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Comment | U21s Skipper Taylor Set For Cheltenham Loan
at 18:52:44
Leeds recently posted extended footage of the u21 game against town at Leeds a few days ago. Town were in many parts impressive especially this lad who scored two goals, hoping this works for him and us he looks a real asset for the future |
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Comment | Blades Linked With Ogbene Loan Talks
at 22:09:47
In all honesty, I am less worried about loaning some of our players to possible competitors, as mentioned by @TownI1nter..... and @terryf, he needs gametime and isn't up to speed for us and with McAteer and Egeli likely to play in that role as well he is currently down the pecking order. He needs to rediscover his form after a nasty injury which may lmpair his ability and confidence to put on his afterburners, speed being one of his major strengths. As us normal with loans he will not be able to play against us. It would be a bonus to be able to recall a very inform player in January should we have others failing to find their form or adapt to the championship, plus a blow to the loan club who might be close to us. To me a very shrewd tactic. |
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Comment | Town to Sign Norwich Midfielder Nunez
at 22:02:21
Potentially the exact sort of player we could do with, Muhren and Thijssen aside he reminds me very much of our all time great and favourite midfielder of mine Colin Viljoen, unfortunately Viljoen was a bit of a sick note as well!!!! |
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Comment | Blues Linked With Wales International James
at 18:53:10
He went to Rennes for about £4.5 million and it hasn't worked out, so should be available for a decent price. This season he will also still be considered as u 21 as he was at 1st January (that is if we buy him and not loan him). The reality is as with Macateer we are operating a model of improving players over a couple of years and selling them on for healthy profit, so hopefully we can double their price in a couple of seasons. I don't have a problem with this and by all accounts he is a decent player at this level with potential to improve but so is Humphreys and Jack Taylor who both would benefit if playing in a 3 man midfield. With the presumption that Cajuste and Matisuwa are likely to be first choice and MC K only wanting to play 4-2-3-1 it is difficult (without tempting the fate of injuries) to see James, Humphreys or Taylor getting much game time. In respect of James he will need game time to develop in line with the clubs objectives.
Have to admit though I am very disappointed that we didn't go for Billing who went back to Denmark for a modest £5 million which surely must have been in Town's reach. At 6ft 6 inch he would have given us much needed extra physicality and goals and can double up as a number 10 as well as a number 8.
James, Egeli and Ivanovic from Millwall (who also qualifies as an under 21 registered player) and a young loan left back from a premier squad should comfortably conclude our business. |
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Comment | Town Reject Coventry Woolfenden Approach
at 23:05:04
I have a lot of time for Mark Ashton, especially after the Marcus Evans years. He has to take enormous credit for moving this club forward. However it doesn't mean he isn't free from scrutiny or criticism, neither is Kieran. The Ship is wobbling a bit. Last summer we spent too much time on the Broja affair with Chelsea. Late deals going astray often mean panic decisions being made in days leading up to the deadline.
This year we made a similar mistake with Chelsea and Marc Guiu, with many weeks evaporating. Quite frankly I would have gone for McBurnie who is a like for like competitor for Hirst, who we seem to be pinning too much on. We allowed the Cajuste thing to longer on far too long meaningful he is unlikely to be ready for a full appearance for another couple of weeks or so. We need to forget Hackney as that will linger and we will end up panic buying like we did two or three years ago when we bought Ahadme.
Ashton's dashboard is clearly smoke and mirrors as we ended up paying to use Brighton's system until last season. We are paying far too much for the likes of Philogene and Clarke. Enciso was bought for about £9 million and was then a full International.
It's all very well being ambitous with some of the names mentioned so far, but there comes a time when reality has to sink in, yes we know what we have in the coffers now giving us greater scope. |
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Comment | Ipswich Town 1-1 Southampton - Match Report
at 17:43:56
2 league games without defeat against 2 potential top six sides is about an ok start, but clearly we are not showing any signs as yet of being able to dominate this league.
We also though need to reverse the habit of not being able to put teams away at Portman Road.
Whilst, I think Hirst, Greaves and Davis had good games today, their first touches left a lot to be desired.
Jack Clarke looked promising for 65 minutes as the key to opening them up, Philogene still flatters to deceive a bit for me but his record in this league is good and you can see he has a few tricks in his locker.
Jack Taylor worked hard today, but we missed the influence of Sam Morsy in the middle of the park and whilst Matusiwa comes with a good pedigree and can do a lot of the Sam role he will add value in other areas but we just weren't comfortable at playing out from the back and never had control of the middle of the park. Jack Taylor will ultimately be the player to revert to the bench or maybe depart. We missed a real skipper on the pitch to drive the team on, I didn't see O'Shea being very vocal at all, yes he is consistent in his defending and covering but also consistent on getting on the end of corners but not being able to get anywhere near the target.
I truly believe Cameron Humphreys can excel at this level, but not in McKenna's system. I was privileged to watch the Robson years and Cam's touch and his deft balls and touches remind me so much of Arnold Muhren who played the left mid role in a 4-3-3.
Several of the continental coaches have bravely introduced new systems plus Pep has fluently changed his system regularly to adapt to players strengths rather than shoehorning players into a rigid formation.
Whilst Kieron is clearly a clever manager and tactician his general philosophy is very predictable and often limiting to getting the best out of some of our players. Whilst it's good to hear that Leif Davis is commited to the club. It does seem that the system is tailored to getting the best out of Leif and we should avoid playing two out and out wingers at the same time.
Unfortunately I think Conor Chaplin has been left behind and misses the understanding with Wes Burns, yes he occasionally knits patterns of play together but hasn't looked a goal threat for quite sometime.
Like the look of Egeli, very versatile in playing across the 3 or part of a 3 up front, shades of Ronaldo. With McBurnie scoring two today and scoring over 9 out of 10 on sofascore, I think we might regret not trying to bring him on board to fight and share the number 9 role with George.
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Comment | McKenna: There Are a Few Positions Where We Need to Be Stronger
at 14:28:45
Cook, Billing or Miley, would be more than top notch at this level.
Miley at 19 is a free count from a squad perspective, but will come to play games and will be a loan only.
Cook would be a good 3 year investment at 29 and will have a similiar influence to Morsy, and can fluently move between a defensive and a playmaking role.
Billing would give physicality and score some goals but would be playing a more advanced role perhaps closer to the one we see from Jack Taylor
Can't see us going for more that one of the three, unless we look to adapt to a more 4-3-3 formation. |
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Comment | Bromley 1-1 Ipswich Town (5-4 on Pens) - Match Report
at 22:31:19
Al Alhamadi, Clarke, Chaplin, and Ogbene, no longer good enough for a Championship winning team. Broadhead and Hutchinson much better options. Ogbene looks like a sack of spuds and did not offer an inkling of a threat even his miss from six yards shows the lad needs matches perhaps somewhere else.
Well done to young Fin Barbrook and Cameron Humphreys who probably our best players, defence was OK but Leif sloppy, Ben Johnson came on and played very well.
I like most was hoping we would be making some early statements by taking this season by storm, but clearly we need some reality check as we are not looking anything like a top two championship team. |
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Comment | Hackney Turns Down Town Move
at 16:47:48
All credit to the lad, he made a quick decision and didn't string us along, so that has to command some respect.
Cajuste hopefully will now be back and another strong signing maybe from the continent at way under rip off price. Hopefully Tony Blooms system which we were not allowed access to last season will be put to good use. MA really needs to get his recruitment dashboard delivering better results. |
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Comment | Blues Target Guiu Closing in On Sunderland Loan
at 22:37:04
Problem is there are too many pieces in the jigsaw, spending a large amount on Hackney probably means we are relying on loan striker, or a cheap backup - someone who will understudy Hirst. That could reverse if the Hackney deal falls through and see us perhaps go back for Latte Lathe but funds won't support 2 bids in the 15-20 million region unless Omari goes. I would bet £50 quid that Hirst picks up an injury that keeps him out for 4 or 5 consecutive games. Unfortunately our playing style relies in a strong robust forward who can act as a target man. A backup doesnt necessarily need to be a big goal merchant as long as he can bring others into the game and give the many gorilla centre halves in the championship a physical battle. The signings so far have been very good, but in all honesty we have only replaced the experience that we have let leave the club. We still arguably need 4 very decent signings, but as time ticks by I expect we will only bring in 2-3. I think late acquisitions last year hampered us, whilst I want to say don't panic, I can't help think we have left two of the most important signings very close to the start of the season and think concerns expressed by some fans are valid. I think the next 2-3 days are critical. I don't think going into the season with Humphreys and Barbrook ready to step up, or Leif to adopt a new role is going to disadvantage us too much, I don't think any of them will let us down but we do need a lot more authority from the middle if the park on the pitch. Plus Szmodics or Hamadi can not play the George Hirst role so our momentum could be nipped in the blood for the first few matches until McKenna is confident that he knows his strongest team (easier to say on paper but not so easy in practice) |
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Comment | Blues Among Clubs Linked With Liverpool Youngster
at 13:11:12
The lad has lots of promise (so does Cameron Humphreys) plus we are going to need to have to try and take advantage of the loan market and maybe a freebie or two. This would keep funds to focus on another big ticket midfielder and a striker - I quite like the look of Milanovic from Millwall who had a great season last year.
However the lad is another who doesn’t have great height or physicality and wouldn’t want to take him if there were conditions attached about number if starts etc. |
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Comment | Town Launch New Kits
at 18:04:40
Selling shirts has become big business for Town, we have seen a few good ones over the years, personally for the home kit I like to keep things simple and not overstated . I do though always see quite a few other clubs who wear blue who tend to have a better eye for design than us.
After not being sure about last years kit, mainly because of the border around the badge, I have to say it grew on me immensely and I tend to rate it amongst one of the best kits we have had, so in my mind I wasn’t expecting a better kit. Although the new home kit is certainly not unattractive, I am happy they haven’t tried to go to overboard and I am ok with just an alright kit.
Now the away kit!!!! For me I have always detested us playing in red, kits with black stripes soften my reaction to this feeling. This largely goes back to my early years when supporting the blues under Sir Bobby and for a few years we were always pushing our fierce rivals then, Liverpool, Forest and Manchester United all red wearing opposition, Red shirts were always like a red rag to a bull for us, they were the enemy and wearing red is nearly as bad as adopting yellow and green!!!
My memories are enhanced by some of the big matches, WBA fa cup semi final at Highbury, playing in the very smart white and black with a thin pinstripe on the shirt, orange at Bolton in the first leg of the play off semi final with two magnificent Marcus Stewart goals, and of course what I think was the best away kit of all times the dominant Orange illuminating the pitch during the season before last when we got automatic promotion to the premiership after 22 years. I didn’t think I was going to like the pink strip but it’s vibrancy on the pitch making wide visibility and making it appear we have one more man than the opposition and easy to pick out players changed my mind about the pink kit.
Under the dark lord I remember going to Stamford Bridge in the FA cup and playing in an all red kit we got beaten!!!
It’s not that red kits can’t look really nice, but sorry for me red and Ipswich is like putting ketchup on your Sunday roast!!!
Does anybody remember a smart grey away kit Man Utd had, and one match away at Palace they changed the colour of the kit at half time because players couldn’t pick their team mates out against the backdrop of the crowd!!!!
This can be annoying, we have seen it with some goalkeeper kits when you can’t pick out the goalkeeper against the backdrop of the net and the crowd, pleased to see more of late goalkeepers now wearing much brighter kits than the insipid greens and greys we have seen in recent years.
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Comment | New Kits Released Saturday
at 11:26:27
And the winner is…………………. Doesn’t this whole kit saga remind you of one of those very annoying talent or reality shows which pauses for far to long to increase the tension.
At times I wish I was an Arsenal or an Ajax fan, at least I would know a minor update to a trimming is not really going to make me fall out of love with my kit and have a consistent identity so everyone still knows that’s Arsenal’s or Ajax’s shirt. With our shirt it could be one of a multitude of clubs playing in blue. Dare I say as much as I dislike yellow and green, you can spot a budgie a mile away and they do have a certain amount of uniqueness to their identity like Ajax.
Flash and change the away kit as much as you like but having been a regular supporter and attendee at Portman Road for near on 60 years, this shirt enthusiasm doesn’t quite do it for me, very much in the less is more camp.
To a certain extent I am all for supporter engagement, remember the days when 3 kits were put up for the fans to vote on? Perhaps we could have a competition to design the best away kit and win a free season ticket or something. Unlikely of course as Mr Ashton is telling us the design for the 26/27 season is now being finalised before the 25/26 season kit has been released!!! The world has gone backwards, or as much as I like Umbro are they so inefficient that they need a years notice.
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Comment | An Outstanding Football Coach
at 11:02:13
In today’s world you don’t achieve near on 50 years service without having made a major contribution to the organisation. Unfortunately how many young academy stars anywhere in England go on to achieve great things nowadays? Take some of our best prospects that have been snatched from us, Ben Knights, Charlie Brown, and Harry Clarke? The Man City, Chelsea and Arsenal’s of this world hoover up the best talent, which often doesn’t make an impact when inevitably loaned out to EFL clubs to get valuable men to men combatative action. The standards have been raised so significantly that the prospect of a conveyor belt of talent that can be absorbed at an early age into first team football is now virtually impossible. Of course the very high price of those like the Liam Delaps make looking abroad for players that have experienced 2 to 3 seasons in League football a more viable and less risky purchase.
However post Brexit the market is not as flexible as it once was. The club does need a connection with the community so academy football is still very important. Bryan’s contribution cannot be undervalued, it has been significant, his loyalty and values and his humanity has been a corner stone of the club and invaluable. Changing conditions and avoid getting stale and feeling like you are pis***g in the wind are difficult to contend with, Gamechanger have been fantastic for ITFC, but there are always some downsides which is a discussion for another day. American ownership will want to evaluate everything that can be learned from modern day sport and whilst as far as we know Bryan hasn’t been asked to leave, there may be new viewpoints and approaches that the club wants to explore. I am sure Bryan could have continued to make a valuable contribution but there are just times when people feel they have been somewhere too long and a change of environment is healthy. Whether that be Norwich City or not Bryan deserves are upmost respect and our best wishes to continue the final part of his career refreshed and reinvigorated.
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Comment | Morsy: I Don't Think It's Momentum
at 14:02:52
@cookieboy, Slicker definitely needs to go on loan to affirm that he is worthy of his position in the Scottish International Squad and to give confidence to Town that he returns as a clear number 2 and capable of progress to number 1. Muric needs to regain confidence and play again and needs regular matches too, a loan also maybe. Walton to remain as number 2 to Palmer, we need to identify a young under 21 goalkeeper as 3rd Choice, if we don’t have a capability in our current academy then we need to go and find one for a modest fee, this obviously will keep a position open for an outfield over 21. Alternatively if we have a reasonable offer for Walton or Muric then we reassess, if both go then Slickers position may need to be reevaluted, but I would be more inclined look to the loan system for an ageing goalkeeper who has good career statistics |
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Comment | Harness and Luongo Depart and Baggott Option Taken as Blues Announce Retained List
at 21:20:08
There certainly needs to be some further trimming to be able to register a squad of 25 players which includes goalkeepers. We currently have 26 over 21’s + Cameron Humphreys (still under 21), this excludes Delap assuming his move with Chelsea gets announced but includes Axel and Cameron Burgess, if they sign new deals. Goalkeepers are counted in the 25, and we now have four that will fall into the over 21 category, clearly 2 will need to get lay elsewhere next season, one potentially being loaned and another possibly being sold. Palmer is likely to be number 1 choice, and maybe we sign a third young under 21 goalkeeper to be a backup or alternatively promote one the younger goalkeepers in the club if we have enough confidence in them to be a bench member if we have an injury. This would take the squad to 24. Given that we may look to sign a couple of Premiership U21 players to fill the Delap position and one if the midfield vacancies, then we may still need to release 2 to 3 players to increase the squad experience in midfield and possibly attack. Looks like Al Ahmadi and Elkan Baggott will be sent out on loan again to provide two vacancies. |
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Comment | Leicester City 2-0 Ipswich Town - Match Report
at 14:48:01
To sum up lack of clinical ability and poor defending.
It could be argued that we saw some of this last year in the Championship, yes we were scoring many goals and more than we were conceding but we were missing a lot of chances too. In a tougher league this has become far more noticeable. Week in, week out, this season we see the same, we haven’t really learned from our errors, always on the wrong side of fine margins, we can’t blame VAR and refs all of the time.
The fans have been outstanding a real credit to the Football Club, English Football and the Town itself. They have turned up and performed time and again.
Unfortunately, the players and management team have failed the fans. That doesn’t mean to say that any individual didn’t try their best, the fans have every right to feel deflated without ignoring the previous two seasons, however, we can cope with not being quite good enough, but pessimistic comments should be excused, the frustration has been exacerbated by getting poor results from Leicester and Southampton who will be competing with us next season. The fans have earned the right to ask questions.
Can we trust the process?
Mark Ashton was selling us as the best fairy tale in football at the beginning of the season.
We get the limitations and the budgets available.
Of course hindsight is a wonderful thing.
We had faith.
It was not all about premiership experience, but recruitment has to be clearly reviewed. Of course not all acquisitions are going to be successful.
Woolfenden, Burgess and Tuanzebe looked comfortable at this level as did Palmer (incidentally he has proven to be a real bargain buy). Add Townsend to that list albeit he was only needed for a few games, but he did play with WBA for a spell n the top flight.
O’Shea also showed adequacy.
Muric, Phillips, Godfrey, Johnson, those with premiership experience all sadly failed to deliver any consistency and value for the cost to the club.
The up and comings, Hutchison, Broadhead and Clarke all show glimpses of great potential at this level but combined provided a far too lightweight attacking support unit. Philogene probably in this category as well.
Szmodics and Hirst, again show real promise to step up but also show fragility.
Greaves and Davis had disappointing seasons but will come again.
Cajuste and Enciso added some quality but fitness and injury issues were also limiting.
Taylor, Chaplin and Burns clearly unlikely to ever be at a level to be a serious talent at Premiership level, these are the folks especially the later two that we like and feel loyalty towards, however, arguably they are no more than average Championship level players if that. For me they deserve regular football but at another club even if we only obtain modest Championship level fees.
Given we may be able to raise north of £50 million net to the club if we sell Delap, Hutchison, Johnson (Fulham interested) and perhaps more if there is any interest for Leif, then we need to invest more wisely. Perhaps 4 experienced players from overseas, a striker, a holding midfielder, a playmaker and a box to box player.
If we loose Axel and Cameron then we will be looking for two more, outside of some foreign imports, on my watchlist would be:
Mark McGuiness (Luton), who was a standout player in a team that got relegated from the championship, with the big drop in income he should be available at a knock down price.
Perry Ng, a full back at Cardiff is in the same category, consistently week in week out, he was a high and often top scorer for a struggling team.
Carlton Morris - backup to Hirst, a player in the target man role, not a big goal scorer but again in Luton’s premiership campaign he was stand-out for them, not quite Liam Delap but if we can ignore his ex Norwich connection then he could be a very valuable squad player.
Christian Erikson, out of contract at Man Utd at the end of the season. At 33 he may not have the legs for another regular premiership campaign but may be persuaded to step down for the right offer to become a very good Championship player maker on a shorter term contract.
I do sense the close season might be a bit more busier than we perhaps expected, if it’s not then maybe we fear Kieron and Mark Ashton have not learnt the real lessons. |
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Comment | McKenna: VAR is Taking Away From the Game
at 21:38:08
I was close to the Greaves rugby tackle and I thought he was very lucky not to get a penalty given against him. Having now seen the Axel one in slow motion I have to also say he was lucky as well, not that I like VAR but I think we got away with those two, and let’s stop playing the victim card!!! Enciso was looking for a free kick every time he went on the run and a defender made some contact, you only p**s refs of when you keep complaining and when you should have had a kick the red ignores it. Certainly on the two penalty claims if those had been committed by Brentford defenders against Ipswich attackers we would be howling for penalties. The reality is we are to naive and just cannot match most teams in application over the 90 minutes. Back to the drawing board for our campaign in the Championship. |
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Comment | Newcastle United 3-0 Ipswich Town - Match Report
at 20:47:59
Without doubt Town supporters are up there with the best in the country and a massive credit to those who made the many many long away journeys. They richly enhanced our reputation as a brilliant football club. The owners and the club approached the season with a lot of pride and honesty. Kieron has still a lot of credit in the bank and operates with great integrity creating a tight bond and there will be very few supporters who will question the ability of Kieron to take us back up again.
Having said all that though, there does need to be some serious reflection. Mark Ashton has led the club with great passion , dignity and respect for the supporters and the local community. However, “trust the process” does need to come into question. Our task was to finish 17th and whilst it may have been sickening to have just lost out to fine margins by perhaps a point or two, we still look to be many points a drift of being close to that 17th position. We can be excused for thinking that we let naivety get the better of us on many occasions and too often shot ourselves in the foot. Being a victim of fine margins seemed to start to wear thin, yes maybe the rub of the green didn’t even itself out but we contributed to our own downfall too often.
Generally, we lacked physicality, athleticism, power, speed of thought and some quality. Quality was always going to be a difficult one to find at an affordable price. Phillips and Cajuste looked a good bet to help bridge this and you can understand why town went for the obvious loan option to help bridge this gap. However, both players struggled for fitness and a very few full 90 minutes were achieved by either. Had we conceded far fewer goals, then the double pivot could be attributed to having provided a valuable shield for a platform to succeed. However, their ability to get forward and influence in the final third seemed to me to leave the team lacking.
The diddy men of Clarke, Hutchinson and Szmodics all posses talent to make some impact at this level but did often look like ants running into brick walls. Reinforcements in Enciso and Philogene only continued this trend. Philogene apart (jury still out) all of these players individually could go on to better things and probably slot into a more accomplished team and not necessarily look out of place without perhaps looking spectacularly outstanding.
When you recruit so many new players there will be a number that do not work out. However, some of the existing players who you might not expect to hold on to their places will surprise you.
Surprises: Townsend, Burgess, Woolfenden and also the newly acquired Delap (the later to make such a great impact).
Disappointments: Muric, Godfrey, Greaves, Phillips, Davis
Predictables: Tuanzebe,
Successes: Alex Palmer, Dara O’Shea, Liam Delap, Conor Townsend and to an extent Jens Cajuste
Those just along for the ride: Walton, Chaplin, Burns, Taylor, Loungo - all honest players but unlikely to make the adaption to the top flight.
Going forward we have to consider those players unlikely to be able to make the step up next time and some may need to be replaced to avoid us finding ourselves back in the same position we did this season. Of course some of them will be useful in our Championship campaign but we have to improve the squad in the missing attributes already mentioned above. We also have to seriously think about our regular “sick notes” I.e. Harry Clarke, Axel, Nathan Broadhead, George Hirst and to a lesser extent , Christian Walton. Ironically these all look to be very suitable players to give us an excellent chance of achieving a top two spot Championship spot but as the past has proved can the squad adequately cover the loss of players like these on a regular basis.?
I don’t like to contemplate Kieron in any negative light, however, I would suggest we have been tactically naive at times, yes at least we didn’t try to play every match in the Russel Martin, Vincent Kompany kamakazi total football way. Nor did we convert to the Sean Dyche methodology, however we struggled to find something in between, both Palace and Forest both seem to be very economical and have shown that points can be ground out. Of course Brentford, Fulham and Bournemouth have developed more culture to their play over a period the later two “yo-yo-ing”. Ramsey and Robson were both brilliant at exploiting the talents of the individuals they had playing tweaking accordingly, Kieron seems to be wedded to a double pivot and I can’t help thinking that our football has become somewhat more predictable.
If this weekends reports that Spurs are interested in Kieron has any legs, let’s pray that we don’t have disruption that pushes our pre-season business and preparations back.
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Comment | Chelsea 2-2 Ipswich Town - Match Report
at 20:20:13
If it wasn’t for Delap, Alex Palmer would have been a shoe-in for player of the season and he’s only been here since January!!!! I do think that says something in terms of consistency, the defence do look less nervous with a pair of hands behind them that they can trust, no disrespect to Walton but he is not close to threatening Palmer, I can’t help thinking though that Palmer may now be on the radar of other Premiership Clubs, surely Tuchel will have him in the England squad soon, in my view he is better than flapper the clown at Everton. |
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