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Hutchings: Senior Players Let Me Down
at 11:08:31

“If you can get new players in, I think that's what's needed, if I'm totally honest. But that remains to be seen."
Well, let that be a reminder to anyone (can't be anyone can there?) who feels sorry for Jewell. Even his number two realises his signings have been poor! The reality is of course that they actually just need a proper manager. This is not a bottom of the table squad but we have had a relegation management team from the Chairman downwards.
What is the reason for the anti-Burley grumbles? Can people please have a reality check. It is not possible to recreate the Robson era; no-one is ever going to do an ITFC of being a little club at the top of the league. Becoming a Stoke is as about the best that we or any other team outside the rich half dozen can hope to be. Can we all start stop dreaming please!!!
You want the historic reason why we are in this mess? Go back to Sheepshanks after we finished fifth, the completely baseless aim to do that or even better in the next season as though it was the old millennium. You want current reason why are still in this mess? See Cleggs comments in the wake of the sacking, that the dream is still to get the club back to the old days. TWTD, they never ever will be again! Just try and hope for a team that plays nice footy again, raises kids that can be sold for good money, and that can go up and survive going down so it can go up again. I'd settle for a team playing nice footy again.

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Jewell Considering Town Future After Hull Defeat
at 12:58:40

Okay, cards on the table, I never wanted Jewell as a manager; sorry but he was Royle-lite, another wonderfully quotable bloke who can crack a good joke but underneath there is no substance or consistency or real track record of achievement, and on a clear downward curve, other than it aint my fault.
Equally I must admit to have given up going to matches, 13 years of season ticket ended after the season before last after Jewell was appointed. Interestingly for a commercially well run club (allegedly), ITFC never contacted me to ask why or to chase up a renewal. And that is symbolic of the malaise for me.
Jewell out is not going to resolve the mess; not only do they need a better manager, they are never going to achieve anything without a Chairman that knows what he is doing. How can any business allow themselves to have lost the type of assets they have over the last three or four years by allowing players contracts to run out and potential income disappear. Sorry, but let's just mention one name of a now premiership regular, McAuley. And then remember the mess we have had at the centre of our defence, for years!!
So the mess at ITFC has to be nailed on Clegg. He has to go as well, and he should be being challenged now as to whether he too is considering his position. This is the man who had complete control of contracts (with Evans) during the Keane era, and has still had main control during Jewell. It is him that has overseen the failed renewal of contracts, the failure to sign new players when negotiations have been ongoing, or even minor things like what sounds like a remarkable small sell on percentage for Rhodes. did we seriously accept only 10%? there are clubs out there that get nearer 50%; 10% is a jokey opening offer, and he accepted it??!! Clegg is out of his depth. Why has Evans never acted on that?
Sorry, again I think that Magilton was sacked too early; and I am not as hard on Keane as so many are. The club sacked Keane after the first year, but just failed to do it. He was given no money to buy players, or backing after that first year. What I will say about him is that he at least gave young players their chance, and actually more of a chance than many supporters did!! His use of young players was encouraging; and not a Royle style thing (which is a bit Jewell-like as well) of playing them for one game (earning his cash bonus for blooding an academy player it seemed) and then saying ah, they're too young, not strong enough, not good enough and shutting them out again.
Keane and Rhodes? yeah, he is always going to be crucified for that, but sorry lets forget hindsight and look at some facts. Keane had two league games at the end of a season before the Rhodes decision, while Jordan i think was still out on loan. So any decision he made must have been based on what little he knew, and what people at the club told him. (And i too am a poor judge. Sorry, but from the time he was on the pitch at Portman Road, and again he was a young player that had been blooded, albeit by Magilton, I did not think he was quite good enough. He was someone that did not demand to be on the pitch. Potential but not yet proven. Forget hindsight and that was actually true!). What Keane was faced with was a player who had had a chance but had potential or Wickham! If Rhodes had stayed, Wickham would not have prospered. I actually think Keane made the right decision. After that, it was down to Clegg to do a decent deal for him. Clegg didn't, wow, what a surprise!!! So sorry, i would ask people to stop linking Keane and Rhodes together unless you also link Keane and Wickham in the same sentence, and out of the two players I know which i would rather have!!!
Jewell? Is there any point having a go at him anymore, it is liking taking sweets from a baby or shooting fish in a barrel. Fun but what's the point? However in passing I hope that people recognise that the faults in Jewell are actually the same as with Royle; there is too much fond nostalgia for Royle. He had a premiership squad and failed to use it; he had quality young talent and either failed to use them at all, or played them and slagged them off. Look back at Royle's handling of Bent, or Garvan, or Counago even, look at his choice of signings, those stop gap centre halves, all followed by the witty joke and the put down of his players publicly. Jewell's butchering of Loach was pure Royle. Gut a player in public and distract the attention away from yourself. I have no idea how good Loach is, but he has to be a far better man than what Jewell did to him post Cardiff.
The future? ITFC is a joke, poorly run from top to bottom. No-one with any experience is going to touch us with a bargepole as long as Clegg is there; anyone that does is after a pay day or is totally desperate. Relegation is not inevitable; there is enough talent there to win the 12 or 13 matches that would see us to safety, they just need to be managed properly. Sorry, but my goal would be to just see us playing good football again and bringing through our players and trusting them. Yes, it also needs the crowd to just be happy with that, to not be impatient for the premiership, to accept that our best players will always leave, but to know that there are more coming through.
Next manager? Dunno, i would be happy with Burley, just as someone who knows how the club should be run; no-one else at the club seems to know that anymore. I do not want someone who Clegg or Keane has seen doing the telly! We need someone who thinks the long term is actually about the future growth of the club and not just whether they still have a job!

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