January 7th 2011 is a landmark date for this club. It was the date our beleaguered board eventually acted upon the harsh truth that this club was not stagnating under Roy Keane; it was descending into irreversible decline.

Journalists, club staff and eventually supporters were made aware of Keane’s dismissal before the press conference was even called. It wasn’t exactly surprising as some fans had waited impatiently for months to hear this news. For many it was a question of not if, but when Keane would be fired.

Unlike the plethora of managerial sackings that have permeated into English football, the firing of Keane was not only expected, but completely deserved. Contemporary football is a funny game; fans expect results, entertainment and short-term progress from the beginning of a new manager’s career. Whilst I wholeheartedly disagree with this notion, for Keane it is a simple conclusion, he struggled not only to achieve one of these “fans' expectations”, but he struggled to achieve anything at all.

I still remember when he was welcomed to the club with the pathway set out before him, promotion to the Premier League within two years. The board believed it, the manager believed it and the fans believed it. But did the players? In his first 14 games, Ipswich were adrift at the bottom of the Championship, having failed to win a game. The expensive signings of Damien Delaney, Lee Martin, Carlos Edwards and Tamas Priskin failed to produce consistent performances, as did the rest of the team.

Admittedly, Keane did improve in the second half of his first campaign, but improvement was not only expected but necessary to avoid possible relegation. Keane was given a second year to try again, as his contract stated, but fans noticed he looked out of his depth. Poor tactics, poor selection decisions and inconsistency had blighted Keane’s Ipswich career. That was nobody else’s fault but his.

This summer would make or break our former manager’s career, and the signings of Marton Fulop and Jason Scotland were encouraging additions, they were arguably better than a Championship class of football, accompanied with the likes of Gareth McAuley, Grant Leadbitter, David Norris and potentially Connor Wickham.

Yet Keane failed to address the serious problems this summer. He failed to keep hold of David Wright, not only a consistent defender, but somebody who offered balance and versatility at the back. His influence has been missed this season. Another failure was the lack of balance in the squad, for every big name signing Keane brought in, he ignored the need for fullbacks and wingers. Sending Andros Townsend back to Tottenham was the final nail in the coffin.

Fast-forward to now, and for those who gave their support to Keane to improve this season, myself included, were left disappointed as our club once again found it fighting to simply achieve lower mid-table mediocrity. Apart from a League Cup semi-final, Keane’s only noteworthy achievement here, our fixtures leading there did not contain big clubs. It is noteworthy that some fans had barracked, protested and strung Jim Magilton up as a scapegoat for a ninth place finish, those days almost look like a utopian dream considering the decline of our club since Keane arrived.

History will not remember Roy Keane’s Ipswich stint positively. He took a squad with ability, potential and the simple need for a couple of wise additions in weak areas to make a realistic play-off charge.

What we have seen Keane do to our club over the last couple of seasons was not only a dismantlement of the squad, but a wholesale change to the way we approach and play our football. Big money signings, negative football, poor relationship with the supporters, tactical incompetence and a complete lack of a Plan B has left our club fighting for its very survival in this league.

Now I can say this with a sigh of relief more than a whoop of joy, but goodbye Roy Keane and thank you for almost ruining our football club.

yorkshire added 20:47 - Jan 7 Utter garbage - Keane was unluckly, made some poor decisions and generally did not hit the targets set for him - but to say that he almost ruined our club is stupid. And as for dismantling a squad - who out of the player that Keane got rid off/wanted to get rid of - Lisbie/Pabs/Garvan/D Wright/Stead/R Wirght/B Clarke/T Miller/Voltz/Campo/Thatcher have either gone on to do better things or are better than players we have at the moment - the only one I can think of is Rhodes and that was possibly a gamble gone wrong. I am sick of reading today all this crap about Keane - ffs the man tried. he moved his family down here and really wanted to succeed - he didn't, he has lost his job - now lets move on

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wark_on_water added 23:17 - Jan 7 yorkshire - very well put! For what it's worth, I still like the man! I like his will to win, honesty and committed attitude. Yes, he failed and his managerial naivety showed through, but noone can doubt he did his honest best! Blue skies are ahead!
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PSGBlue added 10:00 - Jan 8 And there you have it, just like two remaining Japanese soldiers refusing to say its over when the war was finished, the two posters above who cannot accept the man has gone! Well Nuggetts you bang on the money with that blog. Usually when manager gets sacked i.e Burley and Magliton there is a touch of sadness by it all. This time it was a case of good ridiance, I hope never to see Roy Keane at PR ever again! Taxi for Keano!

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wark_on_water added 19:49 - Jan 8 PSGVBlue - have another read of my post... it merely alludes to my opinion of Keane the man - not his performance as town boss. I said: 1) he failed 2)he is naive as a manager My point that 'blue skies are ahead' (i think) shows that I accept that he has gone! The most annoying thing about this whole post is now I've realised I've wasted another 3 minutes resposnding to someone who cannot infer others' comments and thoughts!

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Manic_Blue added 20:57 - Jan 8 Yorkshire / Wark-On-Water - you've helped restore my faith after some of the idiotic comments I've read on here. Yes, Keane failed as manager at Portman Road and the decision to sack him is probably the right one (depending on who replaces him). But that's no need to continue the attacks on him. He did what he thought was right, he tried his best. We should thank him for his efforts, remember the good games, 3-2 over Cov for example, and move on.

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TractorRoyNo1 added 21:17 - Jan 8 mr blogger - you are welcome to gloat, but if this website is anything to go by, the new manager will start with about 10% of the popular vote, i have never known town fans to be so fractious, it is time to try SUPPORTING everything at the Club, this is sad day for football when a guy like Roy Hodgson is pushed out by chavs, what next picking the manager by text vote, then picking the team by twitter - thankfully ITFC gave Keane 20 months, but I fear for the new guy in this world of blame culture

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townfan added 10:18 - Jan 9 With all the ups and downs that have occurred over that last few months, there's always going to be a divide in opinion. Let’s face it, it wasn't great. It was refreshing sometimes to hear RK openly admit to his mistakes and he clearly accepts that although some things are out of his control (the old cliché of once the players have crossed that white line), ultimately the buck stops with the manager. However, although I believe RK leaving was the right decision it frankly all becomes very academic if we don't appoint the right man. We need to move on from the sacking of RK and concentrate on who ITFC are looking at as the next to step up and take this club forward. For me there's only one man and that’s Curbs. He's been there and done it in terms of promotion and survival. He's taken a similar sized club to ours, built it over a number of years to ultimately be punching well above its weight. He was shrewd in the transfer market, even with millions to spend, and played decent football to boot. He is still a relatively young man and I believe is perfect for us. Now, I have it on good authority that AC was actually offered the job three months ago and accepted, but ITFC decided to give RK until January. I also have it on good authority that he was the first call SC and ME made, but has now turned it down. There are a number of names that also tickle my fancy. Houghton is one, but the one name other than AC which is refusing to leave my mind is our old friend, George Burley. Don't get me wrong, I'm well aware that since managing ITFC he has been sacked from every job he has had (maybe not Hearts?). I'm also well aware that employing GB could be seen as a step back for the club, but it still could be a great bit of business. Interested to know what others think on that? One thing for sure is Megson is a massive no no! I'm also not a fan of PJ. He had clear success with Wigan and Bradford and wasn't given much to play with when he took over at Derby, but there's just something there that isn't quite right. Who knows, but right now everyone has to forget about RK and concentrate on the appointment because if we get this wrong we could find our club taking an even bigger and more catastrophic step backwards.

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jas0999 added 13:33 - Jan 9 Abysmal blog - 'thank you for nearly ruining our club'. Have a bit more respect. A guy has lost his job - possibly rightly so in regards to how it is in football - but nonetheless just think how you would feel telling your family you had been sacked - or how Roy's children will feel when others wind them up about it. There is ZERO evidence that Roy was remotely close to ruining our club. In fact I have no doubt he gave this job his all. Passion, committment and 100% effort. Sadly it wasn't good enough. This type of tripe is what's 'ruining our club'.It's about time the 'fans' get behind the team rather than find fault all of the time. Delighting in someone else's misery is also rather sad.

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Clive525 added 18:00 - Jan 9 RK himself didn't ruin this club, that process has been going on for some time now just after the 5th place in the Prem and suddenly thinking it was going to continue. The building of 2 huge stands filled about 3 times since and big money panic signings by Burley/Sheepshanks(although at least he did seem to care about the club) started the rot, which apart from a brief spell under Joe Royle has slowly been eating away at the soul of the club. Now with ME only here to boost his business and a non football man like Clegg running the show I'm afraid that the decline will continue (please let me be wrong). Whoever the new man is will start with at least 50% of the supporters against him. The fans have a major part to play to stop the decline.

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Daleyitfc added 20:21 - Jan 9 Nuggets : you are 100% correct. Ignore the opinions of those sad souls who cannot break out of their 'keep the faif' ignorant and irrational attitudes. Magilton wrecked a half-decent squad, and Keane has destroyed what little is left. Sad days.
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trueblue added 16:56 - Jan 10 I got rid of my season ticket last year and was going to 'pick' the games i went to but after qpr i said thats it i will not buy another ticket while Roy Keane is in charge, he had taken a team and ripped its soul out, got rid of reasonable players and replaced them on the whole with utter rubbish, we allways scored 30 goals a season whats the last two seasons tally ? thanks Roy but you got it wrong wrong wrong, we are now in the worst position since Burley got the sack and playing football no where near as good with a team of no hopers as apposed to what we had. Change had to happen and happen quick, and for someone to stick up for keano needs their heads read.

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Lightningboy added 22:49 - Jan 10 Well said Nuggets...that man was the Devil. Clueless,absolutely clueless..I pity the next club stupid enough to employ him...hopefully it'll be manchester united.
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Back_The_Boss added 06:10 - Jan 13 I think Jewell will be a success at ITFC, he is a relatively quiet, yet experienced man and that is what we need. COYB! Good blog.
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