 You’re Not Fit to Wear the Shirt!Written by Kropotkin123 on Monday, 29th Oct 2012 13:38 I had pretty much finished writing this when the Richie Wellens article was posted, so I don’t know how people are likely to take it. I guess what I had written would have been a little more controversial prior to his open and frank assessment of our club. But I thought I’d finish what I had started for all to see. For some it may now just read like a collection of things that they feel and have now read put in one place. But I hope it is a little more interesting than that. I’ve had a bit of time to think about Paul Jewell’s exit, and I still concede that he was the wrong man for the job. However, I feel, if we sort the mess out in our club, we may look back on his time here with a little more sympathy, and little less scorn. People said his tactics were all wrong and he made bizarre choices. Whilst this may be true, the more I read, the more I feel that it wasn’t entirely his fault. If you have players at the club that don’t care, you don’t know who you can count on, you don’t know who will make the difference. In other words, you’re playing your hand blind. People also blame Roy Keane for the majority of our problems, stating that he took the club to the wrong end of the table, after Jim Magilton had done a half decent, yet largely uninspiring job. They argue that Jewell took on a squad and didn’t have the ideas to make it better. But I’m starting to feel more sympathetic to both. I feel there has been a negative ethos at the club for too long. We don’t hold onto leads and concede late on, not because of coaching issues, but because the other teams want to win the game more. In August 2009 Ipswich lost a very promising young Irish keeper by the name of Shane Supple. Even more bizarre, he left as he had ‘fallen out of love with the game’. For me this was shocking at the time. How could a young player fall out of love with football at Ipswich? Or how could it be so bad that they would give up great financial rewards. I’ve done jobs I don’t like, but if I’m paid enough, I get on with it and do my best. It later turned out that he fell out of love with the game as too few people cared about the results, performances, etc. This was even more shocking for me. It got to such a point that Supple was effectively pushed out of the club as he cared for the integrity of himself and the club, due to other players who simply didn’t care (see here for Supple’s views at the time. Link courtesy of algarvefan). Fast forward to today, and we haven’t sorted this problem. I’ll start with Michael Chopra. The guy’s personal finances were kindly sorted out by our owner, who went way beyond the call of duty to assist him. He essentially gave him another shot at life to build himself up, live a comfortable life, and establish himself as a cult figure at the club. Chopra is talented, he is undeniably good, and easily a 20 goal-a-season striker this club needed so badly. Yet he shows a distinct lack of care for the club and respect for himself, the fans and the owner. Insulting fans is never a good way to endear yourself to them, but frankly I kind of agree with his first outburst, people were making inappropriate comments. I also didn’t care too much for the players that went out for a drink, it seemed like a bit of a non-story to me. But the more I think about it and following his defence of the players in question, and then posting baiting tweets to fans, it has changed my opinion. He doesn’t care. He is merely self-justifying. Saying fans need to “need to get a f***** life†and calling them “haters†is moronic. I would normally say something like “he need to pull his finger outâ€, but in the context of the club's issues, I call for the club to sack him. Yes, he is a great player, yes he could be the solution to the problem if he was committed to us. But he is not. And while you have players at the club who would rather self-aggrandise, rather than get stuck in and do the 'job' they are paid to do, then they are part of the problem. We will not survive by playing and paying the wages of people who don’t care. (For more on Chopra’s comment’s see here). We move on to Chris Hutchings. He has had one game in charge and already causing me concern, not that it is his fault. But again he is pointing the finger towards people not caring. He was never going to get the manager’s job, that much was clear prior to kick-off. So players were playing for personal pride, for the pride of the club, and for the fans' pride. Yet as Hutchings suggests, players don’t care: “I was pleased for Luke Hyam and Josh Carson, they were the only bright sparks, showing a little bit of effort and commitment.†Effort and commitment. Is it too much to ask for a person who watching players day in day out, to state that more than two players show effort and commitment? I personally think not. He is states that more senior players let him down. He should give a list of the players that he feels don’t care, and Marcus Evans should sack them. Again, we need players that care. We need young players to see role models within the club that care. This may seem harsh, but as I said earlier, we will get relegated by players that don’t care. For more on Hutchings assessment see here. (Note, for those that are wondering it is at this point I see Wellens's quotes come out!) Wellens’s comments really provide a good conclusion to the statement I started with. He states “One of the coaches said that the old manager got stick for bringing in loan players, but it is the loan players who are showing they care and that is a sad indication of what is wrong.†It is, I would have never imagined it could be as bad as loan players caring more than the players we pay to represent the club. I honestly thought they were part of the problem. It is just further indication that certain players are not fit to represent the club... and they should be shown the door. In light of his honest comments, I hope Wellens receives a significant reception at the next home game. Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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