| A few thoughts on where we are now 10:36 - Nov 25 with 3966 views | Steve_M |
It's hard not to see a club that has got nearly every big decision wrong and come out on the wrong side of almost every promotion or relegation fight over 19 years as being in anything other than terminal decline. The very obvious exception to that pattern of failure was the appointment of McCarthy and his first few years here.
Evans has made so many poor decisions since he bought the club and, even allowing for the way in which financial doping has changed the Championship in that time, ITFC has fallen further and further behind the modern game in his 13 years of ownership. What should have been a competitive financial advantage was squandered by Magilton and, even more so, Keane but a total failure to implement any kind of footballing structure has meant that every change of manager has seen a large upheaval.
Which brings us to the biggest mistake: allowing Hurst to rip up the basis of a good Championship squad and then overpay for a load of lower division players. Many of those might have grown into a good squad but the wholesale change as good as relegated the club in the first two months of the 2018-19 season.
Lambert certainly should have done more to close the gap to the rest of the division but it was always going to be difficult to stay up from where we were, not so much in terms of points as the lack of quality at either end of the pitch. I don't blame him for relegation though, but that time should have been about preparing for a quick return.
Lambert has now had two attempts at promotion and failed at both. That we are still well placed in the table is irrelevant to the very obvious decline from the early weeks of the season: the energy, belief and coherence of the team are markedly worse and it shows in the lack of chances created and the dreadful goals conceded.
For a side that had won six matches out of six at home, there was no sign of that in the performance last night. Hull needed to be little more than well organised and (occasionally) clinical in front of goal to win easily and, yet, absolutely no one is surprised by either of those factors.
Injuries are a mitigating factor, Bishop and Edwards have been two of our better players this season but the frequency of serious injuries and the seeming failure of players to recover for them — Kane Vincent-Young now out for over a year just the latest — is another pattern repeated across too many seasons.
It’s clear that a change of manager is needed and it has to be soon. We’ve watched the Premier League gradually become out of reach over the two decades of failure and now we are seeing the Championship head the same way — it may only have been 18 months since we were limply relegated from it but the impact of Covid-19 on the lower divisions is going to be harsh. The push for a salary cap reduces any competitive advantage ITFC has in the third tier, and we are still a big club at this level on account of the size of the fanbase regardless of anything else.
Any hope of Evans ever getting back a significant amount of what he has spent on ITFC has long disappeared. In the absence of a buyer willing to pay whatever Evans will settle for then he has to decide what level of spending he is comfortable with. The worry for us is that it might be at League One level rather than the £6 million a year it was costing to mark time in the Championship. Again, the lack of footballing structure ends up costing more money and, indeed, the five year contract given to Paul Lambert when the team hadn’t won for two months last December will cost even more money to terminate, whatever the break clauses within it. And, of course, this is all accounted for as debt, money ITFC owes to Marcus Evans. None of which changes the likelihood of his recovering much of it.
If nothing changes, everything points to the third division becoming our new home with maybe the occasional spell in the Championship for a season or two being as good as it gets for ITFC. The signs of this decline have been visible for a long time certainly back before McCarthy was appointed — he managed to arrest that and even build on it for a few years too — but there is no evidence of anything that is going to turn that round now.
There’s far too that needs to change at the club but a first team drifting to another mid-table finish in this division is the most urgent aspect of this decline. That has to be arrested and it has to be by a change of manager. Maybe the rest of it will still follow but without onfield success, however moderate that might be, crowds will decline and the promotions of 1992 and 2000 become as distant as the Robson era: nice to look back on but of no relevance to the club today.
Over to you Marcus. [Post edited 25 Nov 2020 10:42]
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| If you could condense this..... on 12:01 - Nov 25 with 744 views | portmanroadblue |
| If you could condense this..... on 10:46 - Nov 25 by Bloots |
....into a format for Twitter and email it's exactly the message we need to all agree on and get flooding out there "en masse".
One group, one message.
Probably an impossible task, I know, but just shouting Lambert out and saying "FOPRP" isn't going to cut it.
We need to start a movement.
(I'm actually being serious here!) |
What we need is a backer or someone who can front a takeover who has connections to some serious money, anyone know Ed Sheeran well? |  | | |
| If you could condense this..... on 12:05 - Nov 25 with 732 views | Ace_High1 |
| If you could condense this..... on 12:01 - Nov 25 by portmanroadblue |
What we need is a backer or someone who can front a takeover who has connections to some serious money, anyone know Ed Sheeran well? |
Ed don't need the hassle mate, he has enough on his plate! |  | | |
| This argument worked when we.... on 12:05 - Nov 25 with 732 views | Bloots |
| A few thoughts on where we are now on 12:00 - Nov 25 by TieDyedIn95 |
I agree with you on Evans but I don't see any manager getting anything out of this squad. They are average and massively overpaid for what they are offering at this level. Half of them can't even stay fit for a full season, which again falls on Evans and the overall budget for failing to provide adequate funding for this football club to bring in players who can actually stay fit and perform. I think only Judge, Chambers and Skuse have a promotion to the Championship between them from the current squad and those were years ago. That says it all about our recruitment over the past 2 years. We sank like a stone in the Championship because we had a League One squad/club a full year before we played in that division. Even in the weakest Championship season for years, where we could have stayed up had we just done a little more.... Evans hardly threw the kitchen sink at staying up because as you say, he's more than happy to do the bare minimum and keep losing a little. The fans always turn their attention to the managers.
The best thing we can all do is to stay home, not renew, don't buy the shirts or whatnot and let Evans swallow more losses until he either changes tact or moves on. He won't get any managerial appointment right, he will go the PR route and get someone like Dyer in, sell the assets to pay off Lambert and the circle continues. In 2 years time we'll be exactly in the same position or worse with Evans continuing as is.
Evans is the problem. |
...were in the Championship with promotion aspirations.
It doesn't now that we are in the 3rd Division with one of the biggest and most expensively assembled squads in the division.
Lambert out. |  |
| "The sooner he comes back the better, this place has been a disaster without him" - TWTD User (July 2025) |
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| If you could condense this..... on 12:09 - Nov 25 with 713 views | portmanroadblue |
| If you could condense this..... on 12:05 - Nov 25 by Ace_High1 |
Ed don't need the hassle mate, he has enough on his plate! |
It was said tongue in cheek, but its the only way out of this mess, unless anyone else knows a billionaire or two :-) | | | |
| Indeed, it's remarkable that..... on 12:28 - Nov 25 with 676 views | Keaneish |
| Indeed, it's remarkable that..... on 11:50 - Nov 25 by itfcjoe |
You should e-mail it to the club, I've sent something in to the powers that be there |
It’s interesting that PL was happy to hear supporters thoughts when there was a lot of optimism around. Have you heard of any open forums / meetings since?
Steve’s points are all succinct and bang on. Our demise and slide into the abyss is evident to all football fans so it must be blatantly obvious to those within the club. 1 win in 5 at this level is unacceptable. Only beating 1 of the top ten in the last 57 matches is abysmal yet the coaching staff are “giving it their all” - it’s clearly not enough and voices need to be heard in the absence of attending PR. |  |
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| Indeed, it's remarkable that..... on 13:18 - Nov 25 with 648 views | davblue |
| Indeed, it's remarkable that..... on 11:27 - Nov 25 by Steve_M |
I've submitted it as a blog so it's more easily shareable once Phil posts it. Without matches it's difficult to spread much more than knee-jerk reactions around the wider fan base.
Maybe Asa could write a song. |
Did his super fan dad ever buy a season ticket again after cutting it up for the Evening Star picture? |  | | |
| A few thoughts on where we are now on 13:23 - Nov 25 with 637 views | clive_baker |
Well played, as always Steve |  |
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| "Mr Ipswich" (n/t) on 13:27 - Nov 25 with 625 views | Bloots |
| Indeed, it's remarkable that..... on 13:18 - Nov 25 by davblue |
Did his super fan dad ever buy a season ticket again after cutting it up for the Evening Star picture? |
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| "The sooner he comes back the better, this place has been a disaster without him" - TWTD User (July 2025) |
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| A few thoughts on where we are now on 13:30 - Nov 25 with 619 views | TJS |
I think we're pretty much exactly back to where we were in March.
There seemed to some momentum growing then about a properly organised protest at the ground.
I think this is the only thing that will send a direct message to the owner and it needs to happen when full crowds return unless there is some miraculous improvement.
Perhaps we could all hold up blank sheets of A4 then screw them up and throw them on the pitch. |  | | |
| A few thoughts on where we are now on 13:35 - Nov 25 with 597 views | MonkeyAlan |
| A few thoughts on where we are now on 12:00 - Nov 25 by TieDyedIn95 |
I agree with you on Evans but I don't see any manager getting anything out of this squad. They are average and massively overpaid for what they are offering at this level. Half of them can't even stay fit for a full season, which again falls on Evans and the overall budget for failing to provide adequate funding for this football club to bring in players who can actually stay fit and perform. I think only Judge, Chambers and Skuse have a promotion to the Championship between them from the current squad and those were years ago. That says it all about our recruitment over the past 2 years. We sank like a stone in the Championship because we had a League One squad/club a full year before we played in that division. Even in the weakest Championship season for years, where we could have stayed up had we just done a little more.... Evans hardly threw the kitchen sink at staying up because as you say, he's more than happy to do the bare minimum and keep losing a little. The fans always turn their attention to the managers.
The best thing we can all do is to stay home, not renew, don't buy the shirts or whatnot and let Evans swallow more losses until he either changes tact or moves on. He won't get any managerial appointment right, he will go the PR route and get someone like Dyer in, sell the assets to pay off Lambert and the circle continues. In 2 years time we'll be exactly in the same position or worse with Evans continuing as is.
Evans is the problem. |
Completey agree Evans is to blame. He isn't interested. Puts in the bare minimum and hopes the supporters accept it, which most seem to. The real concern is that we could very well be in league 2 in a few seasons. |  | | |
| A few thoughts on where we are now on 13:40 - Nov 25 with 592 views | Steve_M |
| A few thoughts on where we are now on 13:30 - Nov 25 by TJS |
I think we're pretty much exactly back to where we were in March.
There seemed to some momentum growing then about a properly organised protest at the ground.
I think this is the only thing that will send a direct message to the owner and it needs to happen when full crowds return unless there is some miraculous improvement.
Perhaps we could all hold up blank sheets of A4 then screw them up and throw them on the pitch. |
Not sure, there was a lot of apathy around then - the season clearly over after an abysmal February - certainly when football was suspended it meant it was going to spoil my weekend in Bristol.
I think there's a sense now that a change can still make a difference to this season, it might well happen soon if we lost the next couple of games. | |
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| Indeed, it's remarkable that..... on 13:48 - Nov 25 with 569 views | giant_stow |
| Indeed, it's remarkable that..... on 10:56 - Nov 25 by Bloots |
....the most realistic way that we have of getting a message "out there" in any sort of scale, is to get Sitters "ITFC Fan" twitter account to do it!
What a club. |
You guys need a Marcusevansout website. Partly to coalesce around, but also with Callis' help on SEO, perhaps you could start embarrassing him if Search engine results for his tickets business start to get "polluted" with this campaign message.
Just a thought and I might be barking up the wrong tree. |  |
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| A few thoughts on where we are now on 19:36 - Jan 9 with 432 views | Steve_M |
Six weeks on, absolutely fk all has changed for the better.
Is that late enough for Evans to make a decision? | |
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| A few thoughts on where we are now on 20:27 - Jan 9 with 345 views | reusersfreekicks |
| A few thoughts on where we are now on 19:36 - Jan 9 by Steve_M |
Six weeks on, absolutely fk all has changed for the better.
Is that late enough for Evans to make a decision? |
The downward spiral continues. Feels like Lambert is exploiting Evans's footballing ignorance. |  | | |
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