Burns: We Can Still Win the League
Thursday, 16th Sep 2021 10:26

Despite Town's miserable start to the new season new boy Wes Burns remains in confident mood and has even insisted: “We can still win the league.”

The Blues are sitting in 22nd place in League One without a win in any of their six league games this season and have also lost in both the Carabao Cup and EFL Trophy, making it eight outings without a victory.

Tuesday night’s 2-1 home defeat to West Ham’s U21 side was the latest setback for manager Paul Cook as he looks to find the winning formula that his much-changed side have been unable to find so far this term.

But ex-Fleetwood player Burns, 26, is confident that better times are ahead. He knows the longer Town have to wait to record their much-need first win of the season, the more likely fans are to air their frustration, as some did after Saturday’s 5-2 hammering by Bolton at Portman Road.

Burns said: “As a team we may be lacking a bit of confidence but with the calibre of player that we’ve brought in this summer we are still looking for our first win.

“I’ve said it myself in the dressing room and I’ve said it to the coaches as well — we just need a game where we might not play particularly well and it’s not a great game either, but we score a scruffy goal in the 90th minute and we go away with a 1-0 win.

“That’s the type of result that we need at the moment to kick-start our season. We have not won in eight games now, including the cup games, and Tuesday night was very disappointing.

“In terms of the confidence, we all know we have the quality of players to go on and win this league if we can sort out the problems that we do have.”

Cardiff-born Burns, a Welsh U21 international, was the first of Cook’s 19 signings in the summer transfer window, arriving in early June. He added: “I was the first one through the door and at the time the squad was very thin. When I first came into training there were only six, seven or eight of us in there and that was including players from last year.

“At the time, looking around, we were very thin on the ground. But the project that was described to me by the manager and Mark Ashton, when they got in touch with me over the summer, was really a no-brainer for me. I wanted to be a part of what they were building.

“It was a transfer window like no other for the club. Like I said, when I came in for the first couple of weeks there was only a handful of us and we couldn’t really put on proper football technical sessions because of the lack of numbers.

“We were drafting in younger players from the U23s to bolster the numbers so it was also a pre-season like no other as far as I was concerned.

“It was very strange because week by week we were adding new faces — one here, a couple there — and it was constant like that until the window closed at the end of last month.

“A new face would appear from time and it was like a breath of fresh air as we saw the squad taking shape. As the weeks went by the squad was going from strength to strength as each signing was made.

“It was literally a case of going from one day to the next virtually knowing another new player would be coming in. We were all in the same boat, not knowing the area and trying to find places to live, so that made it easier for the players to bed themselves in.

“We were all going out for food and coffees together, chatting away and comparing notes on how we were getting on with finding the best places to live in the area.

“The fact that we were all total strangers in unfamiliar surroundings seemed to make the settling-in process that bit easier.

“It’s still an ongoing process and each house that comes on the market is proving to be of interest to a lot of the lads. We can all see each other refreshing the estate agents’ websites to try to be first with the latest news on what’s available.

“We’ve even been to view some of the same houses. People are coming into the dressing room saying they went to view a house and the other guys are all asking where it was. When they hear its location there are lads saying ‘Yes, I went to see that one’ and stuff like that. It’s been a bit of fun at times.”

Photo: Matchday Images

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Len_Brennan added 08:40 - Sep 17

@Cat. Fair enough, that a reasonable post & the kind that I am more than happy to see on here & discuss/debate.
Maybe I was too reactionary in my previous post, but just like you I love this club & want so much better for Ipswich Town; I feel too often any healthy debate is discarded in favour of quick ad hominems & so the points are lost.
You are fully entitled to your opinion & to express it on here as often as you like, and I'll look forward to reading it and disagreeing with it from time to time.
On this particular issue, I do disagree with your comment on Monkey's ifs & maybes - I think it was a perfectly valid take in the circumstances he outlined - i.e. Cook has asserted that Morsy (in particular) & Celina were his key signings and that everything will come right when they are in the team. But there was a real doubt over whether we would be able to sign them & that is according to Cook himself & the CEO; we only got them in at the 11th hour & neither has been available so far due to injury/illness/suspension. Monkey is asking where we be & what would Cook's plan be now IF they hadn't managed to get those deals over the line? What if Middlesbrough hadn't managed to sign the other midfielder which only Morsy to leave - that was out of their hands - and what if Celina hadn't gotten the ok from his cardiologist? We had presumably signed Barry on the basis that Celina was a non-runner this time. How confident would you be in Cook's mere 17 signings to get us into the top 6 without those two 11th hour signings?
I believe Cook has been naive & reckless since he arrived here & his decision/actions are responsible for us being 3rd bottom & 12 points off Sunderland (10 off Wigan) after just 6 league games; not to mention out of 2 cups (probably the Papa Johns) that we should have been able to have a good run at this season.
Can we get it together & rise up the table? Of course we can & with this squad we should still have a shot at promotion; but already we are ruling out automatic & many are already talking about next season; there is a real debate to be had over Paul Cook's handling of his job & his ability to turn it around.

bluearmy81 added 08:49 - Sep 17 Yes Wes we can . Only if we win 30 out of remaining 40 games lol. At this rate we'll be doing well to win 10 all season
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herfie added 09:46 - Sep 17

The risk the owners have to assess is: do we retain confidence in PC's ability to achieve the goals he's been set relative to our investment; or must we conclude that, sadly, the job's too big for him. If the former, then patience is the most important factor. If the latter, then is there a high quality, proven, alternative prepared to come in (and possibly risk career/reputation in doing so?

By no means easy. Bringing a new manager, coaching staff and other back room staff causes massive disruption, with no guarantee of a better outcome. But, if it ends up being inevitable, based upon continuing poor results, then better it be done sooner rather than later - giving us a fighting chance of getting something out of this season. Or, stick with PC and accept that this season might turn out to be one of slow build, trial and error and a degree of supporters' frustration and loss of belief.