Columnist Karl Fuller on Gareth McAuley's likely exit and Roy Keane's transfer business in general.

News today that Gareth McAuley has been told that he can leave the club adds another curious dimension to the long-term Roy Keane plan. There is without a doubt divided opinion on what exactly McAuley brings to the team but somewhere within the man, there is a capability to perform at Championship level.

After all, he is an international player and was coveted by Jim Magilton for many months before he finally secured his signature on the back of Leicester City's relegation in May 2008. If the Foxes had stayed up, then it is very doubtful as to whether McAuley would have even made it to Portman Road.

But McAuley’s seemingly imminent departure is not the first to raise the eyebrows of a number of Town fans and probably won’t be the last. The question nagging away in the back of my mind though, is will there be a better replacement this time around?

Having yet to see Leadbitter, Edwards or Rosenior, I cannot comment on what they might bring to the party. But I remain both disappointed and confused by some other exchanges of personnel that I really do not believe have been for the better of the team (but then who am I compared to Roy Keane?).

For example, take any one of Dan Harding, Matt Richards or Ben Thatcher. Is Damien Delaney any better? Should a Macedonian international with more than 50 caps really have been sold only to be replaced with a player approaching 30 years of age and playing in the League of Ireland? Has Lee Martin proved to be worth the fee of around £1.7 million that we reportedly paid for him?

At least with the sale of Jordan Rhodes, in the middle of the disappointment of it all, we really did get good money for someone that had made only a handful of appearances.

It is all very well having scouting/coaches reports on potential new signings, but I believe you gauge a better picture of supporters from the selling/releasing club involved of the player concerned and I did not enjoy what the Queen’s Park Rangers supporters were saying when it was known that Delaney was going to be on his way to us. No manager, of course, would go on such comments when thinking about potential deals, but if anyone knows how well a certain player plays on a week-in, week-out basis, then surely the fans have a more consistent knowledge than anyone else.

I really hope that things do work out for Keane and I am fully behind him, but can't help thinking that we are a club waiting to fall with a bang simply because of the hype that surrounded the manager's appointment, which in itself is nobody's fault other than the media.

It certainly is none of our fault and it is depressing when work colleagues are quick to remind me when we have not won again that they knew/hoped Keane would fail so that they can laugh at me like the days of administration.

The new Rosenior-Edwards partnership on the right was well received on Tuesday night and I believe that partnerships all over the field need to be quickly developed to form the basis of a winning side. Older fans will reminisce and say that we have not had a centre-back pairing since the days of Beattie and Hunter and then Butcher and Osman.

As special as those pairings were, it is safe to say that we have struggled for years now in the centre-back area and really do need to find two that can play well together consistently.

In midfield, have we really replaced the Magilton-Holland partnership? And as for up front, we are still waiting for a partnership of the Darren Bent-Kuqi mould.

But down the left, we are weaker than ever before in my opinion. Certainly since the days of Taricco and Mason. We do still have Civelli to return and he showed a glimpse of why Magilton paid as much as he did for him last season. But I would like to think that we have resolved many of our problems long before he has returned to the side.

Leadbitter looks to be a good signing and I guess we might have to wait until Norris is back to get something going in the middle of the park of note. It's a pity Garvan has not developed as much as his early form promised and he like McAuley and others before him no doubt will soon be shown the exit door and it will remain to be seen if the long-term plan comes to fruition and what RK is really trying to do works out or not.

Photo: Action Images

legoman added 20:32 - Sep 17 Devon. Very experienced managers usually go to prem teams. Great ex players with some experience are sought after by ambitious ccc or even league one clubs. We got the biggest of them all and the most determined and ambitious of the all. As far as getting on with people and players, if your good enough your his mate, the rest is the future!
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Bluetone added 20:40 - Sep 17 devontractorboy in your contributions you have saved me the trouble of posting my self-same views. I feel in many respects RK is/has a flawed petulant character.
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legoman added 20:53 - Sep 17 Bluetone. Everybody has (unless they're boring).
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dantown added 21:30 - Sep 17 Reality check people.. Has everyone forgotten just how bad it's been over the last few years ? What keane, evans & clegg are trying to do for this club is fantastic. We were nothing more that a very average ccc with very average players. We are at the start of a massive rebuilding process & that takes time & things will get worse before they get better. All the money in the world will not provide a quick fix for us.. Keep the faith my blue friends, next season we will be a force. In the meantime let get behind them all !!

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bluepeter added 21:36 - Sep 17
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Lightningboy added 23:27 - Sep 17 Agree with just about everything said by the columnist there,tho I think the Mowbray/Venus partnership was a good one...hopefully Norris/Leadbitter will sort things out in the middle but can we wait til Norris is fit again - surely it's time to bring in someone on loan to fill the gap? Keane needs to decide on his best 11 and stick with it thru thick and thin - not til he finds a win cos that could go on for weeks and even I could do that as manager.

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Dogsy40 added 23:34 - Sep 17 Roy Keane has done NOTHING wrong this year at all except talk up our chances of success this season. His plans for the club are clearly bigger than even he expected and it will take more than a few weeks pres season and beer for the team to gel together or for Roy to get his desired team on the park. McAauley, plays well for country but has no passion for town. Rhodes, banging them in at League 1 level, great and good luck to him but the clubs striking saviour I think not. Shumi, same as McAualey Martin, give the kid a go!! We are 6-7 games in! Fans just can't admit that the hype of RK gave them the assumption we were a big club with an automatic right to play premier league. We are no different to the other 20 odd clubs in this division, Roy Keane or not. When we head back up to the promised land at least I know I was supporting the club every step of the way. Go you blues. Ps Good article.

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bluelass7 added 00:19 - Sep 18 Let's put this nice and simple. a) 2 year plan to the PL (although RK said pre season aim was this season, but what manager wouldn't?) b) Us blues take RK's year 1 ambitions - So some are calling for his head because we haven't won a game. Yeah that's disappointing but it's early days which leads me on to "c" c) "We need a settled 11" - Why? If, as suspected it's not all about getting promoted this season but finding the foundations and removing the damp then so be it. d) By Xmas I would be surprised if the damp has not been removed and that foundations have not grown into the building awaiting the topping out come January of the waterproof roof to stop leakage. e) If by then we have climbed up the table then great - Pushing for a play off place? Maybe. f) No promotion - Not so bad, it's a 2 year plan. g) End of year 1 - Sounds like we are going to be pretty strong, settled and able to attract who know we will do it. In fact I hope we go up year 2. With any luck the scum will get promoted this year.....So that's 6 points already next season!!! Please keep the faith guys and don't judge the squad or Keano, that's Keano's job. I'm sure they get enough pressure to perform, for the right reasons, from RK. Keano has some strange ways and he is still learning but one thing is for sure....He's a winner and he will only put winners in his team when he knows who the real foundation players and the damp ones are. One last thing. People hark on about he has had all pre season, and the 2 games end of last to sort his "settled" team out. Think about it.....If you were any player in our squad you would work your nuts off during this period. Problem for some of them is sustaining it. This is what the first 5-10 games of the season will show RK - And as we are now seeing this is exactly what is starting to happen.

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FormerlyCGS added 01:37 - Sep 18 norris is one of the best centre midfielders in this league (by best i def fink in the top 7or8). when he and leadbitter play a run of games together, rosenior and edwards form an amazing partnership, potentially we have the capabilities to climb the table, i just pray it happens soon or were gonna be inn the sh*t
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campowasgod added 08:33 - Sep 18 22,000 people went to see our 3 new signings on Tuesday but not this guy .. Unfortunately he would not have seen Delaney play on Tuesday otherwise comparisons with Harding , Thatcher and Richards would not have been made . Also he writes a long winded essay titled 'the real deals?' and does not even mention our biggest transfer and probably most expensive signing for several years in Priskin. After reading an article on Roy Keane's Transfer Business there is only one thing that I am left wondering ... What about Roy Keane's Transfer Business?

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Karl_Fuller added 10:04 - Sep 18 Within the majority of the comments to this article, it just about sums up Ipswich fans at the moment. Some are praising the column some aren't which is fine but as long as whatever camp you are in, you should respect that this is one persons opinions whether they are right or wrong. campowasgod - your comment re the 22000 going on Tuesday but this guy didn't. So what? Does that mean he cannot comment on having not seen the three new players play? He was just one of more Ipswich fans not at the game than were there and it makes me laugh when people comment on anyone who does not attend games like they are not entitled to be Ipswich fans and more importantly not have an opinion on the state of affairs at the club. Who knows what his commitments are like many others that do not attend every game. Finally, I suspect that he did not title the column himself and was probably left to Phil to do this. I don't see any of the knockers on any of our columnists put anything together themselves for the rest of us to judge their opinions which of course would still command my respect by the way. Good article Karl by the way.

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