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Two Directions
Written by bbg on Monday, 15th Feb 2021 22:01

Fans, media and pundits always seem to target the manager, even Bobby Robson was targeted in his time. However, he was rightly allowed four of five mediocre seasons before starting to make real progress.

Nowadays every time a team has a bad run, the debate has to be about the manager or owner. Despite our lack of experience, we all think we would do better in both roles.

We would choose better tactics, select better players and as owners, if we had the means, we would throw more of our own precious money into it. The truth is we wouldn’t on all counts.

Don’t forget there are two directions the club can now go, just as there were a couple of years ago when a mid-table Championship team.

We should all know now that kneejerk reactions will take the club lower. Chopping and changing managers and gambling on unproven managers are not routes the club should go.

I know little or nothing about the current owner or manager on a personal level, but have never stood in a football ground or posted on websites publicly slating individuals who were giving their best in their roles.

There is a direct correlation between how precarious we make the positions of football managers and the inflated salaries they receive. The very people who participate in football mob rule are those who complain about managers' salaries.

The origin of the club’s current problems was relegation from the Premier League 20 years ago when there weren't the millions available in parachute payments that there are now.

Look at how many of the current Championship sides have benefitted from those payments. It was very difficult to compete with that without a lot of investment, which usually comes from foreign sources. I haven’t heard of any such investors about to arrive at ITFC.

Many fans were aware of the risk of relegation to League One and many said to see their team play passing football, it was a price worth paying.

Some were looking for a young manager from the lower divisions. Most wanted a team playing passing football from the back but without the millions to fund a new set of players.

Many believed we were playing dinosaur football when we had two up front and played direct, now most seem to have a problem with 4-3-3 with one central striker.

The truth for me is the current manager has sought to play progressive, passing football but due to injury or lack of quality for most of this season and last, the cutting edge is missing in the final third. Given the injury problems this season, I am not sure any manager would have us much higher in the table.

Solutions? During the past 20 years, a few managers have taken the club into play-offs. With sensible and prudent decisions by the owner and management, there is still hope.

Both Mick McCarthy and Paul Lambert had proven track records of taking clubs to the Premier League from the lower divisions and as many others including McCarthy is showing at Cardiff and Neil Warnock continues to show in his 70s, that level of knowledge, judgement and ability does not go away.

All is not lost, players coming back from injury require two-to-three weeks at least to get up to speed. Paul Lambert has tried to address the lack of cutting edge in the attacking third. The loan players look promising and I would still not rule out a top-six finish.

For me, if we want to head in the right direction, we need to end the constant manager debates, the policy of the owner should be to appoint experienced managers with track records and give them a minimum of three full seasons. That should apply to the current manager and the next.

Fans and media should be guided by the same rules, resist the urge to attack their own club and its servants in the middle of a season and get behind their team, virtually or otherwise.




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DifferentGravy added 22:12 - Feb 15
Rubbish
3

J2BLUE added 22:15 - Feb 15
Utter garbage. Can't believe this was actually put up on the site.
3

chrismakin added 22:17 - Feb 15
Absolute crap
2

Kropotkin123 added 22:18 - Feb 15
Inaction is an attack upon the club
1

Paramedic added 22:21 - Feb 15
Nice one Marcus.
0

N2_Blue added 22:57 - Feb 15
FFS... this is utter crap. You can't blindly support someone who is crap at their job and underperforming.

This is 3 seasons of consistently going backwards. In case you hadn't noticed, we are in the third tier....there is no excuse for being 12th in this division....having previously finished 11th.

Wake the fu*k up!
2

rickw added 23:46 - Feb 15
We are getting worse!
Also comparing Lambert to Warnock and McCarthy is daft - they've had success at multiple clubs, where-as Lambert was successful at Norwich, then sacked at Villa, sacked at Blackburn, sacked at Wolves and sacked at Stoke.
You said how hard it was for us in the Championship to compete with those with parachute payments - that's true, but the same should also be true for most L1 clubs to compete with us, however the seem to be managing it.....
2

dominiciawful added 23:54 - Feb 15
For God's sake.
2

Gonefishing added 09:12 - Feb 16
Based on the experience of Mr Robson and the time he was given, it is possible to use the argument that we should stick with managers longer. However, this ignores the fact that squads can now be changed in a couple of trasfer windows. Somone will have the correcr figures, but I think Roy Keane brought in more players in one season than Sir Bobby did in ten years.
We should also never forget the huge financial mistakes, largely driven by ego, that were made in the early noughties. All now compounded by a terrible current owner and the worst manager in ITFC history.
2

franz_tyson added 10:44 - Feb 16
Nice one, Frank.
1

Daleyitfc added 11:51 - Feb 16
Drivel : Bobby Robson took 4 seasons to turn us into a team that competed at the highest level, but while learning his trade still managed to keep us (just) in Division 1, the equivalent of the PL today. There is no comparison with the current situation where Lambert would not even get us promoted back to Division 2 (Championship) however long he was here and whatever resources he was given. Once any manager becomes bogged down with excuses / blaming everyone else (including the fans) they need to be disposed of with immediate effect, because they NEVER turn things round.
1

bbg added 18:55 - Feb 16
Thanks to those who gave coherent responses, regardless of whether they agree or not. Football is about opinions, not enforcing our opinions by abuse and mob rule. Those incapable of a coherent debate should be ignored by the club.

A very famous historic figure once said "There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob law". It is something we should all bear in mind. How would it feel to be on the receiving end? Anyone who wants respect should treat people with respect.

In the 70's we were capable of paying up to 50% of the record transfer fee at the time on Mariner, Muhren and others, so I agree the 70's are not comparable in terms of finances or what resources were at the disposal of club manager's in that era, but you cannot blame the club for how the PL is run nowadays.

As regards manager's blaming fans, I wasn't aware that Lambert did but accept you may be right. Sir Bobby once called the ITFC fans idiots, I dont think Lambert has gone that far. I wonder who is qualified for the manager role at ITFC if Robson, Burley, McCarthy, Lambert, etc aren't?
-1

BlueBadger added 22:41 - Feb 16
Christ alive.
0

Ipswichbusiness added 19:48 - Feb 17
It is quite possible for us to finish sixth, just not the way we are going about it.

It is all very well having 60% of the possession, but if you only manage one shot on target then you will not win many football matches.
0
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