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Reasons for Relegation
Written by rickw on Friday, 12th Apr 2019 15:40

This week has seen several newspapers print their stories on Ipswich's demise giving their simplistic reason on what's gone wrong.

Whether that's us horrible fans forced out the great Mick McCarthy or Marcus Evans has gotten everything wrong - they are wrong, I think there are always many reasons why a club gets relegated.

Most fans wanted a young up and coming manager and that's what we got in Paul Hirst. Bersant Celina's loan finished and we let David McGoldrick leave who had quality but was injury prone and one of our biggest earners.

Then offers came in for Adam Webster, Joe Garner and Martyn Waghorn, the players felt no loyalty to our new manager and wanted to leave.

Hurst believed he could reinvest the money in lower division players and find players just as good but for less money, it turns out he couldn't and he had underestimated the quality jump to the Championship.

Jordan Roberts, Janoi Donacien, Kayden Jackson, Jon Nolan, Toto Nsiala and Ellis Harrison were brought in from Leagues One and Two, mostly after the bulk of Hurst's fitness-intensive pre-season had finished because the club were bartering for the best deal.

Perhaps if they had all arrived earlier they may have understood Hurst's tactics and developed some cohesion; but they didn't. Given time some of those players have or will adapt to Championship level - Nolan has, however asking them all to adapt straight away was too much.

After a reasonable draw against Blackburn and an underserved loss at Rotherham I think some poor refereeing decisions cost us. Tayo Edun's early sending off against Villa - both were fouls and both could have been cards, however a good referee would tell the young lad to calm down and give him a final warning.

Then against Sheffield Wednesday Nsiala was sent off for a dangerous interception - this was a ridiculous decision! These two decisions don't explain everything, but they both turned promising performances where we could have gotten an early season win, instead we were on a winless run and confidence dropped.

Another reason which was noticeable early in the season was the poor form from our three times player of the year Bartosz Bialkowski. Whether this was down to the goalkeeping coach Malcolm Webster retiring who he was very close to, the new manager or some other reason I don't know. If we had the Bart from the last three seasons several of those losses would have been draws, and some of those draw wins.

We have obviously brought in too many loans, Edun was naive against Villa and Trevoh Chalobah has undoubted ability but he made a lot of costly mistakes early in the season as he adapted to men's football. In realising his mistake in lack of experience Hurst brought in Jon Walters on what would undoubtedly be a good salary but he was soon injured and gone.

Unfortunately Walters wasn't the only serious injury, Teddy Bishop and Andre Dozzell were still working their way back to fitness in the first half of the season, two of McCarthy's senior midfield signings, Emy Huws and Tom Adeyemi, still haven't been seen this season.

Then just as Freddie Sears rediscovered his goalscoring instincts he was ruled out for a year. Add that to the other long-term injuries for Grant Ward, Jack Lankester and Matthew Pennington.

Cole Skuse picked up a small injury just as he was playing his best football for us, Harrison has been picking up minor injuries all season as has Will Keane since his arrival. Perhaps some youth attackers would have stepped up, but both Ben Morris and Ben Folami also picked up long-term injuries themselves.

Going back to with the simplistic newspaper reasons I think if McCarthy was still in charge we wouldn't have been where we are - Garner, Waghorn and Webster probably wouldn't have left and we wouldn't have had the upheaval in the summer. I wouldn't have paid to watch the football however!

Also if Evans had given Paul Lambert some serious money to spend in January he may have brought in a striker who would guarantee goals, unfortunately we work to a budget and that means looking in the bargain basement hoping to find a diamond in the rough.

Anyway that's where we are, let's hope we can streamline the squad and get in one or two experienced pros and a goalscorer to supplement our kids so we can have a successful season next year in League One.

For those too lazy to read above, my main reasons are:
• Signing too many lower league players late in the window.
• Poor early-season refereeing decisions ending in loss of confidence
• Bart not at the same level as the last three seasons
• Young players making costly mistakes
• Injuries, injuries and more injuries!
• Evans not spending £millions!




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Kikapu added 11:18 - Apr 13
Good summary of a horrible season 'rickw', but you didn't include - 'Then offers came in for Adam Webster, Joe Garner and Martyn Waghorn, the players felt no loyalty to our new manager and wanted to leave' in your Main Reasons bullet points. Shortened to, 'Poor choice of replacement manager', if you like.

Further, no matter what you thought of the previous season's manager getting rid of MM was a contributory factor, if not the main reason for the position we find ourselves in today.
2

carsey added 18:28 - Apr 13
Getting rid of McCarthy was probably a reason we got relegated but equally had he stayed he would have been the reason attendance would have disappeared and we wouldn't be getting promoted.
The man was a arrogant dinosaur and a cancer in the eyes of many supporters having told them to "F**k Off" at Carrow Road and he needed to be gone.
Just imagine if he'd had half the PR capabilities of Lambert, everyone would have backed him. Instead he is unemployed save for a caretaker role with Ireland.
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dusth added 23:20 - Apr 13
I was not the greatest fan of McCarthy but it must be remembered that he came in when we were rock bottom and did wonders and for quite a few years Town supporters fully appreciated his dry wit and honesty. Did we hate him when we stuffed our recent opponents Brentford 4-2 in London? The moment he told Town supporters where to go was i'm sure a product of stress and disappointment. Sometimes only honest people have the guts to say what's on their minds. I have been a Town supporter since 1961 but some of the hate filled vitriol online makes me ashamed to be a Town fan, along with the slagging off of decent footballers who have disappointed for some reason or other. "F**k off is an honest response to some of the nasty stuff on here that is posted by people who haven't the guts to use their real names. (Ps this is mine - go figure)Football is tragic, it has terrible disappointments. McCarthy for all his dour back to the wall stuff in recent times was only reflecting his opinion of the talent he was working with. He didn't quit. and he has also behaved decently since. He was better than every Manager we had since Burley. Look to the owner of this club and start getting interested in how he goes about the business and look where all those sales were spent. Tyrone Mings? Could have bought most of this lot!!!

3

Bluearmy_81 added 13:13 - Apr 14
You could have put it as 'Evans not spending the minimum amount needed in the championship to be competitive and avoid relegation.' As point one, not the last one...
2

londontractorboy57 added 16:43 - Apr 15
A good Blog which sums up our present situation however the single most reason we got relegated was the few numbskulls making Micks position untenable i wonder how many years it will take to get us back to our mid table "mediocrity"that they so derided.
-4

jerryhearns added 00:12 - Apr 19
Evans now regrets not opening the chequebook in January, this is what happens when you try to cut corners.
0

statesideblue added 05:00 - Apr 20
I saw my first town game in 1954 and can remember Alf Ramsey getting us out of the old Third Division South in 1957. Now we are back there and the blame lies with those misguided people who hounded out M&M and TC. Mick was a decent man who performed miracles on little money. The players all loved him and he acquired loaners such as Lawrence and Celina to add flair. The treatment he received made me ashamed to be an Ipswich fan, and I have seen it all over more than half a century. "Payback" indeed, for those defiling out club.
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barrystedmunds added 22:30 - Apr 21
Think most of us were excited by the appointment of a new young up and coming manager, opinion was divided thou on who exactly that was. It was always going to be a risk and alarm bells began to sound as his recruitment policy was revealed which I maintain is the reason of our demise. ME, for all his faults, backed the new manager as he said he would. I suppose you could argue that the war chest was meagre. To lose so much championship experience and expect the 6 lads to come in and seamlessly replace them was, as we all suggested, a massive risk which ultimately failed. MM was way past his “sell by” date, and to suggest we would be in a better place if he were still here, is frankly, delusional. He’d lost the majority of the support and attendances confirmed that. It would have been preferable to have left on amicable footing given he’s efforts when he was initially appointed, but he outstayed his welcome and paid the price in fan apathy. I’m not happy with where we are but I’m certainly no “misguided numbskull” and resent the suggestion that recognising MMs days were up, implies that.
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