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Comment | Portman Road Ground Rent Talks Continue
at 00:50:39
I am in full support of IBC's stance on this. They quite rightly have to treat ITFC as they would any other local business, in terms of its obligations to them. Indeed, I suspect that preferential treatment may have already been given to the club, because it clearly was not being presented with the rate rises it probably should have faced when the situation at the club was financially dire (although one can still not be sure we're on safe ground even now). IBC will no doubt look at the kind of salaries being paid at Portman Road and deducing that the ability to pay is indeed in place, if the club so desires. This whole very ugly affair amply demonstrates that the club is no longer maintaining the sort of links Mr Sheepshanks and his predecessors worked so hard to achieve. And as for verbal promises by the late Mr Hehir, well imagine what the club would say if I told them that a deceased member of staff had promised me a free season ticket. So ugly. |
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Comment | Portman Road Ground Rent Talks Continue
at 16:05:03
Congratulations, this is an absolutely superb article. One can only hope, pray indeed, that Messrs Evans and Clegg will read it. Perhaps you should post it to both of them to make sure they do.
Thr truth is that the new regime, if we can still call it new, has singularly failed to grasp the Ipswich ethos, which has served the club well for generations.
It all starts with youth. At the 2009 shareholders meeting, Mr Clegg declared the intention to create "a world class youth academy". How I wish I had stood up and asked him when our academy stopped being world class...
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Comment | QPR Linked With Bullard Move
at 23:47:31
I simply don't think he is in our price range.
You also have to remember his injury history and age is not on his side.
In summary, an awesome loan option, but not a good financial fit for a permanent move.
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Comment | Clegg: Season Ticket Deadline Non-Negotiable
at 23:38:57
I'm dismayed by the attitude of some on here that it's a simple matter of making your mind up and paying up. No way is that the case for many, many people. For those either too wealthy to worry about it, or with their heads up their backsides for the past three or four years, these are extraordinarily tough times for most families, who have watched their financial situations deteriorate massively, at the same time as Prem and Championship players worry about what to do with all their money.
The harsh tone coming out of Portman Road today is, to my mind, completely out of step with the needs of fans. Season ticket deadlines were almost traditionally put back under the old regime, who seemed to much better understand that many supporters needed as much time as they can to be happy that they can afford their seats.
The club attitude suddenly seems to be "if you can't afford it, then we don't need you as a supporter" - whatever one thinks of that personally, it would be difficult to deny that this is a high risk strategy for a club that has underperformed for half a decade and, despite the arrival of a fine new manager, still has one hell of a mountain to climb to get promoted.
I'd say ITFC needs all the fans it can get. Playing hardball with supporters is not the way to win friends. |
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Comment | Clegg: Season Ticket Deadline Non-Negotiable
at 16:56:13
blueblood66 - you need to remember that with the high prices of tickets and the cost of living rising so steeply, many fans really struggle to juggle their financial priorities. The more time the club gives them, the better informed they become. Let's not also forget that season ticket sales have only been this early for a few years - that decision was made in a much more favourable economic climate. I'd say the club really needs to think about this whole issue more than it apparently is willing to. A PR disaster, yet again. |
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Comment | Clegg: Season Ticket Deadline Non-Negotiable
at 16:52:36
I live in the States, so this doesn't affect me. Nonetheless as a plc shareholder and former long-time season ticket holder, his attitude sucks. It seems they'll give a manager (Keane) at least half a season more than he deserved to put things right, but hard-up fans don't get any second chances. Clegg simply doesn't know how to deal with the fans at all - in Sheepy's time they were always extending the deadline. SC is in the same league as Keane's management skills .i.e. way out of his depth. |
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Comment | Keane: News on Stead\'s Bristol City Move Today
at 09:17:07
I agree with comments that the apparently bargain-basement selling price does not necessarily reflect the potentially very high salary we might save by selling Steady, but he has made such a strong start to the campaign, it begs the question can we afford not to have him in the side? On the other side of the coin, is the sudden improvement in quality more of an advertisement to interested teams? |
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Comment | Mariner Apologises to Keane
at 06:23:21
Just watched Leicester and Coventry. Great example of how to change things in the dressing room at half time. Too late when the final whistle has blown. |
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Comment | Mariner Apologises to Keane
at 05:12:04
No problems Wadzillabhoy. I was a huge fan of Keane as a player, the only issue being the amount of time he spent dodging prawn sandwiches at Man U :-) I think he has many qualities we need, but for a guy that is not completely inexperienced as a manager, as Jim was, I think he makes far too many basic mistakes and is way too candid and careless with the press. It seems to me that the successful managers in this division quietly go about with their jobs. Keane, being who he is, will never be able allowed to do that, of course. As a consequence we are now universally labelled as "Roy Keane's Ipswich" and the owner is getting great media exposure out of it, which I suspect is part of his gameplan. On balance, I think he will probably see out his contract with us. Where it goes from then entirely depends on his ability to make this dreadful season we have endured all but forgotten. My basic point is that I don't think we have a very cohesive dressing room - probably something that has been lacking since Sheepy kicked BFJ into touch. |
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Comment | Mariner Apologises to Keane
at 14:57:31
And one more point, if Keane had better control of that dressing room playing standards might not be so erratic. If there is a player power problem at the club, seems to me he isn't totally on top of it. |
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Comment | Mariner Apologises to Keane
at 14:41:08
Wadzillabhoy, actually I never said Keane's job was easy. I want him to succeed but I don't think he always makes his own life easy when he says certain things. Yes I remember the Robson punch up story, but as you say a different era when you could also legally choke your co-workers by smoking in the office. It actually amazes me how people tend to regard football as being a law unto itself. In this day and age condoning hitting someone should not be acceptable. The point I made about Keano shouting was that things shouldn't have to sink to that level before problems are addressed. And actually I do think a Tesco manager works harder and has more responsibility on his/her shoulders, but that wasn't the point I was making. To answer your question, been going to Portman Road since age 4 in late 60's and a season ticket holder until leaving the UK. |
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Comment | Mariner Apologises to Keane
at 21:17:48
The point is that Keane should be sorting out any prima donnas long before it descends into an after match rant. The manager of a Tesco branch is charged with achieving peak performance from his staff and uses far more sophisticated techniques to achieve that than Keane is apparently demonstrating. This is all fire fighting in a season of horrendous under achievement in terms of consistency and wins. |
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Comment | Mariner Apologises to Keane
at 19:26:57
There's no question our club's future remains in the balance. Even though we have overcome our immediate day to day financial worries, the fact is that if Marcus Evans tires of spending money with no return, i.e. failing to get promoted, and walks, we will be in an even worse position than before his arrival. Although I now live 5000 miles away from Ipswich, I was born and bred there and was a long term season ticket holder until a couple of seasons ago. It really hurts to see how we have become a pawn in some sort of corporate plan that may, or may not, be to our long term benefit. For me, Ipswich Town was special when it was run by local people for local people. That was a philosophy that served us well for generations and then the wheels came off after we got drunk on the early and, as it proved, unsustainable form of our first year back in the Premiership. The fallout from that is still being felt and, although I have never questioned the sincerity of Mr Sheepshanks, I do wonder if he is regretting how the new regime seems to be sapping the club of the culture that made it so special. |
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Comment | Mariner Apologises to Keane
at 19:12:33
Agreed, Tractorog it probably did have some immediate impact but is it a sustainable way of getting the best from the team? Certainly our results have greatly improved overall, but we keep having really bad games like Peterborough and Watford. Then we get reports of fire and brimstone in the dressing room after the match, it improves for a game or three and then the same poor form rears its head again. It has happened so often this season, that one inescapably begins to think that players are responding to a rollicking, rather than adapting their game on a permanent basis. And Yorkshire, I take your point about Clough and SAF, but we are talking about a different level of football in those cases. I don't recall them ever being in a championship relegation fight. I still want RK to succeed, but I do think when he starts condoning physical contact between managers and players that he is fanning the flames of his critics, many of whom regard him as an ill-fit at Portman Road. |
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Comment | Mariner Apologises to Keane
at 05:57:14
Firstly I want to say what a well put together blog, excellently written. However, I think it's fair to say that Keane has brought in a good number of players since arriving here and so the argument about problems in the dressing room last season continuing into this season is somewhat negated by that. I have written elsewhere that it is the lack of loyalty of players, so many of whom are on loan, that contributes more than anything else to dressing room issues. But the bottom line is that the manager has to sort this out on a day to day basis, he's had plenty of time to do it and it doesn't bode well that he is still trying to get the motivation right as we enter the final phase of an underwhelming season with relegation still a real danger. |
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Comment | Magilton and Town Set for Court
at 09:13:48
italiano, what chances of us finishing as high in the table this season? Oh, I suppose that's all Jim's fault too.... |
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Comment | Magilton and Town Set for Court
at 09:12:00
This is a disturbing development. Our club has NEVER operated in a fast and loose fashion and if the manager is sacked he should be paid what he is owed - that's the way it always should work. Not good for the morale of the present manager either, especially considering our precarious position. |
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