambers would not be playing is if he was red carded, the same with Douglas and Skuse!!!! Stubborn McCarthy will not drop or rest them ?????
Just try and play attacking football against the Mighty Burton tonight ?? Because us Fans forget what it is like to celebrate a GOAL,, It would be a shock to our systems !!!!!!

Some people on here have become relentless whinge bags and moan literally about everything. I don't think for one minute that MM has got everything right, I agree that he has retreated into his shell and been unnecessarily negative at times, do I think he should be sacked ? Not in a million years. Forget the saving us from Relegation (which he did) but every full season he has had at our club we have challenged for the Play Offs, twice we just missed out and once we got in but we challenged which is more than we did in the 8 years since the final Magilton season. We have competed and nobody has found us the easy win we were under Keane and Jewell and he has done all of that with his hands tied behind his back by Evans in the transfer market.

I agree at the moment we are not going through the best moment in our history, some of the performances are very poor and Micks team selection has me scratching my head but I am hoping that once everyone is fully fit he will pick a more attack minded team, his Sunderland and Wolves teams which both won the Championship were never boring, they had flying wingers and they entertained. I don't think for one minute Mick sits there and thinks "well i'll bore the ar$e off everyone tonight with this team"

I'm proud to support a club who does not pull the trigger after a couple of bad results, Remember Sir Bobbus first 3 or 4 seasons weren't great but we reaped the rewards of our patience and to be honest I read all these sarcastic and unhelpful comments on here and honestly hope that you guys are better than that.

People who condone McCarthy and the way he manages this once great club must be budgie lovers or mindless he is worse than Keane and nearly as bad as Jewell and my god that is saying something but if you enjoy being bored to death week in week out then carry on supporting this moron

The problem/solution is that as much as Mick is turning just about everyone away from the club with his negativity,there's no point in sacking him unless we've got an owner/board with an actual plan of how they want to move our club forwards.

Defensively we are very sound.

Attack-wise we are as poor as I can ever remember & football should be about entertainment - that's something most of us knew we'd never get with McCarthy in charge - and we've been proven right through most of his time here - Murphy's goals have papered over most of the cracks during the last 4 years and made things seem better than they are.

If Marcus & his board pulled their heads out of their backsides and got rid of Mick,then came out and told us we want to put a plan in place where we bring in a young manager who wants to bring through the youth,get us playing attractive attacking football & challenging for promotion in the next few seasons then we'd all have a little more patience (my patience under McCarthy is now threadbare).

I don't want McCarthy out only to be replaced by yet another dinosaur who's had success in the past (Burley's the exception)...Giggs,Holland,McAdams of Plymouth,Karl Robinson,Clough....I just want something to change..a couple of wins this week won't make everything right in the long term.

Please can anybody name me one other ambitious Championship club that would still be content with their manager if they had finished 9th, 6th and 7th in the league?
Even a semi-ambitious Championship club would be unhappy to see a manager consistently setting a negative team out that can barely score any goals and thereby destined to finish in the lower reaches of the league!

What I am saying is Ipswich seem to have next to no ambition under Evans and McCarthy! Without ambition there is very little hope for a return to the good days. Maybe just ticking along and scraping enough points here and there to remain in the Championship forever in a day is enough for some (and even that is by no means guaranteed based on current form) is enough for some, but for many of us, it's simply just too much to take!!!

What worries me is that nobody seems worried (not even the accountants with plunging attendances?)

Brian----he has NOT brought exciting attacking players to the club----that is precisely why we atre suffering now and he failed in his duty to replace smurf-----END OF!!

I'm concerned about Mick reaching the end of his shelf life and I don't think we're entertaining at the moment.
But this constant accusation of arrogance is nonsense. It's not arrogance, he's just being bloody-minded with his critics in the media and in the stands.
He's basically saying if you don't like him or think he's useless, there's nothing he can do about that apart from try to win games to change people's minds.
Where's the arrogance in that? By all means bash him for negative tactics, poor team selection and saying Skuse/Douglas/Bru are in top form.
But try to stay constructive. Look at it this way, if someone said you're rubbish at your job but your boss is still happy with you, would you act any different? Would you walk away?
And anyone who believes that any manager could have saved us four years ago is talking drivel.
That took a monumental effort given the points tally required. There may be others who could have managed it like Warnock but I suspect a hell of a lot would have failed.
And as for the dickwad who claims he's worse than Keane, you must have such a short-term memory loss, I wonder how you make it home each night.
I'm not trying to defend McCarthy here. He's made mistakes and he must turn it around soon, particularly now our flair players are returning.
But I'm not going to beat him with a stick every time he answers a question honestly in a press conference.

The club is in a much better place than it was 4 years ago that is for sure. Is he the right man for the job? I'm giving MM my backing and will judge him at the end of the season. COYB

The fact he's not worried worries me. If I under perform in my job I'd expect questions to be asked. As I've previously said, Evans didn't really want to sack Jewell so the chances of MM being fired is 0%. Everyone seems far too comfortable and that's the problem. Too many players know they don't have to play well at all and they'll still keep their places.

Thoughts from a far away land.

Pencil Pete, Brian_a_ Mul

I understand some of your comments, but am far from agreeing with you. I don't like to be calling for someone to lose their job and I doubt the majority of supporters do either, but MM has reached a stage in his management of this club where he is no longer performing effectively, is combative, comes across as arrogant in his press conferences and displays an alarming amount of disregard for the concerns of the fans who have been loyal to this club for years, and pay his wages (or at least part of them). That is not a good model of how to build a united team/club that desires to succeed. There is very little about him that is conciliatory.

If we still played a good style of football, which this club has prided itself on for years, then it might not be so bad, but we are not. We play a dull, predictable and unimaginative style of football that turns off fans and is not going to help us win matches.

I would be happy for McCarthy to stay, if he changed his approach or at least tried something different. But he has not done that and nor does he look like he is even attempting to do anything different to get us out of the hole we are quickly diving into. I agree he has been beset by injuries, but last year he complained about them, particularly in the midfield. And yet what has he done about it? He bought in Ward, Grant, Lawrence, Webster and Williams who we all got excited about. And he bought in Best (who the jury is still out on) to cover for a proven goal scorer. Ward, Lawrence and Webster have done well and McCarthy should get credit for that. But in the middle of the park, where we most need strengthening and creativity, he has refused to recruit or play new or emerging talent, stubbornly sticking instead with two slow, defensively minded and uncreative players. Last year he complained that losing Bishop in the middle was a huge blow, but he's hardly played him this year. If Bishop is no longer good enough (which I doubt) why has he not sought to bring in a more attacking minded creative midfielder to play alongside one of the other two? As many people have said before, and many pundits/managers/players etc. will tell you, if you don't have creativity in the middle or can't control the midfield, you are not going to score goals. Simple as that.

As for being restricted by finances, FFP seems to apply to other clubs that have gone out and spent money so I don't see why we should be the only club that barely open the purse. I also think FFP is a red herring here. Since McCarthy has been here we have sold Cresswell and Mings for a healthy profit and years ago we sold Wickham for £8m. At the time it was said that the funds from those sales would be available to strengthen the team, if that's the case where is the money? I don't remember us buying players of those values. Is Evans lying about it and the money is no longer there? Or does McCarthy have access to it, but refuses to go and buy better players?

As for bringing through young players, I think looking at how often Dozzel and Josh have played speaks for itself.

Finally, in response to comments that he took us from 14th - 9th - 6th - 7th, that would be great, but does anyone in all honesty think we would have actually competed for promotion with the tactics we had (never mind survive in the PL)? When we made the play offs a couple of years ago I was under no illusion that we were going to beat Norwich or any of the other teams in the playoffs because we did not dominate games. We had, and still do have, an approach of defend, defend, defend and hope to grab a winner on the break or through the long ball approach. That worked when we had some good strikers but was never going to be enough to get us out of this division. The teams we were, and still are, competing against for promotion have invested in good players and play a good, attacking style of football.

This is not about players being injured/unavailable, it's about a style of play. Mick McCarthy is an outstanding defensive coach and can get amazing results from average players. I would hate to play one of his teams as they are always very hard to beat. But they are also not going to win much, certainly not on the evidence we've seen at PR.

Unfortunately I suspect that he isn't in danger of losing his job as the reality is that ME has lost interest in the club and doesn't turn up to watch the rubbish loyal fans have to. Dark days at PR which as attendances / club income drop further the FFP rules will just make matters worse.

Next evans will put a bronze lifesize statue of mick up outside the main gate.

So Mick admits that we are back to where we started 4 years on from when he arrived ..... is that progress or just stagnation ?
One interpretation is that he is excellent at getting teams to escape relegation but lacks the imagination/flair to actually go for results & take teams to the next level maybe ?
I know he has achieved promotions couple of times but both times essentially ended badly because he seemed unable/unwillingness to adapt/change his style/philosophy even when it was/is clearly not working.
It is this stubbornness & apparent unwillingness to change or "try something different" that seems to frustrate more than results possibly.
For those that will cry "evidence" - we finished Saturdays game with 2 creative midfielders playing out wide ..... when Blackburn were there for the taking.
It felt like "I'm pandering to those crying out for creativity in the team .... but not going to go all the way .... just play them out of position" !!
You don't get out of this league by "trying not too lose" (draw every game & you'll be just above relegation!) but by trying to win ..... the old Ipswich way !
If Skuse/Douglas starts again in midfield tonight I am afraid it will confirm it to me ... Mick sees success as mid table/not getting relegated ...... aren't we worth more than that ?

Razor. Im nearly with you. However, Sears was on fire when he arrived. MM has destroyed him, which is why he looks aversge atm. As for the other strikers ... only Pitman does it for me.

I really don't like some of the venom that comes out at times like this. Yes, it's not going well, yes, McCarthy isn't an endearing character right now, but the level of spite aimed at him, when correlated against the, in the grand scheme of things, complete unimportance of a football team, really isn't nice. He's a human being doing his best at a club funded by someone's own personal money. What is it about football that allows people to slag someone off so harshly?

If you got the sack from your job and got paid mega-bucks to honour the clubs contact I would not in the least be worried about my job either !!!!!

Spot on Phillo, you encapsulated the crux of MM's problems.
It is evident Mick doesn't like to try different things.
I expect that whenever Mick rings the Chinese restaurant to place an order he always insists upon a no. 8 (Chicken Noodle Skuse) and a no. 22 (Pu Pu Douglas Platter).

i would say the fact he's speaking openly about his job, and for the first time I can recall saying we " should " be beating Burton words are certainly being said behind the scenes. He usually praises all opposition and players to the press but this is certainly a change in tact.

Why would Mick or any manager be " worried " about being sacked. They get paid off to leave. Hardly a massive incentive at times. I'm sure a few managers have lost the plot at clubs and thought " the sooner I get sacked and collect a cheque the better " and move onto a new role if they have a strong enough reputation in the game.