| Mixed feelings about the new training ground 19:34 - Oct 8 with 3333 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 08:34 - Oct 9 with 244 views | GeoffSentence |
| 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? |
Got to admit, once the awe subsided, my first thoughts were "how much does that cost to run" and "can we afford it after a few years out of the premier" |  |
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| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 08:38 - Oct 9 with 228 views | WolfieAtTheBack |
I feel as though you are worrying about it too much, going forwards, worry less and embrace the key performance indicators we have in place for a sustainable football club. |  | | |
| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 08:39 - Oct 9 with 218 views | WolfieAtTheBack |
| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 08:34 - Oct 9 by GeoffSentence |
Got to admit, once the awe subsided, my first thoughts were "how much does that cost to run" and "can we afford it after a few years out of the premier" |
Going down is now not an option on any level ever. | | | |
| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 08:58 - Oct 9 with 167 views | NthQldITFC |
| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 08:39 - Oct 9 by WolfieAtTheBack |
Going down is now not an option on any level ever. |
What, not even if I take you to Nandos first? |  |
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| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 09:15 - Oct 9 with 155 views | gramps |
| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 21:33 - Oct 8 by jasondozzell |
You're right.
KM 's legacy is everywhere you look in the club. |
I wonder if KM has been invited to look round the finished project yet? |  |
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| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 09:15 - Oct 9 with 155 views | GeoffSentence |
| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 08:58 - Oct 9 by NthQldITFC |
What, not even if I take you to Nandos first? |
Wish I could uppie this multiple times
Made I laugh | |
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| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 09:28 - Oct 9 with 139 views | WolfieAtTheBack |
| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 08:58 - Oct 9 by NthQldITFC |
What, not even if I take you to Nandos first? |
Not with my knees. | | | |
| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 09:36 - Oct 9 with 126 views | ITFC_Essex |
Have you and darkhorse exchanged meds. |  |
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| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 09:47 - Oct 9 with 108 views | The_Flashing_Smile |
Wowsers, you're normally one of the most positive posters on the football side jd, it's like you saved up all your negativity for this!
I won't up or down arrow you though. It's a well written piece and I do get where you're coming from. I just think it amounts to "we're old and we're a bit scared of change". I'm hoping you're old anyway!
Yeah it's a shame you have to throw so much money at it to compete these days, but it is what it is. Keep moving or get left behind. On balance I think I prefer this to the Evans era. |  |
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| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 09:51 - Oct 9 with 100 views | Ruby |
Kind of agree with the OP. Wouldn't want to sound ungrateful as it's clearly a brilliant setup, but it is a bit soulless. The black cladding looks sharp around the edge of Portman Rd and really helps the place look more up-to-date. Here it's just so generic and could belong to anyone. Not much style or fun in there . Bit like Ashton - incredible achievements but a bit of a corporate cliché. |  | | |
| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 10:25 - Oct 9 with 61 views | RobTheMonk |
God forbid we actually see investment into the club which in turn will attract higher calibre of players and staff...
Don't forget where we were in League 1 under Evans. |  | | |
| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 10:48 - Oct 9 with 46 views | FrimleyBlue |
"But the other news this week, of KM's first interview post departure, was somehow more meaningful than the training ground reveal"
Sorry but no, not for those that support the club and didn't fall into the KM is god trap. |  |
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| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 10:50 - Oct 9 with 35 views | jasondozzell |
| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 10:48 - Oct 9 by FrimleyBlue |
"But the other news this week, of KM's first interview post departure, was somehow more meaningful than the training ground reveal"
Sorry but no, not for those that support the club and didn't fall into the KM is god trap. |
But he is God, isn't he?! | | | |
| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 11:04 - Oct 9 with 20 views | E_I_E_I_E_I_O |
Lot's of valid points. However it's the way the game and indeed the world has gone. To stay at the top you have to compete like those at the top. So we have no choice to build as we have to be right up they're. That is not to say you lose certain aspects but to be annoyed about that would be due to nostalgia bias. |  | | |
| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 11:14 - Oct 9 with 4 views | TVRBlue |
| Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 09:15 - Oct 9 by GeoffSentence |
Wish I could uppie this multiple times
Made I laugh |
Me too! |  | | |
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