By accepting a place at University this year, I realised that my days of being a regular season ticket holder were numbered. I decided to go to every single game, home and away, before my course started, have an Ipswich Town binge so to speak.

So when Uni started in the first week of October, I was probably expecting more than the zero wins.

Had Jim Magilton still been in charge, it is probably fair to say that he would have got the boot by now.

But is getting rid of Keane now a sensible option?

In my opinion, the answer is simple - no, not yet.

Keane came in towards the end of last season, got two really good wins, and had the whole summer to create his own squad. Has the team he has built really that bad? Leadbitter, Rosenior and Edwards are all players who have played Premier League football. Tamas Priskin netted 16 goals for Watford last season. More recently, signing loan keeper Begovic has seemingly halted the large amount of goals we were conceding. Man for man, we are a better side than last season.

Getting rid of the manager now and replacing him, the new man at the helm would want to be promised funds for the January transfer window, so he too can mould together his own squad. Since Evans has been here, with Magic and Keano as managers, it is reported that they have shelled out around £28 million for players, their wages and loanees, a gargantuan total for a Championship side. Whether Evans would be willing to cough up further funds in January is another matter.

We are certainly not good enough not to go down, but recent performances have deserved more points than we have. How many times have we come away from Portman Road this season saying we have been awful and completely outplayed? I can only think of Palace and Newcastle, and the rest we should have had more from the games. The signs of the first win are most definitely there, and much like Keane, there is no reason to panic. Wouldn't you be more worried if we were being outplayed every week and not creating chances?

And the question of who would replace Keane is another matter. Out of who is realistically available who would want to come to a side bottom of the Championship? Most Ipswich fan's first choice to take over from Magilton would have been Alan Curbishley, but he has said on numerous occasions that he only wants to return to Premier League management. Sven was always optimistic. Terry Butcher failed at the likes of Brentford, Bryan Robson has no track record of success at this level, and the list goes on. Steve Coppell and Paul Jewell would be two excellent candidates - but even they struggled towards the end of their respective spells at Reading and Derby.

Many times on the TWTD Message Board this season, people have argued 'if we hadn't of sold Rhodes' or 'if we gave Jim another season'. The fact is, there is no point discussing the fact. They are gone. They are in the past and it is a completely pointless and irrelevant argument. In my eyes, Magilton had lost the dressing room and a large amount of supporters at games. He is an ITFC legend, and always will be, but many of his decisions in his final season and a half were baffling to say the least. He simply was not the man for us, but good luck to him at QPR. While Jordan Rhodes is scoring goals for fun in League One, it is no Championship. I remember a certain Sam Parkin who scored goals consistently in League One....

At the end of the day, Keane has signed a two-year deal, and I think he will be here for those two years. We are certainly not good enough not to go down, but recent performances have deserved more points than we have. How many times have we come away from Portman Road this season saying we have been awful and completely outplayed? I can only think of Palace and Newcastle, and the rest we could have had more from the games. Keane is here whether we like it or not, and for the time being we may as well support him and the boys through this sticky patch.

jerutter added 12:33 - Oct 27 Urgh, I hate supporters who only come to a few games per season and then think they know enough to write a blog about it... But, we have good individuals at the club and give Keano time and I think we will get promoted.
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Keaneish added 12:54 - Oct 27 dirtydingusmagee...!? What by sacking a manager? No infatuation. Just alot more patience than you it would seem and i can see the wood for the trees. Peter Taylor will be a great influence i think? What about anyone else? Agreed with My way.
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MVBlue added 14:01 - Oct 27 You wrote: "How many times have we come away from Portman Road this season saying we have been awful and completely outplayed? " Twice.
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dirtydingusmagee added 14:11 - Oct 27 Dr jeckyll what are you on about,Galatasary read before open gob pillock ,Keaneish WHERE DID I SAY SACK KEANE ? i think P T would help,but you are already saying the likes of me would credit any improvement to P T ,DOE'S IT MATTER WHO'S INFLUENCE SAVES US FROM PRESENT PLIGHT .
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naa added 14:17 - Oct 27 I also find it offensive that those in favour of Keane get so agressive to those who suggest that maybe things aren't going too well at the moment. Yes, he may turn it around but until he does I think it rather rude and childish to slag those who doubt that he can. The simple fact is no-one knows if he's got it or not. Some like to see positives others struggle to, just accept that people are different and stop abusing each other (though mainly it's the positive types that do all the personal abuse as far as I can tell). These are the facts (so please don't argue with them): 1) we are the only team in England without a win 2) we are bottom of the table 3) even if the injury time goals we like to concede (and which a number of people on here point to as the only reason we aren't flying) hadn't happened we'd still only be 21st 4) Roy Keane has had 1 very successful season (but spent a LOT of money to get it) and 1 average season (in which he spent a LOT more money) 5) he isn't playing several of his own expensive signings, including a striker - when everyone keeps saying we need a 20-goal man (Priskin scored 16 last year and supposedly was still improving) Now these are my opinions (argue all you like with these): 1) we shouldn't sack Keane yet as certain aspects of our game seem to be improving (but Plymouth was not a good performance by most accounts), though I think time must be running out. How many more times can we say this season "if we just win our next one we'll be on our way"? When will it be too late? Some of you seem to be happy to finally give up when we're relegated. Most of us want to avoid that! 2) we have NOT played well this season. At home the Watford game is the only game I think we actually played well. Swansea wasn't too bad. the rest was various shades of rubbish. 3) we need a settled side. We're 14 games in and Keane still doesn't know his best team. Magilton made that mistake last year, and I criticised him heavily for doing so. 4) Keane's signings have not been good. Even the positive people only rate three of them and one of those - Edwards - plays in Walters' favoured position. And so arguably wasn't required and another - Rosenior - plays in David Wright's favoured position and so arguably wasn't needed. I think it's safe to say that a centre back and striker were the crucial players needed and at least one of those postions has been completely ignored. Even the positive ones must surely be able to at least understand why some of us are getting worried? We DO support the Town (that's another thing that annoys me. To suggest the manager isn't up to it apparently means we don't support the club. Ridiculous) and that's why we're worried. We are bottom and each month that passes brings us a bunch more games without a win. You can win 15 games in this division and get relegated, so we're gonna have to start winning soon.

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dirtydingusmagee added 14:24 - Oct 27 naa, Good post !
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prozach added 14:33 - Oct 27 RE jerutter If you are refering to me, I have been to 13/16 games this season in all competitions
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naa added 14:38 - Oct 27 Yes, another of the 'positives' stock slaggings. They just randomly accuse people of not having been to any games this year. Again, very rude, childish and often, completely wrong. They maybe hope that we haven't been going so that they can claim that we've been unlucky all season and don't deserve to be bottom. As all managers will agree: the table does not lie. We are the worst team in the division. We just have to hope that the squad (which, on paper is easily good enough) starts performing to its best ability - and that would be the manager's job I suggest.

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dirtydingusmagee added 14:44 - Oct 27 the tables dont lie, and they say ''you make your luck''. SO ,sorry the 'unlucky ' week in week out camp cuts no ice with me,
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ipswichfrancis added 14:46 - Oct 27 i cannot agree with some of the points raised here. No, Jim would not have been sacked as base on his past records, the club would be languishing in mid-table at least. this team is supposedly built by keane. if the team can't deliver, the buck stops at the manager. it's that simple. winless in 14 games is not plain "unlucky", it involves poor man-management at some level... should keane go? YES! it is always a better bet to change the gaffer when the present one is not able to deliver results. a lot of times, a new manager need not recruit new players but could deliver results after coming on board....

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UEFA81 added 14:46 - Oct 27 The Keane supporters get so aggresive because they are simply following Keane by example.
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dirtydingusmagee added 14:49 - Oct 27 just to add ,each week we get same people saying ''this week we will win 2 -0 3 -0 4 -1 and so on and the season starts here, then say we were unlucky to draw 1- 1 , we have not won thats more than bad luck im afraid .
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matt_the_blue added 16:24 - Oct 27 UEFA81 - A little bit of a sweeping statement?
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AJblue added 17:30 - Oct 27 You may have noticed that I support Keane,I have listed many, many times why. All i know EVERYONE whether pro Keane or anti Keane, all this arguing is pointless really when you think about it. There is not one person on here who has the power to change the manager, unless ME is callumgarryskemmer in disguise (he lives in London too) LOL So whether you think Keane is the man for us or not.....tough we are stuck with him until ME says differently.....personally that makes me happy. Just MY OPINION CGS!!!!!!

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runaround added 17:39 - Oct 27 I still dont think sacking Keane would be the right move....YET! From the games i have recently seen, the players are still working hard and giving their all, in other words they still believe in Keane. If he had lost the dressing room, as i believe Jim had last year then it would be time to change but i dont think we are at that stage...YET! I think the poor start is a hangover from last seasons problems although some of Keane's signings haven't yet worked out. A change of manager may lead to an improvement of results in short term but if that didnt continue and the new man proved no better, then the upheaval would pretty certainly lead to things getting a lot worse(although some would still blame Keane for this!). However the next 2 matches are vital and no wins from either of them, especially if performances are rubbish then a change will probably be needed. However until then in Keane~(and Peter Taylor!)i trust!!!

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jas0999 added 17:51 - Oct 27 Excellent article. Agreed. Not the time to sack Roy. Disappointing start, although only lost two of last seven. I do find the following line mis-leading though and the trouble with the Jim comparision: 'Had Jim Magilton still been in charge, it is probably fair to say that he would have got the boot by now'. The difference which many prefer to ignore is this: Roy - first FULL season in charge Jim - would have been in his FOURTH year. Achieved absolutely nothing in the first three. Therefore can not agree with the Roy v Jim comparision.

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brogansnose added 18:17 - Oct 27 My goodness some of this is getting really silly.Evidently we are all Town fans from the passion that we show and that ultimately we all want the same thing-a successful Ipswich team.I'm not going to come on here and slag down other fans and i'm certainly not going to make a note of peoples names who are `supposedly ' negative as Bluelass and someone else has posted today.We are not Nazi Germany and Stalins Russia.I'm also not going to ignore comments made by someone like dirtydingus who i believe made the trip to Plymouth who even if just for that fact deserves a bit of respect forhis views.Now i dont agree with everything that he says but some of the pro keane posters are frankly in laa laa land. We are now in a relegation battle for the rest of the season and failure to take 3 points off Derby P'boro Reading and Sheff Weds will imo see us down and consequently will see Keanes position as untenable.Now you could say that a team is not relegated until May, which is true, but people who know a little bit about football know that the seeds of relegation are sown a long way before that. In many ways this is a silly blog because it was only ever going to cause further division and squabbles.At the end of the day ME will decide what happens and goodness knows what he is thinking now because i dont think any of us saw this in the script.If the figure is right he is 28 million down on his investment because of jim and Roy and there must be a figure that we dont know about concerning Cleggs wages , building work at Playford road.Lets face it he is even sponsoring the club.Can he or will he sustain the losses of dropping a division? I doubt it, so the decision is not ours to make. For my part , i will turn up to games at PR and attend about half the aways and get behind the team despite everything and anything , sing , shout and never boo and cheer them off the pitch, because that s all i can do to help.If we drop i will do exactly the same whoever is in the team and whoever is the manger.I urge you all to do the same.

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itfc1981 added 23:24 - Oct 27 sam parkin was crap rodes id the new la god!
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Back_The_Boss added 06:55 - Oct 28 Things can only get better - They can't get much worse! Derby at home Reading away, more points to be picked up.
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prozach added 14:38 - Oct 28 Apologies for the poor wording - in regards to the Magilton comment, I meant that if Jim was still in charge and we were in this situation. Hope that clears it up + sorry bout that!
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