| Keeping the squad culture, the connection to badge, but staying in the league 23:11 - Aug 2 with 1876 views | unstableblue |
It’s a really pivotal time at Town.
The League One heroes, built a lot on Paul Cook recruitment, really bought into the club, Suffolk, the fan base and the club.
The likes of Chaplin, Burns, Morsy, Luongo, Davis - and more - the club gave them a terrific journey and ascent, and they really and genuinely connected with the project and club, and community.
The shift started away from that for the premier league campaign, whilst keeping much of the DNA. Now it could shift significantly with the calibre and foreign nature of players arriving.
Davis, Burns and Walton give us great continuity. OShea could have been part of the league one side - he seems committed and fans finally warmed to him last season.
Not sure Jack Clarke, Greaves, Mehemeti and a few others have fully embraced Ipswich Town (maybe that’s harsh).
I sense Fatawu and our keeping giant may do. And I think Matusiwa gets it.
McKenna was of course part of that bond between changing room and terrace.
Going to be interesting to see if GON and the new batch of very well paid stars can keep some of the magic that gave us so much success. Philogene feels an example of someone who has been rated and enjoyed, but maybe not fully connected with.
Time and results will tell. [Post edited 2 Aug 23:19]
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| Keeping the squad culture, the connection to badge, but staying in the league on 05:18 - Aug 3 with 1551 views | LA_Tractor_Boy |
Unfortunately if we want success, we'll have to accept the best players will be traded and many of them won't be here long enough to build a connection.
I think it's a shame that GON isn't planning to move his family to Suffolk as KMc did, but having said McKenna was almost promised a long tenure, something that GON can't be guaranteed. |  | | |
| Keeping the squad culture, the connection to badge, but staying in the league on 06:59 - Aug 3 with 1427 views | RIPbobby |
Interesting point made. I suppose you could say that nothing stays the same forever. We have had great changes in both visits to the top flight in the last three years. Perhaps this also means that supporter type will change too. Last couple of years i have struggled with money and i have just about cobbled money together to get a season ticket for this year. Looking at our current budget i think i will be priced out next season. The club want a different kind of fan now. Perhaps the tourist kind of fan will be the new norm.
I remember talking to a city fan a couple of years ago who said he only goes to away matches as they are on £30 per match and he goes to all of those. Bizarre hey. The wind of change is sweeping through Portman Road. |  | | |
| Keeping the squad culture, the connection to badge, but staying in the league on 07:04 - Aug 3 with 1399 views | muccletonjoe |
Money |  | | |
| Keeping the squad culture, the connection to badge, but staying in the league on 07:26 - Aug 3 with 1291 views | NthQldITFC |
I was thinking this very thing last night, with very much the same names at the top of my thoughts (but also adding the likes of Harness, Edmundson, Clarke H, Donacien and others).
That seemed to be special, extraordinary, magical almost, and a lot of that recruitment was pre-McKenna, but McKenna seemed to be the catalyst that started that extraordinary 3-years-or-so long reaction.
You can't really plan or design a way to replicate that and maybe you need to start at a low energy level (League 1) to have space for something that out of the ordinary to develop in. But you can still put some of the conditions in place for something a bit like it, and hopefully the likes of Davis and Burns particularly have that muscle memory and personality magic in them to carry the spark.
Anything close to the spirit of '22 would be fantastic. |  |
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| Keeping the squad culture, the connection to badge, but staying in the league on 07:54 - Aug 3 with 1177 views | WolfieAtTheBack |
We are a massive international business now, long gone are the days of paying your money on the gate and hoping for the best on and off the pitch.
As a long term fan (now customer), I don't know the new players as such, I am learning about them daily so it takes time unlike the first two promotion that was proper proper football, the fan base was connected, those were the best of times. [Post edited 3 Aug 7:54]
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| Keeping the squad culture, the connection to badge, but staying in the league on 07:56 - Aug 3 with 1149 views | Bluespeed225 |
| Keeping the squad culture, the connection to badge, but staying in the league on 07:26 - Aug 3 by NthQldITFC |
I was thinking this very thing last night, with very much the same names at the top of my thoughts (but also adding the likes of Harness, Edmundson, Clarke H, Donacien and others).
That seemed to be special, extraordinary, magical almost, and a lot of that recruitment was pre-McKenna, but McKenna seemed to be the catalyst that started that extraordinary 3-years-or-so long reaction.
You can't really plan or design a way to replicate that and maybe you need to start at a low energy level (League 1) to have space for something that out of the ordinary to develop in. But you can still put some of the conditions in place for something a bit like it, and hopefully the likes of Davis and Burns particularly have that muscle memory and personality magic in them to carry the spark.
Anything close to the spirit of '22 would be fantastic. |
It was a special group, but I also wonder if those lads thought they were at a ‘big’ club ( for league 1), and it was going to be the apex of their careers, so bought into to Town, history, area, supporters etc. The bar was low, and so were expectations! So as the ride took off, they went with it, working hard for the great opportunity that might be ahead and the feeling that went with it. As said, we are in a very, very, different pool now, so players, and even managers will be transient and ‘guns for hire’ types. We’ll never have that 24’ feeling again, and maybe don’t want to as it showed how far we’d sunk to get back! | | | |
| Keeping the squad culture, the connection to badge, but staying in the league on 08:11 - Aug 3 with 1111 views | TRUE_BLUE123 |
Some teams will never experience what we had with that crop of players and manager. It was magical.
It is different now though, we want to be an established Premier League team and signing players from all over the world. If we aren't good this season and we are losing games with lots of players the fans have no connection to, it wont be fun. If we manage to do enough to be competitive the relationship with the fans will sort itself out. |  |
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| Keeping the squad culture, the connection to badge, but staying in the league on 08:20 - Aug 3 with 1048 views | unstableblue |
| Keeping the squad culture, the connection to badge, but staying in the league on 05:18 - Aug 3 by LA_Tractor_Boy |
Unfortunately if we want success, we'll have to accept the best players will be traded and many of them won't be here long enough to build a connection.
I think it's a shame that GON isn't planning to move his family to Suffolk as KMc did, but having said McKenna was almost promised a long tenure, something that GON can't be guaranteed. |
That’s news to me, do you know where they are based??
I guess there is a risk for GON that things don’t work out.
I do hope he succeeds and they do move. But I’m sure many successful managers have long tenures at clubs and don’t move from the family home. | |
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| Keeping the squad culture, the connection to badge, but staying in the league on 08:25 - Aug 3 with 1009 views | NthQldITFC |
| Keeping the squad culture, the connection to badge, but staying in the league on 07:56 - Aug 3 by Bluespeed225 |
It was a special group, but I also wonder if those lads thought they were at a ‘big’ club ( for league 1), and it was going to be the apex of their careers, so bought into to Town, history, area, supporters etc. The bar was low, and so were expectations! So as the ride took off, they went with it, working hard for the great opportunity that might be ahead and the feeling that went with it. As said, we are in a very, very, different pool now, so players, and even managers will be transient and ‘guns for hire’ types. We’ll never have that 24’ feeling again, and maybe don’t want to as it showed how far we’d sunk to get back! |
I'm not sure about that. Maybe for some, but I think the likes of Morsy stepping down for the Championship and Davis with his pedigree would have had expectations to hit top end of the Championship, at least, in their careers.
This is maybe what you're saying, when I think about it!  | |
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| Keeping the squad culture, the connection to badge, but staying in the league on 08:32 - Aug 3 with 976 views | unstableblue |
| Keeping the squad culture, the connection to badge, but staying in the league on 07:26 - Aug 3 by NthQldITFC |
I was thinking this very thing last night, with very much the same names at the top of my thoughts (but also adding the likes of Harness, Edmundson, Clarke H, Donacien and others).
That seemed to be special, extraordinary, magical almost, and a lot of that recruitment was pre-McKenna, but McKenna seemed to be the catalyst that started that extraordinary 3-years-or-so long reaction.
You can't really plan or design a way to replicate that and maybe you need to start at a low energy level (League 1) to have space for something that out of the ordinary to develop in. But you can still put some of the conditions in place for something a bit like it, and hopefully the likes of Davis and Burns particularly have that muscle memory and personality magic in them to carry the spark.
Anything close to the spirit of '22 would be fantastic. |
I think the spirit, connection to the club/town and dressing room culture was key to the double promotion - and as you say McKenna was the catalyst
But I do think the type of player/person was key.
We’re assembling maybe quite a different group. But we’ll need a team spirit and culture of a type that can add points.
Davis, Burns, Walton and OShea give some confidence to me. | |
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| Keeping the squad culture, the connection to badge, but staying in the league on 09:02 - Aug 3 with 861 views | chicoazul |
The one thing that bothers me is, the only times ITFC have been really successful is when we had a team full of our own youth players, cast offs, and weirdos. Filling the squad with no doubt very good and expensive players from other clubs is not something we have really attempted before apart from the Burley relegation year. If we get Luis Palacios and Enciso then we will be operating in a whole new rarefied air and can we be successful like that? I dunno mane. I dunno. |  |
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| Money, Alignment and Iraola Liverpool model on 09:19 - Aug 3 with 786 views | unstableblue |
| Keeping the squad culture, the connection to badge, but staying in the league on 09:02 - Aug 3 by chicoazul |
The one thing that bothers me is, the only times ITFC have been really successful is when we had a team full of our own youth players, cast offs, and weirdos. Filling the squad with no doubt very good and expensive players from other clubs is not something we have really attempted before apart from the Burley relegation year. If we get Luis Palacios and Enciso then we will be operating in a whole new rarefied air and can we be successful like that? I dunno mane. I dunno. |
First off as you switch to paying more for players and wages, especially into foreign players, the amount you spend means these players arrive with motivation and a desire to win baked in. Needing to excel in an over performing team (as we did in the Championship) remains important but is not as critical perhaps?
High performing organisations have ‘alignment’ driven into them - and to be fair to Ashton (with McKenna) they drove ‘running towards adversity’, community values, town fans being different, into the team… there was a shared purpose and mission. That is certainly not going to disappear under GON whilst Ashton is around.
(By the way the Town fans have a part to play here, we underperformed last season, meant into a somewhat entitle mode, waiting for it to happen, rather than making it happen. We’ll have to really fire up against Sunderland).
I’m quite interested in Iraola at Liverpool, yes he has elite very expensive players who should perform - but they didn’t for Slott. He’s throwing himself not just into baking in his playing style - high intensity - but he’s linking that to the club culture and fan bond. He’s stating that the club has an identity and he is building something to match that.
He’s also throwing himself into the city “I'm not going to live in my bubble - just at the training ground and home. I would like also to go to the city, experience the city... It's part of the magic of being the Liverpool manager.”
The Atmosphere Begins with the Team: “I would like to give them a team that they can feel proud of... I've been on the other side... You can feel the stadium, and I would love to have this every time we play, but it has to come from us.”
It’s a masterclass in alignment and club culture/identity from the Spaniard - and I’m expecting him to succeed. Despite huge pressure. | |
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| Keeping the squad culture, the connection to badge, but staying in the league on 09:19 - Aug 3 with 783 views | Guthrum |
| Keeping the squad culture, the connection to badge, but staying in the league on 08:20 - Aug 3 by unstableblue |
That’s news to me, do you know where they are based??
I guess there is a risk for GON that things don’t work out.
I do hope he succeeds and they do move. But I’m sure many successful managers have long tenures at clubs and don’t move from the family home. |
I think it's more the case that O'Neil side-stepped early interview suggestions that he ought to move his family to Suffolk, rather than a specific declaration that he will not.
He's only been here a just over a month, needs time to get a feel for the area and if, or where locally, he might want to live. |  |
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| Keeping the squad culture, the connection to badge, but staying in the league on 09:21 - Aug 3 with 774 views | LA_Tractor_Boy |
| Keeping the squad culture, the connection to badge, but staying in the league on 08:20 - Aug 3 by unstableblue |
That’s news to me, do you know where they are based??
I guess there is a risk for GON that things don’t work out.
I do hope he succeeds and they do move. But I’m sure many successful managers have long tenures at clubs and don’t move from the family home. |
I think his family are based in Bromley.
In his initial presser, GON chose his words carefully but only said he was looking forward to spending time in Suffolk. | | | |
| Keeping the squad culture, the connection to badge, but staying in the league on 10:04 - Aug 3 with 635 views | FrimleyBlue |
| Keeping the squad culture, the connection to badge, but staying in the league on 09:21 - Aug 3 by LA_Tractor_Boy |
I think his family are based in Bromley.
In his initial presser, GON chose his words carefully but only said he was looking forward to spending time in Suffolk. |
He moved the family to Bournmouth when he got that job but not since, at Wolves he shared a house with his coaches, same abroad.
What I didn't see though was did Gary come over to the fans on the weekend, I saw some of the players did but I didn't make a point of looking out for Gary...... That sort of thing is key so im hoping he did. |  |
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| Keeping the squad culture, the connection to badge, but staying in the league on 12:16 - Aug 3 with 452 views | Blue_Heath |
| Keeping the squad culture, the connection to badge, but staying in the league on 05:18 - Aug 3 by LA_Tractor_Boy |
Unfortunately if we want success, we'll have to accept the best players will be traded and many of them won't be here long enough to build a connection.
I think it's a shame that GON isn't planning to move his family to Suffolk as KMc did, but having said McKenna was almost promised a long tenure, something that GON can't be guaranteed. |
You make a valid point and we still have Burns and Davis. That said tbh finishing fourth bottom is the most important thing by far due to the money now in the game and an ever increasingly competitive championship. As much as I loved the double promo team I’d trade that relationship with the new team now to become a regular in the Prem rather than promo team Mkii yo-young. | |
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