 Mick Gives Us WingsWritten by JollyJourno on Monday, 31st Aug 2015 12:27 I wish I could have been there when Mick McCarthy first tasted it. The look on his face. The glint in his eye. The dawning realisation that this was the missing ingredient in the promotion recipe he's been formulating ever since arriving at Portman Road. "Yeah, 'tis alright that," Mick no doubt shrugged as he downed a can of Red Bull in the dark days following Town's play-off defeat last May. "What's it for? Wings? What're they? Oh right, yeah, wings. I remember them. Think we had one back at Millwall in 1993." And so it began. A summer of transfer activity that's as good as any I can remember at Portman Road since George Burley's day. Out went Mings, in came the wings. Ryan Fraser, a regular in the team that won the division last year, in on a year-long loan. Ainsley Maitland-Niles, a hot prospect from Arsenal, in on a year-long loan. And now, Tommy Oar, an Aussie international with 25 caps, in on a free. I don't know whether it really was the Red Bull, whether it was playing too much FIFA 99, or whether Mick actually got round to watching a DVD of one of those many Town games last season when he'd played two out of Jay Tabb, Paul Anderson, Darren Ambrose and Stephen Hunt in the wide positions and digested the results. See, there was a reason Ipswich got labelled as a 'long ball' team last season. It's because we were a long ball team. In football, to get the ball into the opposition penalty area, you have to do one of two things. Use your midfield, or punt the ball over their heads. Through most of 2014-15, Town's midfield, on the whole, got neck ache. That the Tractor Boys secured their highest league position in a decade with only a semi-functioning midfield is astonishing. We have Murphy and Berra to largely thank for it. Now imagine how successful we might be with actual wingers who can run and cross. Thanks to Mick's summer transfer miracle, we don't have to imagine. It's happening. At least two goals have been scored in all seven games played so far this season. Either Fraser or Maitland-Niles has been man-of-the-match in four of those games. And Cole Skuse's neck is now almost fully recovered. Of course, the wingers aren't the only story of Mick's transfer activity this summer. Town have signed the captain from a team that finished above us in the table in Jonathan Douglas. We've signed a proven and experienced goalscorer in Brett Pitman. We've signed a Danish international full-back in Jonas Knudsen. We've signed some guy from Poland who sounds like he might be handy. Every position on the pitch has been strengthened. Mick's been so busy in the transfer market this summer he's even managed to pull off a massive Coke deal and then get an Alabi just to cover himself should the cops get wind of it. Of course, the defeat at home to Brighton has shown it will be far from an easy ride to promotion, but with the quality in our squad, the wings, the strikeforce, I'd be staggered if Town didn't at least improve on the points tally from last season. And if we can do it by actually using our midfield as more than merely a tennis net to hit the ball over, we may even get some credit for it. Mick, thank you. Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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