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McCarthy and Milne Face Fans at Supporters Club AGM Thursday, 27th Oct 2016 23:58
Town boss Mick McCarthy and MD Ian Milne faced fans' questions at the Supporters Club’s AGM in Legends at Portman Road this evening, along with some of the club’s other heads of department.
Joining McCarthy and Milne were finance director Mark Andrews, club secretary and supporter liaison officer Sally Webb, director of sales Rosie Richardson, media manager Steve Pearce and Matthew Nicholson from Centerplate, the company responsible for Town's outsourced catering. BBC Radio Suffolk's Stephen Foster compèred.
“It keeps us on our toes and it was good,” Milne said afterwards. “It was a long evening but I think we all did well. I try and avoid being the one answering all the questions, but I seemed to get most of them, I think it comes with the job!”
During his half-an-hour question and answer session McCarthy faced criticism for the entertainment on show at Portman Road. He admitted he’s not currently happy with performances and that they’re not pretty but said that he and the players are working hard to improve matters.
The Blues boss reminded fans he turned things around when he took charge four years ago next Tuesday, but says the Blues are going through a tough time at present - although things should improve as players return from injury - and the team needs fans' support.
McCarthy, who says he is happy at Town and has no intention of moving on with 18 months left on his contract, hopes he can win back the support of fans who opted not to renew their season tickets or are staying away and reminded the 100 or so who attended that there weren’t many complaints about the style of football when Town reached the play-offs in 2014/15.
You can read more of McCarthy’s question and answer session with supporters as well as the later quizzing of Milne and the other department heads on the live blog on the TWTD Forum.
“We knew it would be lively, I thought Mick was great,” Milne said. The MD spoke more on the financial side of football and the changing climate of the Championship.
“We’ve talked before about the Premier League and it becoming a franchise league with those teams which go down will go back up. I think there’s a risk of that because of the money,” he warned.
“I think fans understand that but that doesn’t mean we still can’t get into the top six. My colleagues, Marcus and Mick and all the rest believe there’s absolutely every chance of getting back into the top six.”
Milne said the way the Championship has changed in the last two or three years has made things tougher for clubs without parachute payments. He says rather than spending an unsustainable sum in one season Town’s approach is more measured with player wages currently around £11-£12 million.
“I think the strategy is dictated by the Premier League and those teams that come down,” he added.
“I think that people accepted tonight that owners, including Marcus, are not going to spend £20, £30, £40 or £50 million a year.
“There are some clubs I know for certain, because they have told me, they’re having one go this year because they know they’re going to lose a lot of players at the end of the season and they won’t be able to do it in successive seasons.
“We don’t want that. We want to work to a budget, we want it to be businesslike and workable.
“As you heard, Mick is very responsive to that and that’s what we’re going to do. We’re not going to keep swapping managers and all the rest of it.”
McCarthy also answered questions on the sale of Daryl Murphy which he still believes was the right decision and says Town will look to strengthen up front in January with clubs having asked for fees well over the odds with the Blues up against it to making a signing at the end of August.
“There is a budget, you heard what Mick said,” Milne added. “We’ll go again within the budget in January.”
“If you want to get clubs exercised talk about QPR. It’s very frustrating for those owners," he added. "I think it’s going to quite interesting what results come out next March.”
Photo: TWTD
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Hmmmm very akin to the wünderbar title of Monty Pythons' 1994 cultish entrance into the realm of computer software (which actually won the CODiE Award for then "Best Strategy Program" from the Software Publishers Association btw!) this here year's awesome little PR event was, after both going through Phil's live blog but also subsequently listening to an alternative personal recount, seemingly by and large.... "A COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME"!
Ever sooooo predictable answers... and being-in-denial rejections!, and oh furthermore I for one is still none the wiser on a couple of very trendy MM bestowed 'characteristics', for instance: 1) What in MM's (just slightly twisted) view really constitutes "proper blokeness", and how does one attain such a almost magical thingie & bond with our near flawless manager??? :-) 2) What in MM's (just slightly twisted) view really constitutes being chronically "terrific" & "in a different class" on a football field??? :-) 3) What in MM's (just slightly twisted) view really constitutes a grand "knackering performance/shift", especially looking at the total distance covered -- and in what tempo it was covered!!! -- by the very likes of always tenacious mile-eaters like super midfield stalwart Snooze Doggy Douglas, just in his recent games this season??? :-)
Ohhh maybe next year, right? lol.... Sadly it almost always seems to be "maybe next year" for ITFC, none more so that in this day & age during the tagging on and on and on in years outright SHALLOW ownership of Football Clueless Marcus!
Arrrggghhh!!! What has become of my once proud club? sigh sigh sigh sigh
The main thing that concerns me about this is that there is a huge difference between perseverance (steady persistence in a course of action in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement) and perseveration (the pathological, persistent repetition of a word, gesture, or act). I am starting to wonder if it's perseveration. It's clear we do need a full back on the right and a natural target man. In January I doubt we will get either as it's clear that we will only be getting bargains, and clubs don't generally sell players for cheap. We could get in a free transfer, yes, but we could in theory do that NOW. We clearly need a striker. Many of the teams around us have brought in free transfer strikers in the last couple of weeks. Why don't we? We seem to be constantly in the process of trying to stick round pegs into square holes. Leon Best isn't a target man, Sears isn't a winger and Chambers is NOT a right back. Howes (2009) argues that some people continue to do the same thing over and over again in the hopes that there will be a moment of "mastery". I don't believe Chambers, Sears or Best will ever master these positions.
As I mentioned in another thread (and I got panned for it) I do support Mick even after so much gut wrenching football. Mainly because his hands are clearly tied and he's having to "make do". It's a sad reflection of how things are at the club. I have a few hopes now; we stay up (hopefully make mid-table), Norwich fail to gain promotion and we manage to retain promising youngsters (Dozzell, Bishop, Benyu, Morris etc) for next season. I'd like to see a goal at some point also.
Dino reminding fans that he "turned things around 4 years ago" at an AGM four years later is a real worry to me. He's trying to justify his current position and the current dross we're witnessing on the past. He thinks he's untouchable. He's stuck in the past.
If I was under performing and making mistake after mistake at my job, I'd get the tin tack. I wouldn't be able to have the arrogance or audacity to say that 4 years ago I did a good job and because of that, you have to keep me. The position we're in now isn't a sudden thing, either. The slide has been happening over the past 18-24 months but most people have only just woken up to it.
As for Milnes comments on teams rolling the dice and having a bit of a gamble because they know that they'll lose players at the end of the season, he needs to look closer to home. Youngsters like Emmanuel, Dozzell, Benyu, etc. will be looking at moves away whilst Mick is here. He's already proved that you don't get a chance to play unless there are injuries to the untouchables and when you do get that chance and you smash it, you'll be dropped the very week they're back. As for working on a budget, does he really think that that's working?! We've not really invested in the squad since Mick has been here (the time we should have pumped a few million in was when we were top two in January 14/15!) and every other team has...we're standing still whilst everybody else strengthens.
Can you imagine another 18 months of this drivel?...I can't.
Said it many times..the only point in having a Mick McCarthy at your club is to guarantee promotion - no other reason..he's had 4 years now and we've had to put up with some of the most boring football I can remember - in that time he's (Daryl Murphy did actually) got us into the play offs once..and now we're back down where we were with Jewell and Keane.
I'm not stupid enough to expect promotion to the Premier league circus or even the play-offs for that matter but what I do want from my club is optimism when I watch them and the guarantee of entertainment win,lose or draw..what is currently being served up is unacceptable.
Seriously? I honestly thought for the fee and little amount of time I saw him he offered not a lot. Granted I didn't see every minute but I cannot recall rave reviews - if wrong fair enough and of course it would have taken him time to settle etc.
I wonder what clubs they are referring to above? Also, would representatives of a club REALLY say " “There are some clubs I know for certain, because they have told me, they're having one go this year because they know they're going to lose a lot of players at the end of the season and they won't be able to do it in successive seasons. "
If true, laughable way to run a footy club with only 3 spots to go up, and in all likelyhood Newcastle and Norwich occupying two of them.
I think there's a certain irony of MM reminding fans where we were in the league when he took over a couple more poor results and we will have come full circle !
I thought Civelli was looking good after settling in before that dreadful injury , didn't we have him on one wing and Dos Santos on the other at the time ? That seems a world away from the football on display now
Thought had heard or read somewhere that Civelli was also back in reckoning for internationals.Whatever consider he was a class player as otherwise wouldn't be back playing for Banfield;and Dos Santos was something else,seem to recall he was brought into the club when Jim was Manager;and soon after Magilton was sacked when the club was 9th,because they couldn't get into play offs that year.
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