Right, I’m not going to beat about the bush, I’m just going to come out with it: over the past five seasons, Ipswich Town have signed 67 players. 67.

From Ivan Campo to David Healy, Giovani Dos Santos to Ryan Stephenson, whether on a short-term loan or four-year contract, we’ve signed sixty-blooming-seven footballers.

Also over the past five years, we have gone through three managers, not come all that close to troubling the play-offs and slowly lost our identity.

It’s not a coincidence. Neither is it coincidental that, on the whole, we’ve finished the last five seasons well, especially the last three. The squad undergoes fairly traumatic surgery in the summer, takes a few months to settle and then gets its act together to head up the table a little. And repeat.

In 2008/09 out went Jim after a flat season where ‘Operation Premiership’ flopped badly. In strutted Keano and we cruised through our last two games, apparently paving the way for automatic promotion the following season.

Obviously it wasn’t to be, but again, we recovered that season after the horrendous start (it still amazes me that we didn’t win for 14 games) to finish well enough to believe that the following year would be different.

However, in 2009/10, after a terrible mid-season blip, Keane was shown the door, Jewell arrived, and off we went again, our Jimmy Bullard-inspired team playing like play-off contenders instilling confidence for the following season.

But no - a relatively good start to this campaign, but then another terrible dip around Christmas and then a revival made sure we were safe from the drop around Easter. So why should next season be any different?

Really, why should it be any different? Once again, at this stage of the season, the debate has already turned to what players we need to/are going to sign over the summer. Once again we’ve lost key men for nothing (whatever you say about Grant Leadbitter, he was still a first team player and he needs replacing whilst Jason Scotland shows no signs of signing). Once again we’ve got half a defence.

This vast player turnover isn’t a phenomenon linked solely to us of course. It’s increasingly prevalent across football, but crucially, the successful Championship sides of the past few years have been consistent and built steadily with a core group of key players - Swansea, Blackpool, Cardiff... Norwich.

Much worse and much more worrying than the poor performance of Town though is the loss of identity and the lack of stalwarts these days - if I was 10 again, I’d have no idea who to get on the back of my shirt a) for fear of the player leaving and b) because nobody really stands out.

The days of the Matt Holland, of the James Scowcroft or even of the youngsters coming through and being played regularly, the Bowditch, the Garvan and the Clarke, they’re seemingly gone. Until we get back to that, we ain’t going nowhere.

And with the transfer merry-go-round whirling into action every summer, plus the amount of loanees we routinely have on board, the players themselves seem to be more care free about the club they’re playing for, particularly the more expensive, marquee signings who, broadly speaking, have failed.

Honestly, when was the last time we spent upwards of a million quid on a player who lived up to expectations? Michael Chopra, Jason Scotland, Gareth McAuley, David Norris, Lee Martin, even JET - none of them became/have become the main man, or if they did, they took a long time to settle.

Furthermore, Jim Magilton, Roy Keane and Paul Jewell have all played their respective big names even when out of form, just because of the price tag hanging round their neck, at the expense of the few local lads and hard-working, cheaper pros that do put in a shift and appreciate the club (Lee Bowyer over Luke Hyam and Andy Drury, countless loaned keepers over Arran Lee-Barrett.

The Ivar Ingimarsson signing showed a lack of faith in Tommy Smith, Jaime Peters has been discarded and forgotten, Moritz Volz, Danny Simpson and Liam Rosenior all preferred to David Wright.

The goalkeeper fiasco actually does quite a neat job of characterising my whole argument, especially this season - David Stockdale, Alex McCarthy, Arran Lee-Barrett, Richard Wright etc. Just sign one permanently! Look at Southampton with Kelvin Davis, Reading with Adam Federici, West Ham with Rob Green - again, it’s not a coincidence to see where they are in the table.

It’ll also surely help out our defence to know that there’s a solid, dependable bloke behind them, rather than having to ask a team mate: “What’s this guy’s name again?” I still grimace when I hear the words ‘two-year plan.’ What a load of rubbish that was.

But is there hope? We’ve no option this summer but to go out and spend some money and sign some players. But I hope it’s the last time we buy more than five players in one go for a long, long time.

The team needs to be based around Aaron Cresswell, Smith, Drury, JET and Martin for a few years now, and be allowed time to develop, not expecting instant success. Let them find the right formula, let them find their feet and let them find their own identity whilst restoring the club’s.

When Marcus Evans first took over, signing big name players was such a novelty and so exciting that it seemed like the best thing to be doing, and surely it was going to bring success? But 67 players are testament to the fact that it hasn’t. Time to put your chequebook away Marcus.

hogster1970 added 12:02 - May 1 what a brill blog and most coments so true, how ever i will say this about the youth, because we lost the reserve set up which is now coming back the youngsters had to jump from under 18 straight into first team and because of the 5 man bench makes bloody ing them difficult, but i think we have turned the corner now, and i personally would like to see 5 man out field bench rather than waisting one on a goalie as we rarely need them, but the out field we need all the time and then there will be room for a lawerence of this world, all we need to do is to train a defender or 2 up as a stand in goalie, like the old days, i still believe also josh carson will be a mega player for us if given the run in the team play him on one flank and jet on the other and just swap around during the match, i feel more will come from that than murphy, trouble is leadboot s didnt feed the wingers enough because if they dont get that quick killer ball then they wont be effective with there pace, no point doing patiant build up during the game as you need to vary it, like any decent team,

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MattinLondon added 12:23 - May 1 I do agree that the player turnover has been far too high. But also the managerial turnover has been too high. Jim brought players in to short his style of play and some of these were not conclusive to what Roy Keane wanted. The same in turn happened when Jewell took over. And if he was sacked, as so many people wanted, then we would be back to square one. People took about having long term players but surly this only really happens when we have a settled management team in place. To a certain extent this will happen as Martin, Cresswell, JET, Smith, Drury will hopefully form the basis of a team.

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jas0999 added 18:17 - May 1 Excellent blog! 6 loanees this year, plus many golden oldies. We were never going to build. What's sad is we are now back to square one this Summer. Mainly ue to PJ failing to address key areas and getting is transfer policy horribly wrong, but also because Clueless Clegg et al fail to tie players down on contracts, meaning the manager now has to replace the likes of Leadbitter and last year McAuley and Norris. IMO PJ failed to replace them last Summer, and few he will make the same mistakes this. We will need at least 8 new players, let's just hope they are players who will be here more than one or part season!

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TheBlueStig added 20:05 - May 1 Fantastic Blog, I think every sane fan would agree with this. As much as it's nice and exciting to see a new player pull on the Blue shirt, it's frustrating when they either go back to their parent club (via loan) or it just does not work out for the player and the club if big money has been spent. But that doesn't happen with just us, it happens as every club. But we have to recognise we are in a better position than most clubs and at the moment and on past seasons we have not deserved to go up what so ever. But I totally agree with this blog, the main thing we need is consistant players who are here, faith in Jewell. Jewell I think has realised he's made a huge mistake in ageing players, and I think next season will see the youth come back, the likes of Lawrence, Whight, Cresswell will all play pivitol roles. Looking at the squad now we need 4 or 5 players to firm posisitons and see where it goes from there. To many names and to many has beens is not the way forward.

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warwickblue added 23:02 - May 2 Solly - director of football ITFC - when can you start?
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Portman51 added 01:13 - May 3 Excellent analysis of our current plight Solly. Sadly I'm sure no-one at PR ever reads these contributions or would take a blind bit of notice if they did. Still, renewed again, I live in hope!
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sirbenofmorlingshire added 21:40 - May 3 Cracking Blog Solly (have not seen a blog so well received before). I think one major issue is society in general expect 'instant success'. Kids out of school expect to walk into £18k a year jobs, footballers expect to be paid £50k a week just because they’re footballers and supporters think that screaming for a new manager because the other chap’s lost 5 in a row and you’re not in 1st place means everything will be better and you become good again over night! WRONG! Everything takes time and commitment and thats what people in general don't seem to grasp these day. Players are in a culture where all they see is a pound sign, not a commitment to a club and an ambition to succeed, look at the tripe that’s on TV, endless talent shows offering INSTANT glory and most prominently MONEY. The passion has gone from the game throughout the leagues, fans, players, chairmen all want instant success and believe Money can buy it or if you're mercenary enough you just chase it and sod everyone else. Commitment, hard work and some understand of how footballing success comes from the roots up, you build it carefully not buy it instantly (unless you Man City who are everything I despise in the modern game). My fear is the values and attitude that has made some many clubs successful in the past is now dead and these days everyone wants everything now and if you don't get it, you chop and change ever looking for that magic formula by making snap decisions and not allowing the time and nurture all good things need to grow and flourish. It’s a money game these days, SKY, the Premier League and billionaire foreigners looking for a fun hobby have carved out a new and rather ugly new set of rules and values, which are the ones the up and comings are subjected to and believe are right; and I think they’re wrong... I'll finish as I started, great blog, couldn't agree more!

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