| MM 12:26 - Apr 8 with 1008 views | catch74 |
Thought I’d not hijack the MM gone thread, so started a new one.
I remember either a Wolves fan posting on the forum (or maybe HarryfromBath asking on theirs) with some feedback. ‘The football won’t be the most pleasing to the eye, but he’ll get you results and you’ll feel like you’ve got your club back’ - or something to that effect. There may have been something prescient about getting bored with the football eventually.
Did we get our club back? - well to an extent (for me at the time) we did. Some great players in, was it Berra, Skuse, McGoldrick, Murphy and Tabb! for frees in one window. Luke Chambers probably the epitome of MM, getting the most out of reasonable players, Chambers gave everything on the pitch and off - the fist pump that little bit of extra connection with the fans. Great performers, core of the team - not the haphazard desperate approach from Jewell (felt like we had had a full team of loanees.)
I mentioned MM when I spoke at my Mum’s funeral in 2013, ‘thank goodness he’d come as we’d always call each other after an Ipswich victory.’ The play off season obviously the pinnacle of his reign.
Hands up, I was happy with Evans, personally liked the fact that we had an owner who’d rescued us, content to let a Manager manage, quietly doing his business in the background, not being pushed around on transfer deals, adding quality loan signings to embellish the team. Those closer to the club (not difficult) than me knew better. I guess my limited attendances at games, witnessing the poor football and flat atmosphere should have given enough of an idea.
I could ramble on about the end of MM, the two Paul’s but the main point is to highlight what is happening now.
Now we really do have our club back, technically gifted players that we own (I’m hoping we push the boat out on Hirst.) Knudsen v Davis, Chambers v Clarke, we own Broadhead v spring boarding Lawrence etc etc.
The crowds, the football , the goals, the stadium improvement done and to come, the new pitch to top off the new training pitches, the love of the players and their love of the fans. A modern, young manager and his entourage - no set piece goals - sorted, not enough goals - sorted, letting in soft goals - sorted, transfer windows - sorted.
More than that it is the openness and honesty of the players, the management, the owners. Clearly laid out plans all executed so far, gives such a positive feel, the knowledge that whatever happens this season, we will grow next season. This versus the blunt, prickly honesty of Mick, hamstrung by a woeful owner.
Apologies, this is all very long winded and clearly not groundbreaking in any way, just so happy for where we are right now. It’s brilliant for the younger fans who’ve been starved of decent football and any real achievement. Kudos to all the die hards who’ve stuck through the last couple of decades too.
We wished for this Mick, probably in our wildest dreams at the time - thanks for your time here and best of luck for the future.
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| MM on 13:29 - Apr 8 with 840 views | cbower |
An excellent post. Unlike some who just seem gleeful at MM's travails, you respect what he achieved at this club in his first few years, acknowledge the failures of the Evans regime which hamstrung MM and those that followed him and take joy from the wholesale changes our club has undergone in the last 2 years. I too wish Mick well. This is just as it should be. |  |
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| MM on 13:48 - Apr 8 with 806 views | unstableblue |
The problem wasn’t Mick as a person, a man manager (although this attribute seems to have gone t!ts up at Cardiff and Blackpool), or an identifier of players, he brought us survival and a good season and was a likeable chap, the problem was his approach to football! Which was obvious fairly on to be at odds with what we as a club needed, what fans liked and that would truly progress us.
I’ve pasted below the passage from your post that is most prescient - we needed that in 2016; people like me get triggered by the Mick debate because it was so obvious for so long that he was the wrong manager for this club! Some of us highlighted it very early and were shot down.
It drove people away from Portman Road.
Ultimately it wasn’t Micks fault, it was Evans… he was absolutely clueless as leader of a football club, clueless… Keane, Jewell, Mick, Hurst, Lambert and Cook… Clegg, Milne!!
That was the problem… and as you so beautifully put it… that horror show of ownership is now over
And dinosaur managers won’t be at this club for some time - enjoy it, drink it in
“A modern, young manager and his entourage - no set piece goals - sorted, not enough goals - sorted, letting in soft goals - sorted, transfer windows - sorted.
More than that it is the openness and honesty of the players, the management, the owners. Clearly laid out plans all executed so far, gives such a positive feel, the knowledge that whatever happens this season, we will grow next season. This versus the blunt, prickly honesty of Mick, hamstrung by a woeful owner.” |  |
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| MM on 14:19 - Apr 8 with 744 views | WestSussexBlue |
It felt like a case of throwing each other under the bus towards the end, Evans and MM. There was no love lost with ultimately the team suffering.
Did he give us our club back? No chance did he get anywhere near. He steadied us and there was the 2014/15 season but apart from that he was an arrogant sticking plaster. His record at club’s now is nosediving and the younger talented coaches are emerging. |  | | |
| MM on 15:47 - Apr 8 with 650 views | catch74 |
| MM on 13:48 - Apr 8 by unstableblue |
The problem wasn’t Mick as a person, a man manager (although this attribute seems to have gone t!ts up at Cardiff and Blackpool), or an identifier of players, he brought us survival and a good season and was a likeable chap, the problem was his approach to football! Which was obvious fairly on to be at odds with what we as a club needed, what fans liked and that would truly progress us.
I’ve pasted below the passage from your post that is most prescient - we needed that in 2016; people like me get triggered by the Mick debate because it was so obvious for so long that he was the wrong manager for this club! Some of us highlighted it very early and were shot down.
It drove people away from Portman Road.
Ultimately it wasn’t Micks fault, it was Evans… he was absolutely clueless as leader of a football club, clueless… Keane, Jewell, Mick, Hurst, Lambert and Cook… Clegg, Milne!!
That was the problem… and as you so beautifully put it… that horror show of ownership is now over
And dinosaur managers won’t be at this club for some time - enjoy it, drink it in
“A modern, young manager and his entourage - no set piece goals - sorted, not enough goals - sorted, letting in soft goals - sorted, transfer windows - sorted.
More than that it is the openness and honesty of the players, the management, the owners. Clearly laid out plans all executed so far, gives such a positive feel, the knowledge that whatever happens this season, we will grow next season. This versus the blunt, prickly honesty of Mick, hamstrung by a woeful owner.” |
There are so many things that are so much better now, the post could go on for ever. The one thing I had meant to add was:
Magical Vegas sponsorship v Ed Sheeran - shirts kids will be proud of wearing into a school, not just because we’re winning. An obvious partnership, wonder if Evans even thought to approach him. | |
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