 | News
Comment | Lap of Appreciation After Swansea Match
at 14:11:51
A lap of appreciation, considering the failures off and on the pitch this season, does seem a little strange and undeserving. It felt strange in recent seasons when we were applauding a mid-table finish, it'll feel disingenuous doing it following our relegation, likely at the bottom of the table. |
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Comment | Batth Time for Town?
at 22:27:42
This would be a good signing, nice to see a bit of ambition from a club accused of throwing the baby out with the Batth water. |
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Comment | Wigan Winger Linked
at 11:13:02
He is a decent player, and only a few years ago was being tipped as the 'next big thing' at Sunderland. He would certainly offer an improvement out wide though. Yes, he naturally plays on the left, and it would be a shame to see Parr dropped because he's a consistent performer, but McClean can also play wide right too. That's the position we really need to fill as we don't seem to have a consistent threat down the right flank. As the article points out though, those wages will likely be a block on any potential move. Hopefully Evans loosens the purse strings and allows us to bring him in because I think he could make a difference. |
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Comment | Leeds United 2-1 Town - Match Report
at 22:24:48
I'm really disappointed with this result. 2015 has been a horrible year for us so far, we're looking inconsistent, stodgy, and completely unable to kill off sides and get points on the board at times. I know our promotion bid was always looking unlikely on paper, but we really needed a result here and I thought the starting formation was completely negative and the wrong way to approach this game. Why start both Luke Varney and Chris Wood up top when neither player can be considered 'match fit'? Sure, Sears and Murphy could do with a rest, considering the small size of our squad, but not both of them at the same time, surely? Having said that, Murphy had a real opportunity to score from the spot and get us the point we need. Murphy's form is really starting to concern me, hasn't looked himself the past few games and needs to get a goal soon, in anything for his confidence.
I don't mind too much about the defence. It's preferable to have a settled back four and I think defensively, on the whole, we've been decent this season. Our main issue with this side is in the midfield and the starting midfield today exemplified the worst aspects of Mick's tenure so far with its stuffy pragmatism and unnecessary conservatism.
We now have two 'must win' games against Brentford and Middlesbrough if we're to stay in this promotion race. How we're still in with a chance I don't know, and at least it was good to see Norwich slip up, especially after the cockiness of their fans recently. We cannot afford to be complacent because of the inconsistency of teams around us. I know we're lucky to be in with a shout of promotion, but with all these crazy results, this year offers a great opportunity for a top six finish. |
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Comment | Disappointing Result, But Can Some of Us Drop the Sense of Entitlement?
at 20:32:12
I agree that we are a side punching above our weight, so for some 'supporters' to stand up and boo at full time was not only petulant, but I thought very disrespectful considering these players have got us to where we are in the table. Mick didn't get his tactics right today, unfortunately it happens. As for the post-match comments, I'd always take media comments from managers and players with a pinch of salt. I'll expect he's very upset about the result, but he's hardly going to go on a massive rant and deconstruct our weaknesses in public, is he?
This side, his style of play, and his tactics are what have got us currently standing three points off the top. While I don't believe he, and the team, should be impervious to criticism, I find some of the comments today to be incredibly fickle and over the top. We should be supporting our players, especially when it's coming to a critical part of the season, not jeering and booing them every time we don't get three points. Today, I was slightly ashamed to be an Ipswich fan and I felt embarrassed for the players to hear the boos today. God knows what they were thinking at full time. |
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Comment | A Reflection
at 17:03:06
It's all well and good patting ourselves on the back (I was one of the few that stood by Mick with a blog posted days after the Norwich defeat), but as we all know, football is a fickle, old game, if we lose our next three games then the critics will be out again and McCarthy will be back 'under pressure'.
We'll be alright this year and there are some encouraging recent developments, not to mention the back-to-back wins. But some perspective is needed. We've been a lower-mid-table side for several years now and last season's impressive finish, under McCarthy, and the turnaround this campaign is offering us promising signs that we're heading into a more positive direction.
Yes the style of football can be dull, yes McCarthy has his favourites, which can divide and upset the fanbase but, ultimately, we're getting results and that should be the most important factor to consider when the more expectant and hopeful among us are expecting a play-off push. |
| Blog
Comment | Marcus Evans and Mr John
at 14:27:55
Mr Diddle,
Primarily, I understand there is a need to adhere to FFP, and it is encouraging that Marcus Evans is attempting to control the debt better, but I think our performances, and consistency, on the pitch are suffering as a result of this narrow-mindedness. Nonetheless, my main issue with Evans, and the people who run the club, is that they find it acceptable to promise progress, investment and promotion, in the effort to get more bums on seats, but fail to back this up with any action.
We, the supporters, were promised this summer that the Aaron Cresswell cash would be reinvested in the playing squad. This appears to refute any notion that the sale was necessary to balance the books or keep the club running. At the start of the summer, that money was expendable. Once again, we have spent nothing in transfer fees this transfer window, the investment didn't happen and I refuse to believe that money was needed to be pumped into our wage bill, which has been drastically cut lately. If there was a reason behind the scenes why the money was not reinvested, as originally promised, then I believe we should have been notified about this.
We were also promised the club would attain a Category One ranking, after the petition. The club even appealed for donations from supporters and local businesses to achieve this objective, and some people chipped in under the belief we will remain competitive in signing youth players. We failed to achieve the ranking and I refuse to ascribe to the belief that the FA failed us out of spite. With Norwich and the London clubs all under Category One rankings, they are siphoning the best local talent and I hoped the club would have taken it seriously. But not, I thought they handled the whole incident fairly poorly, particularly as Evans, a man who wants us to develop youngsters for our first team, initially settled for a Category Two rating.
Yes Marcus Evans has made mistakes, and we are paying for them, and will be for the foreseeable future. I hope the club would just level with supporters and explain more about the financial situation and to stop making promises that they don't appear overly-fussed about keeping. Regardless, my original complaint was about the Marcus Evans and John Cobbold comparison, and it's rather surprising to find people willing to draw similarities between one man who defines our club and the other who has done nothing particularly positive to it. |
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Comment | Marcus Evans and Mr John
at 22:41:30
Yes, we, the supporters, do not know the full state of our accounts. But in the wake of recent sales, sponsorship deals, ticketing prices etc, surely we can expect some level of investment in the club?
We can assume no money has been made available for transfers because Mick McCarthy has repeatedly said over the summer that he has no transfer budget.
You're deluded if you think you cannot get good players for around £500,000. Our rivals have been adding to their squads through similarly priced deals involving some very promising talent and established Championship-class players. Not that these players would necessarily fit into our team, but we could have had the likes of Luke Freeman, Andre Gray, David Stockdale, James Husband, Conor Coady, Billy Sharp or James Tavernier, all good footballers, who cost in the region of £500,000. |
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Comment | Marcus Evans and Mr John
at 22:08:45
Fair points raised cwb91, but I'd have to disagree.
Personally, I find a comparison to John Cobbold, a man who has done a lot for this football club and oversaw many years of success, to be contrived. Yes, we can point to a few similarities, such as Marcus Evans provides support to his managers, but most chairmen across the world do this to some degree. I agree that Evans was rash in sacking Jim Magilton, a mistake with hindsight, but his trigger-happy approach to hiring and firing managers flies in the face of the club's tradition. Either that, or he has a poor judgement when it comes to appointing managers, a charge that cannot really be levelled at Cobbold.
While Mick may have 'free reign' to an extent, he's been cut off in the transfer market. I refuse to believe we have no money to spend. Remember when the board told us the cash from the Aaron Cresswell sale would be available to reinvest in signings? We've not seen a penny of that so far. We've dramatically cut our wage bill, we haven't spent hardly anything on a player for a little under two years, and we recently signed a sponsorship deal with Adidas and not to mention the ridiculous overpricing of match day tickets. Surely this amounts to a little spending power in the transfer market? I wouldn't be so annoyed if all the PR and talk about promotion coming from Portman Road would be toned down.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating splashing out millions of pounds on players like we saw with the largesse of the Roy Keane years. But I would expect, for a club that wants to progress and build on last season's achievements, some money for the odd £250k-£500k deal to become available.
Youth spending is exempt, that didn't stop the club asking for donations from supporters and local businesses, but we failed to achieve Category One status. I know some people blame the FA; some blame the Premier League, some blame the board, but the bottom line is that our focus on youth spending and development was undermined by something the club failed to do. The buck, surely, stops at Marcus Evans on that count. |
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Comment | Marcus Evans and Mr John
at 19:26:06
Thanks for your reply Harry.
Yeah, I do think Evans realises that in Mick McCarthy he has a more experienced and talented manager than he was used to working with. I just wish Evans would back McCarthy with the money that will make promotion a more realistic ambition. McCarthy can spend cash wisely; it's how he took up Wolves. At the start of the window, I thought the relationship between manager and owner may have been slightly strained. I remember seeing McCarthy's press conferences and how he seemed grudgingly understanding of the budgetary constraints and the non-existent transfer funds. Evans, and by extension, McCarthy, claim FFP hinders spending, as many cautious owners no doubt will. Yet while I'm aware FFP will undoubtedly change (or should change) how clubs operate, I don't think that is the sole precursor for Evans' recent frugality. He seems fairly lackadaisical to the club over the past couple of years, backed by his declining attendances and dramatically reduced spending.
Unlike some others on this site, I'm supportive of McCarthy and I totally foresee that by sacking McCarthy, as some fans claim Evans should do, and implementing the subsequent wide-ranging changes, will affect the club dearly in both a financial and immediate on-field sense. Hence why I, like any other rightful supporter, should hope Evans and McCarthy forge a decent and successful working relationship and hopefully events over the past couple of days should strengthen their working relationship and inspire some forward-thinking and ambition on the board's part.
I've been critical of Evans in the past and, in my opinion, he's done more harm than good to the club. But he's our owner and it looks like he's here to stay. Hopefully he can back McCarthy, forge that relationship we have been discussing and push us on to the next level after 13 long years in this division. |
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Comment | Marcus Evans and Mr John
at 18:29:49
Kudos for mentioning Susan Gardiner's (not Gardner's) book, Ipswich Town: A History. A must-read for any Town fan. |
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Comment | Marcus Evans and Mr John
at 18:25:39
This is an interesting and well-written blog, but I disagree on a few points, particularly with the overly-enthusiastic praise of Marcus Evans.
You write some very kind and accurate words about the late, great John Cobbold, but to make a comparison between our most charismatic, passionate and successful owner and Marcus Evans, who, if anything, has dragged our club further in debt and overseen a recent period of frugality and stagnation, isn't just disingenuous and tenuous, but incredibly hyperbolic.
To imply that Evans is echoing Cobbold's trademark trust in his judgement of managers, based on comments in a matchday programme, is also wildly inaccurate and a little contrived, in my opinion. Cobbold did not fire Jackie Milburn, the man resigned of his own volition. Cobbold kept the faith in Bill McGarry for four years while we played second tier football. We did eventually gain promotion but McGarry left for the Wolves job, note, he was not fired. In came Sir Bobby Robson, who was in the hotseat for 13 years until he left for the England job. Again, despite a very slow and uncertain start to his managerial career, he was not fired.
Evans, by comparison, fired Jim Magilton, Roy Keane and Paul Jewell (the latter two his appointments) and gave them roughly two years each before dispensing of their services. Yes, Cobbold was at times a financially cautious owner, but he backed Robson when the manager requested it, although Robson only signed fourteen players from other clubs in his Ipswich career. Evans had bankrolled Magilton, Keane and, to a lesser extent, Jewell, with Keane gaining the most of the financial entitlements. But over the last two years, the funds have dried up and Evans is now either reluctant, or completely unwilling to back McCarthy in the transfer window. We've spent £100,000 in transfer fees over the past two years, and that was all on Andy Wordsworth in January 2013. We have made substantial profit selling players, particularly Connor Wickham and Aaron Cresswell, money that has not been reinvested back into the squad. FFP has been brought up as the reason, and while it brings its constraints, it certainly does not warrant this frugality that other Championship clubs do not adhere to. Yes, Evans seems to back McCarthy by giving him the all-clear to turn down bids for our players with hours left of the transfer window to go, but the owner isn't backing his man with cold, hard cash.
The decision during the deadline day to rebuff bids for Tyrone Mings and David McGoldrick was, in my mind, a correct one. It is a welcome reversal that the club shows intention on keeping hold of our players rather than selling them to anybody waving a chequebook, as you rightly allude to. However, I don't think this is exclusively indicative of a hunky-dory, positive Evans and McCarthy's relationship. I think a large factor comes from the fact we have a small squad and the tabled bids came at a time that would leave us with mere hours to replace and, assuming the money is spent, reinvest the fees back into the squad. |
| News
Comment | McCarthy Delighted to Keep Duo
at 17:27:46
Personally, I think the club did the right thing in keeping the players, particularly as both offers were tabled with hours left of the transfer window. By selling McGoldrick and Mings at such short notice, and with the squad as short as it is, we'd be left in a difficult position until January. We don't have a lot of options, there's no immediate guarantee the money would have been reinvested, or that we would have signed somebody, and we inevitably would have relied far too heavily on the loan market.
Mings is a young player, and he has a lot of potential. The £2.5m bid, at this stage in his career, was an eye-opener, and Jonny Williams thrown in on loan for three months was not a bad sweetener. However, Mings is a defender with a lot of potential. For me, he was one of a couple of players (ironically the other being McGoldrick) to come out of the Norwich match with any credit. He's evidently going to get more playing time, that leads to development and, hopefully with consistent form, he'd be worth a lot more than that in the years to come.
As for McGoldrick, it's highly unlikely we'll see that sort of bid thrown in the direction of Portman Road anytime soon, particularly if McGoldrick refuses to sign a new contract. In this mercurial, money-driven world of football, loyalty and courtesy from a footballer is a rare sign, but I have hopes McGoldrick will sign a new contract and be emboldened to continue his rich vein of goalscoring form. Obviously time will tell whether the club should have accepted the deal, but it's a statement of intent to turn it down and, with McGoldrick arguably being our best player, it reverses the recent trend of us selling off our best players whenever a decent offer comes in. As I mentioned, with the bid being tabled so close to the deadline, it would not have left Mick with a lot of time to sign a replacement. Without McGoldrick, it is difficult to see where the goals will come from. |
| News
Comment | McGoldrick £8m Leicester Target
at 10:56:09
£8m is a lot of money at this level, but I personally wouldn't take it at this moment in time.
There are only a few days left of the transfer window and, by selling off our best player (admittedly for a lot of cash), we're still leaving ourselves short up front and desperately scrambling around to make replacements, that's assuming the money is even reinvested in the squad, which I doubt most of it would be. Anyway, teams will know we're desperate for reinforcements and will hike up their asking price in the wake of the £8m deal.
I'd rather keep McGoldrick for the first half of the season and, assuming he continues to score and make an impact, look to sell him for a potentially higher fee in January with the replacements already lined up.
The worst case scenario is selling our best player, failing to replace or reinvest the money into the squad and then be left with a real shortage of quality up front. We'd seriously struggle without his goals and creativity. At this point in time, is that a risk we'd like to take? |
| Blog
Comment | Would the Grass Be Greener Without Mick McCarthy?
at 17:05:11
Commuterblue,
Yeah Burnley offloaded Charlie Austin for big cash, but bear in mind they are a club that, upon reflection of the previous few years, spend cash. I don't want to get into a year-by-year account of their spending, but the year before their promotion season, they spent a fair bit on several players which contributed to their success. So I think it's a bit dismissive and a little simplistic to claim they achieved promotion without investment as the numbers don't lie.
I don't know how much we spend on wages per annum compared to our league competitors, but with the much-trumpeted cut wage budget, I speculate we're probably mid-table. As a club, our turnover probably isn't high. There's the theory that if you lower the price of tickets, attendances will rise which, on the surface, sounds fairly straight-forward. If the prices were lowered and attendances barely rose, then we'd be losing even more money. That's where Mick's playing style would really come under the radar. But I think it's just natural apathy permeating into the fanbase. We've been in this division for over a decade and, bar last season and back in the mid-00s, we haven't made a credible push for promotion. I believe that factor, coupled with high prices and, as you say, the economic climate, will naturally result in supporters turning away from the games. |
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Comment | Would the Grass Be Greener Without Mick McCarthy?
at 14:19:00
Fair enough Bossman, but I disagree with a few points. Last season's finish and form should be 'good enough' considering where we ended up in the last five or six seasons. While the playing style has contributed to the decline of attendances, this decline gone on over the course of many years as we have spent more seasons fighting off relegation than competing for promotion. Most importantly though is the price. It's ridiculous that it's cheaper to watch some Premier League matches, and, in some instances, cheaper to book a flight and match ticket to watch a Bundesliga game than it is to watch us at Portman Road. With the budget being cut and a serious underinvestment in the club over the past couple of years, I thought Evans could afford to drop prices a little bit.
McCarthy does pick the team and make the signings, yes. But the blog addresses the fact that by not having any money to spend, McCarthy is limited to the free transfer market, which, when it comes down to it, is mostly made up of players that other clubs deem not to be good enough.
After a good season and an opening day victory, it's only the last few weeks that have put McCarthy in the spotlight and ignited this widespread criticism. Regarding your jibe about the cash, I seriously doubt he would waste money on one player. Look at what he did with Wolves when they got promoted, brought in three or four good players in positions that needed reinforcement and, hey presto, he got the side promoted. While it's not always that clear-cut and guaranteed, we could do with some quality in the right areas. |
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Comment | A Lack of Spending Will Curtail Progress
at 01:30:41
What about now bigolconnor? We are looking like a very limited and dull side. The gulf in class between Norwich and ourselves was, quite frankly, embarrassing at times. I just struggle to believe that we have no money to spend. Evans appears to have given up on the club and is content to just watch us tread water in mid table. This side needs investment if we're to realistically challenge for promotion this season. |
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Site Scores| Forum Votes: | 72 | | Comment Votes: | 9 | | Prediction League: | 0 | | TOTAL: | 81 |
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