| Mixed feelings about the new training ground 19:34 - Oct 8 with 1797 views | jasondozzell |
Woah. Woah. Woah. I know. I know. You're incredulous and probably pissed off. How could anyone could question what is undoubtedly a world class facility, one that is going to play a huge role in the future of the club and allow us to push on to cement our place in the Premier League, and then see Town back in Europe and competing for silverware?! And you're right. Remember the Evans years of crumbling infrastructure? Dyer having to lend the club medical equipment which we didn't have in order to try and in order to try and keep Didzy (Mick's one player with creativity quota) fit? Tree growing out of Churchman's roof? And so on and on and on...Dai Cornell dangling a shirt outside a shabby looking Dome it isn't.
It's exciting. The club is transformed. It's mad to think what has happened under Gamechanger and it is brilliant to see us moving back to where we belong - the top table of British and European football. The ambition we craved for nearly twenty years has returned.
So why the slight unease alongside the excitement?
I dunno. Maybe because the club's promotion of it happened to coincide with the City story which is the story of present day football in this country. The common denominator? Money, its power and its increasing insistence on itself as the real game, the real spectacle - not the actual football played on the ('world class, stitched, elite') pitches.
First transfers, now real estate, have become part of the entertainment complex for fans, a 'loadsa money' type braggadocio encouraged by those at the top who see how it sells. Spreadsheet versus spreadsheet.
Even the decor was somehow a bit depressing. A sort of corporate version of luxury. Kitchen islands eat your heart out...At what point did all this stuff become venerated above all else?
Digital screens of the players. Nice touch. Although sorry Cedric, you know you're gonna be deleted pretty soon with the way things are going. No hard feelings eh? I suddenly found myself longing for the long corridor at Portman road with the framed newspaper clippings and team photos before Ashton had them tidied away. Hopefully for the museum (family ticket just £45!) but...
I'll put aside my own personal grievance with Ashton. Undoubtedly a canny operator, but an ego on legs and a true convert to the Linkedin corporate bullshit that masquerades as values and philosophy these days. A man continually giddy with what he's got who at the moment is the zeitgeist. The Farage stuff no accident really. A petit bourgeois take over. It's an Ashton world now.
It's of course utterly perverse of me to sound any doubts after literally decades of desperately hoping for something, anything to happen. Praying that each false dawn was actually the beginning of a new era. Surely we're going to be unstoppable now we've got over the hill versions of David Healy/Duke Ellington/Nigel Reo-Coker in the door... Surely?! A quiet day at Portman Road on deadline day but next season, next season...
But the other news this week, of KM's first interview post departure, was somehow more meaningful than the training ground reveal. The detail that he was still living in the town, his affection for the area, the special double promotion team... It's ironic to invoke his name of course as he helped to design this spaceship and would have approved of the sports science wonderland. But KM has something else alongside the cutting edge modern approach - a soul. And that was arguably more important than anything else in his success with us.
His point that the training ground and the spend this summer meant that the club was moving on to another era rang true. This is a different ITFC now to the one KM found and restored. And it's going to be exciting. Town are firmly back in the big time.
Maybe we have to learn to live with this dual feeling of excitement and unease. Maybe it's just me. Who knows where we're headed.
But in the year 2065, when they knock down the training ground ('piss analysis?! How backward!') to make way for the next imagined future, it'll be KM and his ilk that are remembered and not the bricks. |  | | |  |
| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 19:43 - Oct 8 with 1393 views | franz_tyson |
If I was a player... I'd try my best to fool the urinals. Who wouldn't tip their pregnant wife's p1ss down there?
Mark done good. |  | | |
| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 19:45 - Oct 8 with 1373 views | jasondozzell |
| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 19:43 - Oct 8 by franz_tyson |
If I was a player... I'd try my best to fool the urinals. Who wouldn't tip their pregnant wife's p1ss down there?
Mark done good. |
Leif on the bench because the medical team think he's expecting triplets and don't want to take any risks.
More likely the piss reveals what we've all known all along. He really does have a third lung. | | | |
| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 19:53 - Oct 8 with 1304 views | Dubtractor |
I think you overthink things sometimes, buh. |  |
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| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 19:58 - Oct 8 with 1266 views | jasondozzell |
| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 19:53 - Oct 8 by Dubtractor |
I think you overthink things sometimes, buh. |
Yeah. You may well be right buh. Here come the down arrows 😅
Thank god there's actual football on Saturday. I'd forgotten what it looks like. | | | |
| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 20:14 - Oct 8 with 1202 views | Illinoisblue |
When the most optimistic bright eyed fan is voicing concerns over our owners building a 30million state of the art training ground… game’s gone!
I do take your point about the influence of money in the game but that’s been a theme for a couple decades now. We’d rather be in the mix, surely? Away days at Accrington weren’t that good were they? |  |
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| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 20:21 - Oct 8 with 1150 views | jasondozzell |
| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 20:14 - Oct 8 by Illinoisblue |
When the most optimistic bright eyed fan is voicing concerns over our owners building a 30million state of the art training ground… game’s gone!
I do take your point about the influence of money in the game but that’s been a theme for a couple decades now. We’d rather be in the mix, surely? Away days at Accrington weren’t that good were they? |
😅
Oh I don't know...I really liked their ground! Some good (and bad) times there ...
I agree re being in the mix. When we win in Europe again it's going to feel unbelievable after what we went through. But at the same time I do feel like we're being herded towards an NFL model and if we don't like it, tough. [Post edited 8 Oct 20:23]
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| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 20:22 - Oct 8 with 1148 views | BrianTablet |
| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 19:45 - Oct 8 by jasondozzell |
Leif on the bench because the medical team think he's expecting triplets and don't want to take any risks.
More likely the piss reveals what we've all known all along. He really does have a third lung. |
Remember when it was Ian Wright giving David Linighan kittens?
TWTD |  |
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| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 20:28 - Oct 8 with 1091 views | BanksterDebtSlave |
| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 19:53 - Oct 8 by Dubtractor |
I think you overthink things sometimes, buh. |
Fair to say it crossed my mind that we're not running that facility should we end up back in League 1 or back in the Championship for more than a season or two. Is it a case of Emperor's new clothes or is that just elite level football full stop? |  |
| "They break our legs and tell us to be grateful when they offer us crutches." | | Poll: | What you watching. |
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| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 20:29 - Oct 8 with 1098 views | Dubtractor |
| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 20:21 - Oct 8 by jasondozzell |
😅
Oh I don't know...I really liked their ground! Some good (and bad) times there ...
I agree re being in the mix. When we win in Europe again it's going to feel unbelievable after what we went through. But at the same time I do feel like we're being herded towards an NFL model and if we don't like it, tough. [Post edited 8 Oct 20:23]
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Renamed the Gipping Valley Stallions. | |
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| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 20:31 - Oct 8 with 1078 views | jasondozzell |
| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 20:29 - Oct 8 by Dubtractor |
Renamed the Gipping Valley Stallions. |
Go Stallions!!!! | | | |
| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 20:31 - Oct 8 with 1088 views | SitfcB |
Weird flounce.
The trouble is this club was so far behind compared to others this training ground is nothing to a lot of clubs because it’s been the norm for years, Norwich have all that and have had it for years, obviously ours is now better though, so because.
Yes it’s all shiny, new and hi-tech to us but it’s really not in the grand scheme of things, this will just help us be the club we aspire to be these days and we has fans have to roll with the times.
Who cares about it coinciding with the Man City thing? They’re cheats and unethical.
We, so far, have been run properly and within any sort of financial rules budget and we’re one of the only clubs open and honest with all the FFP facts and figures. |  |
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| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 20:33 - Oct 8 with 1061 views | jasondozzell |
| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 20:28 - Oct 8 by BanksterDebtSlave |
Fair to say it crossed my mind that we're not running that facility should we end up back in League 1 or back in the Championship for more than a season or two. Is it a case of Emperor's new clothes or is that just elite level football full stop? |
A very good point
Ashton just a speck in the rearview mirror as Paul Hurst returns for a second stint and three quarters of the facility is under white sheets.
The piss analysis starts backing up etc etc. | | | |
| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 20:36 - Oct 8 with 1026 views | Nutkins_Return |
It's nicely written so no down arrow for me. But you really have dug deep for some negatives here.
Just enjoy it. This is good.
You don't have learn to live with any feelings of unease about any of this. Just drop that heavy weight of unease and enjoy the ride. | |
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| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 20:36 - Oct 8 with 1029 views | jasondozzell |
| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 20:31 - Oct 8 by SitfcB |
Weird flounce.
The trouble is this club was so far behind compared to others this training ground is nothing to a lot of clubs because it’s been the norm for years, Norwich have all that and have had it for years, obviously ours is now better though, so because.
Yes it’s all shiny, new and hi-tech to us but it’s really not in the grand scheme of things, this will just help us be the club we aspire to be these days and we has fans have to roll with the times.
Who cares about it coinciding with the Man City thing? They’re cheats and unethical.
We, so far, have been run properly and within any sort of financial rules budget and we’re one of the only clubs open and honest with all the FFP facts and figures. |
Fair points. And god knows we've needed the investment and infrastructure.
Dunno why I felt strange about it. I suppose it's just club changing again. I kinda liked the KM Ipswich. We had money but it was also just still just itfc. And there was a kind of magic.
It's still itfc. Just got to get used to this new iteration.
Let's beat Fulham and tell everyone we're staying in the league first. | | | |
| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 20:38 - Oct 8 with 1002 views | jasondozzell |
| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 20:36 - Oct 8 by Nutkins_Return |
It's nicely written so no down arrow for me. But you really have dug deep for some negatives here.
Just enjoy it. This is good.
You don't have learn to live with any feelings of unease about any of this. Just drop that heavy weight of unease and enjoy the ride. |
Thank you Nutkins.
You're right really. Seatbelts on. It is exciting.
I want to see Kayden Jackson in the crowd watching us lift the Europa League. | | | |
| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 20:53 - Oct 8 with 904 views | Guthrum |
With Ashton, I don't think one should let the mannerisms and corporate-speak be taken as a lack of real passion. He's heart and soul into ITFC and is every bit as invested in our success - in the long term - as the Cobbold brothers or Sheepshanks. It just requires a different set of tools and style than of old. A different pace, too. There is little time to get up and running nowadays before a club is swept away by the more poerful outfits.
There are some similarities between our story and that of Man City. Investors came, pumped money into the club, its infrastructure and also the town. We bought the best players possible, hired and retained the smartest manager. The difference between us, however, is that when we really went for it, Ipswich Town stayed within the rules*.
We will never again (unless the world is greatly changed) see an era where a provincial club run by eccentric local gentry like the old Ipswich Town can exist at professional level, let alone aspire to the honours and First Division tenure that we enjoyed for so long. The whole of football has moved and we must move with it or sink into obscurity. I agree, it's not really for the better. But at least we currently seem to have found a modus vivendi where we can be competitive without giving up entirely on our ancient principles.
* So far as can be judged from the accounts and the club's levels of spending. It all seems pretty realistic so far. |  |
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| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 20:56 - Oct 8 with 884 views | BelsteadCav |
If you wanted to have a pop at Ashton, surely it would have been quicker just to type “ Ashton out”
What a load of nonsense |  |
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| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 21:04 - Oct 8 with 824 views | jasondozzell |
| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 20:56 - Oct 8 by BelsteadCav |
If you wanted to have a pop at Ashton, surely it would have been quicker just to type “ Ashton out”
What a load of nonsense |
Ashton out. | | | |
| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 21:08 - Oct 8 with 802 views | jasondozzell |
| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 20:53 - Oct 8 by Guthrum |
With Ashton, I don't think one should let the mannerisms and corporate-speak be taken as a lack of real passion. He's heart and soul into ITFC and is every bit as invested in our success - in the long term - as the Cobbold brothers or Sheepshanks. It just requires a different set of tools and style than of old. A different pace, too. There is little time to get up and running nowadays before a club is swept away by the more poerful outfits.
There are some similarities between our story and that of Man City. Investors came, pumped money into the club, its infrastructure and also the town. We bought the best players possible, hired and retained the smartest manager. The difference between us, however, is that when we really went for it, Ipswich Town stayed within the rules*.
We will never again (unless the world is greatly changed) see an era where a provincial club run by eccentric local gentry like the old Ipswich Town can exist at professional level, let alone aspire to the honours and First Division tenure that we enjoyed for so long. The whole of football has moved and we must move with it or sink into obscurity. I agree, it's not really for the better. But at least we currently seem to have found a modus vivendi where we can be competitive without giving up entirely on our ancient principles.
* So far as can be judged from the accounts and the club's levels of spending. It all seems pretty realistic so far. |
Very reaoned response. And a fair one.
You're right. Times have changed.
I don't doubt Ashton's passion. I'm sure there's a good bloke in there. But I think he comes first more than people might realise. And he answers to the Americans. Not too you or me.
I always thought the dynamic where he wanted players and KM was telling him no was a bit revealing. | | | |
| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 21:08 - Oct 8 with 787 views | BanksterDebtSlave |
| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 20:56 - Oct 8 by BelsteadCav |
If you wanted to have a pop at Ashton, surely it would have been quicker just to type “ Ashton out”
What a load of nonsense |
Just how much Kool Aid have you drunk? | |
| "They break our legs and tell us to be grateful when they offer us crutches." | | Poll: | What you watching. |
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| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 21:10 - Oct 8 with 786 views | BelsteadCav |
| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 21:04 - Oct 8 by jasondozzell |
Ashton out. |
😂 | |
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| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 21:14 - Oct 8 with 758 views | SitfcB |
| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 20:36 - Oct 8 by jasondozzell |
Fair points. And god knows we've needed the investment and infrastructure.
Dunno why I felt strange about it. I suppose it's just club changing again. I kinda liked the KM Ipswich. We had money but it was also just still just itfc. And there was a kind of magic.
It's still itfc. Just got to get used to this new iteration.
Let's beat Fulham and tell everyone we're staying in the league first. |
Take comfort in the fact that KM had a hand in designing and planning it all out.
It’s a shame he’s not here to enjoy it but there we are. | |
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| On a slightly different note on 21:26 - Oct 8 with 681 views | Basuco |
| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 19:53 - Oct 8 by Dubtractor |
I think you overthink things sometimes, buh. |
Are you, or anyone else, playing at St Stephens Church Saturday? Or was it a one off a few weeks ago? We didn't make last time you spoke about it. Ta. |  | | |
| On a slightly different note on 21:29 - Oct 8 with 662 views | jasondozzell |
| On a slightly different note on 21:26 - Oct 8 by Basuco |
Are you, or anyone else, playing at St Stephens Church Saturday? Or was it a one off a few weeks ago? We didn't make last time you spoke about it. Ta. |
I'm going there for a beer pre game if that helps 😅😅😎 | | | |
| On a slightly different note on 21:30 - Oct 8 with 656 views | Dubtractor |
| On a slightly different note on 21:26 - Oct 8 by Basuco |
Are you, or anyone else, playing at St Stephens Church Saturday? Or was it a one off a few weeks ago? We didn't make last time you spoke about it. Ta. |
I'm not, but can't say for certain if anyone else is.
I'll be in there for a pre match beer though! | |
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