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The last few days, I have been unpacking the last 20 years of football in my head. It might be sad, but I have followed Ipswich since I was a little boy and it's been a big part of my life.
One thing that I have realised is, the Evans years, after Magic was wrongly booted out, and outside of Mick getting blood from a stone and giving us a little hope, hurt me. It turned my love for this club sour, and I lost a lot of feeling for it, I was a zombie and got no enjoyment from it. I showed up, but I wasn't there. I knew the result before the ball was kicked and it had gone from misery to just numbness, with occasional anger when Lambo was appointed and sank us.
That wasn't Ipswich, was it?
That was nothing like us. Evans had turned us into a passenger, a club totally unrecognisable from the one built by the Cobbolds, Ramsay, Robson and Burley. We no longer competed for anything, had nothing to take pride in, we neither played attractive football or aspired to do better on any front. Any player we had with a glimpse of talent was sold for the first good offer. The ground was falling apart. The owner didn't care, and that reflected through everything we did and ultimately, us.
Now I couldn't feel any more different. Ipswich, have spent as much time in the top divisions as it has the second tier over the last five years - when could we last say that! We have an ownership, and CEO trying to build something here, we've been aspirational in our signings, we've had two managers now getting us playing good, Ipswich style football. We're part of the conversation again, it's nearly November and relegation isn't a certainty either.
We've celebrated three promotions on the pitch, we've played two seasons in the Premier League, we have beaten the likes of Spurs and Chelsea, we have a fkn World Cup winner in our squad! One of our recently departed stars is now becoming much loved at AC Milan. The ground is full, the third kits are routinely black and it's brilliant.
I love our club.(unpacking the trauma) on 15:54 - Oct 29 by ITFC_Essex
If you'd have asked me in 2019 what our future held, I would have probably said we would have ended up like Oldham and Swindon!
Oldham and Swindon
Both of whom many will remember playing in the top flight. Oldham in their second season there (after decades out) becoming, like us, inaugral members of the Premier League. Swindon got there twice in the 90's but had broken league rules first time so not promoted. Got there for a year under Hoddle though.
Other teams who played top division football in my lifetime that may surprise a few (depending on how old they are!) Bristol City Cardiff City Blackpool Northampton Town Leyton Orient Huddersfield Carlisle Notts County
I love our club.(unpacking the trauma) on 15:54 - Oct 29 by ITFC_Essex
If you'd have asked me in 2019 what our future held, I would have probably said we would have ended up like Oldham and Swindon!
I thought we were certainties for L2 or lower. I actually felt that the club would have to fold and be reborn. It would have been but it’d have take many more years than the few it took once dementor Evens slithered away.
It wasn’t so much that he had no idea what to do with the club. It was that somehow he had drained the soul, the very life and identity from it. If asked who I followed I’d answer Ipswich Town with a resigned grin and a follow up of ‘we are cr@p but somebody has got to’. Heart breaking that we’d gone from just about the most astonishing evening at Portman Road I ever witnessed:
To decay, decline and disinterest. Now we’ve had the fun and celebrations posted above. Nights like Southampton and Sarmiento and afternoons like Sunderland and Fulham.
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