Town owner Marcus Evans has apologised to Town fans in the wake of the Blues' relegation to League One and has outlined the plans for the future in a personal letter that will go out with season ticket renewals later this week, which has been published in part on the club website today.
Before I talk about the future, which I truly am positive about, I want to personally apologise to you for the position the club finds itself in at the moment. "
We tried something different at the start of the season. For one reason or another it didn’t work, and you will have your own views as to what went wrong, but clearly mistakes have been made and as owner, I have to take overall responsibility for that.
""Now my responsibility is to take this great club forwards again. Paul Lambert, as our manager, is obviously a key part of that plan and whilst results on the pitch have not been as we would have hoped for, performances and entertainment levels have vastly improved and most importantly as the manager has had time to work with the players, most of whom will be the core of next year’s team, we have recently been competitive with the best teams in the Championship.
As our young team develops and improves, this foundation has to be encouraging to all of us as a positive indication that we are now going in the right direction. We will quite rightly expect this team to carry on with this competitiveness in the lower league next season.
These players, who are still learning the game at the highest levels, all need a significant run of matches to consolidate their position in the first team and whilst there is a place for one or two loans and players who can bring vital experience in the latter stages of their careers, the majority of the squad need to be younger players who will be improving week by week. "
Where we don’t have talent in the building that is ready for developing in a particular position and it’s clear that we need to invest to improve we will do so but we will not bring in anyone who blocks our own players’ development and we will ensure we give our young homegrown players a run of games.
They will make mistakes, but as long as they learn from those mistakes we will have a team that gets better and better. ""We need players on the pitch who are the future of Ipswich for the next five or six years, not just for one or two seasons, whose development our coaches can influence and who are on the upward curve of their playing career.""
Much of this was the plan for last summer however it didn’t work out the way we planned. In Paul Lambert and his team, we have a group of excellent coaches who are completely invested in the strategy.
I cannot doubt the loyal support you have shown the club through thick and thin but now we need everyone’s support and togetherness more than ever. ""We are playing the attractive, entertaining football that I think you want to see. I certainly do. I have seen the players applauded off in many games this season, even after defeat, so I think that shows you are appreciating the way Paul is getting the team to play.
Of course, it’s about winning football matches though and that is something that we have to put right. ""Paul, our general manager of football operations, Lee O’Neill, and myself have had numerous meetings over the last four or five months to discuss the future direction of the club.""
We are all united in the strong belief that our young players need to be given a pathway into the first-team and a chance to establish themselves at that level, not just a few games here or there but over a period of time.
Developing and nurturing our own players and giving them first-team opportunities are at the core of our focus going forward. They will need patience but it’s the way forward for Ipswich Town. I want you to witness the excitement of a team developing week in, week out and see this turning this into a winning formula.
""We will still retain that balance of experienced players around them, of course. Players like Bart Bialkowski, Alan Judge, Luke Chambers and Cole Skuse will provide that guidance for our young players to progress.
""As stated earlier it’s not our intention to bring in loan players in any numbers. We may have one or two but the plan is to provide that pathway for our young players, rather than use the loan market. "
I have become much more hands-on at the club since the turn of the year and that will continue. I’m not going to hide from the fact that these are challenging times at the club but sometimes out of adversity you become stronger. That is our aim.
"I am also putting plans in place to take Ipswich Town deeper into the local community, working closer than ever before with schools, charities and local organisations. There will be more on that over the coming weeks.
""I know Paul has been amazed and humbled as well by the backing he, personally, and the team have received from you the fans and he is determined to repay that support in the years ahead.""
With Paul as our manager, we have the right man to take us forward. I will provide all the support I can to him but we need your continued fantastic support as well.
It seems strange to say this but we are not a club in crisis, we are once again already developing our community roots; we are financially stable; we have a proven management team intent on doing things going forwards in the Ipswich way and whilst the foundations have already been laid to move onwards and upwards THE REAL FIGHTBACK STARTS NOW to get back into the Championship and then on from there.
General manager of football operations Lee O’Neill will be on Mark Murphy’s Radio Suffolk breakfast show on Monday morning from 8am talking about Town’s relegation and the Blues’ future.