Town have announced the 12 players who will be featured on the pillars which run through the Sir Alf Ramsey Stand concourse with legend John Wark having topped the voting.

Almost 2,000 season ticket holders responded to the club’s request for votes on “icons, heroes, legends of the club [from] across the years” to be featured on the pillars.

Wark is joined by Mick Mills, Terry Butcher, Kevin Beattie, Paul Mariner, George Burley, Frans Thijssen and Arnold Muhren from the FA and UEFA Cup-winning Sir Bobby Robson era, while Sir Alf Ramsey’s First and Second Division championship-winning team is represented by Ray Crawford with his strike partner Ted Phillips having finished just outside the top 12.

Matt Holland was second in the voting and Marcus Stewart and Jim Magilton, his colleagues in the team which was promoted in 1999/00 and then finished fifth in the Premier League the following season, are also in the 12.

Current skipper Luke Chambers was the player from the current era closest to the 12, finishing 15th.

The tributes to the 12 are expected to be in place by the end of the season as Portman Road undergoes a makeover.

The stairwells in the Sir Bobby Robson Stand and the Sir Alf Ramsey Stand are set to feature club graphics and the club’s history is to be portrayed in the windows at the back of the Cobbold Stand over the summer.

Other iconic players will feature on flags which will be put in place next week in the Sir Alf Ramsey Stand concourse, while a Legends of Ipswich Town mural is already in place in the Sir Bobby Robson Stand"".

The Top 12
1 John Wark
"2 Matt Holland
3 Mick Mills
"4 Terry Butcher"
5 Paul Mariner"
6 Kevin Beattie
7 George Burley"
8 Ray Crawford"
9 Arnold Muhren"
10 Frans Thijssen"
11 Marcus Stewart
12 Jim Magilton

Photo: Action Images/ITFC

midastouch added 15:39 - Feb 27 Excellent choices there.
1

midastouch added 15:40 - Feb 27 Hard to believe Eric Gates didn't make it though, what a player! He made our team tick linking up so many of the attacks.
2

terryf added 15:45 - Feb 27 I agree with 10 of the selections but would have included both Bill Baxter and Allan Hunter in my 12 at the expense of Jim Magilton and Kevin Beattie. In Kevin's case only because he is having a statue erected in his honour. Anyone who watched Ipswich in the 60s and 70s would certainly select Baxter and Hunter. Two exceptional centre halves. Bobby Robson said that Allan Hunter was his best bit of transfer business and I wouldn't disagree.

2

Super_Cooper added 16:23 - Feb 27 Rightly so that Matt Holland and Mick Mills are in there as Captains of great teams that won something, Andy Nelson of the '62 Division 1 winning side should also be involved. IMHO.
2

multiplescoregasms added 16:25 - Feb 27 So just the 8 players from the same era then. Think that says a lot about us as a club. Although I have no issue with who has been selected, I picked a handful of them myself, I am surprised that Ted Phillips didn't make it over lesser players. 11 years at the club and over 150 goals should surely get him in that list, especially over someone say Marcus Stewart. As for our captain being 15th, well that's just wrong. Nice bloke I am sure, but not an iconic player of the clubs history for me.

3

alanmason added 17:49 - Feb 27 Big Al, Big Al, Big Al !
1

Oldsmoker added 18:03 - Feb 27 Have we missed a trick? Making Tony Mowbray one of the legends might have enticed him to come and be our manager.
0

SpiritOfJohn added 18:17 - Feb 27 12 great players but any poll like this undervalues the contributions made by those who played before most of the voters were born. John Elsworthy played over 400 games and won championship medals in every league as Ipswich rose through the divisions, so he should have been an automatic selection.
2

readtheleaguetable added 19:03 - Feb 27 This list is very post-Ramsey-era centric. Ted Phillips just HAS to be in the top dozen of Ipswich players. His scoring prowess will never be touched again, and his team won The Championship of England, which Is a feat which will never be matched. My thought is that Beattie, our best player ever, has his statue already, which is the biggest honour, and people probably took that into account by leaving him so low down this list. So I humbly suggest letting Kevin's statue speak for itself and replacing him on his pillar with the mighty Ted.

2

cooper4england added 19:43 - Feb 27 Surprised Burley hasn't featured more, not just as a player but as the manager too
1

mickeyjb added 21:13 - Feb 27 Ray Crawford was at my sons match at Fareham Town (he used to be the manager many years back) this past Saturday and when I spoke to him he had no idea about this endeavour. I said I had voted for him so I'm made up that he has made into the final 12.
1

braintree_blue10 added 23:26 - Feb 27 As the pillars are square, why can't we have 4 for each, one every side of the pillar, that would enable 48 players at least, over 100 years of history, there are some wonderful players worth a mention
1

dirtydingusmagee added 09:31 - Feb 28 itfchorry KVY ? How the hell can you put him there, he hasnt been here 5 mins and been injured most of time, the other players are legends from era we are unlikely ever to see again . NO DISRESPECT to KVY..
1

dirtydingusmagee added 09:42 - Feb 28 good to see these great players recognised ,shame its only a few of many,But it got those of us long time supporters remembering good times and great players, players that gave all for the shirt, not swanning around picking up a good wage for half hearted performance as many do now. Anyway.........any plans to have a statue of Paul Lambert ? thought not .
0

superblues9 added 02:30 - Feb 29 How was it not Marshall Diallo Santos Le pen Campo Martin George Axeldal Paz Parkin Ellington Come on
0

Sixto6 added 10:00 - Feb 29 I'm embarrassed for the people that mention Chambers in the breath when talking about Warky and the other club legends ! He might be a top bloke but he's a bang average Footballer that has guided us down to our lowest !
0

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