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Wednesday Set to Face Investigation For Objects Thrown On Pitch
at 23:17:43

I went with a friend from Yorkshire and we made the mistake of sitting in the North Stand section of Sheff Wed supporters nearest our away end. They threw things at the lino on our touchline on at least three separate occasions, two of what looked like lighters being retrieved by the ref but other objects going unnoticed. A foghorn bloke behind me spent the best part of the match shouting at the lino that he was a 'bent bas**rd' and a 'c**t'. It was a highly unpleasant tinderbox atmosphere when we went 2-0 up that turned into a cauldron of support for them at 2-1. You have to wonder whether that influenced the officials on allowing the equaliser, which looked suspiciously offside to me in real time from much further away than them...
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Bury Expelled From EFL as Bolton Have 14 Days to Complete Takeover
at 14:45:53

For those squabbling about who spends more, us or Rotherham, I was in the directors' boxes home and away for Rotherham last season and spoke to their chairman and chief executive. Their budget for signings and wages is a fraction of ours. They had some players in the matchday squad for the home game on £500-a-week
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Lambert Expresses Transfer Frustrations: It's the Way the Club's Run
at 20:43:27

This would be funny if it weren't so tragic.

Mick the anti-Christ signed the likes of Berra, Mings, Webster (free, £10K, player swap plus cash). The last two went for £40 million this summer.

Only one full season on from him being hounded out, PR Lambert, who kept saying we were a 'top, top side' as he won 4 from 32 games, is now giving an alternative eve-of-season rallying cry that his players are 'absolutely not' good enough to get out of League One.

Lambert looked like he was getting his excuses in early ready to flounce out (which he has form for) if we make a bad start from tricky early fixtures. Badmouthing your boss in public never normally ends well. And it's unprofessional and petulant however much we share his frustration.

And none of it changes the fatal dynamic that Evans is stuck with a club he's not competent to run in loss limitation mode and we're stuck with him unless an unlikely sugar daddy materialises out of thin air. Either that or he turns off the taps altogether and we become the next Bury.
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Town Closing in On Garbutt Loan
at 17:53:08

Saw him a couple of times at left back for England under 21s in the 2015 Euros in the Czech Republic. Watched him closely as we were being linked to him at the time. He was poor, probably the worst England player on the pitch. That would explain why he hasn't kicked on at Everton and why he's now being loaned to a League One club. But he maybe he will be a decent loan signing for us at League One level. I hope so as we need an upgrade on Kenlock defensively if we expect to be challenging for automatic promotion.
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Skipper Chambers Linked With Chicago Fire
at 12:36:48

This is a captain who has recently been playing for the club with a broken wrist. He's previously played with cracked ribs and all manner of other injuries that would keep many other players out. He's barely missed a game in seven years, making over 300 appearances. He was a stalwart in the back four for our four top half finishes in five seasons under Mick, uncomplainingly playing out of position at right back for much of the time.

Meanwhile, Knudsen sits in the stands at a critical stage of the season hoping his agent can get him a move away and we can hardly get Collins on the pitch.Hardly surprising the defence has imploded this season when Chambers lacks a quality central partner like Berra/Webster/Carter-Vickers. He's variously had lower league tat like Donacien and Nsiala alongside him, then Pennington, a kid learning his trade and Knudsen, a left back filling in.

Chambers was at the London branch night a few years back. He's as impressive and committed a captain as you could hope to hear or meet who will undoubtedly go into management one day. All the players look up to him and he and Skuse keep the dressing room and kids in line. He's so committed to the cause he has half a dozen of our Academy players living with him in an annexe at his home.

Absolutely disgraceful the abuse a loyal club captain and servant is getting on here from supposed supporters.

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Hurst: No Guarantee Waghorn Still at Town on Opening Day
at 17:20:08

We've let 12 players go since the end of last season and signed 3. We've lost 20 goals from last season in McGoldrick, Celina and Connolly. If Waghorn goes too, that's another 16 plus 11 assists that accounted for a lot of Garner's 10 goals. The other players remaining from last season scored only 21 between them with Spence second highest scorer on 4 behind Garner. We've signed only a League One winger, a League Two Bosman free transfer winger and an under-19 loanee centre back and there's just over two weeks till the opening match and three weeks till the transfer window closes on August 9 - three weeks earlier than usual. After the club's 'replacement ' of Murphy with Leon Best when he was sold in the 2016/17 August transfer window, similarly called a great bit of business, I can't see how flogging Waghorn now would spell anything other than disaster regardless of whether Hurst is the new messiah or the next John Duncan. And that's even without looking at the other end of the pitch where Chambo is currently our lone senior centre back after the departure of Berra, Smith, Carter-Vickers, Webster. We need quality new additions and fast, not to be selling the little quality we have left
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Ex-England Boss McClaren Linked With Town
at 11:24:00

Is this the same Steve McLaren who steered megabucks Derby to a catastrophic late season collapse, finishing 8th - enabling Mick to sneak 6th for us on a shoestring? The one sacked for failing at Forest, Derby (twice) and Newcastle?

The main thing Evans' previous appointments - Keane, Jewell and Mick - have in common is a Championship promotion on their CV. He's never paid compensation to poach another club's manager and after the Keane fiasco, it would appear Evans now values Championship experience most of all.

So in all likelihood in a classic case of 'Be careful what you wish for' those who have hounded Mick out of the club fantasising about a 'progressive young manager' will now be saddling us with a has been like McLaren, Pardew, Pearson, McDermott.
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McCarthy: No Suggestion of Not Seeing Season Out
at 16:05:43

The problem is Evans, not McCarthy. We were losing games 7-1 and 6-0 to Peterborough and Blackpool before he arrived and hurtling towards League One. This season we're 12th, 22 points off the bottom three, safe with 10 games to spare on a bottom five budget that would have us in a relegation battle under most managers. McCarthy and his scouts have 40 years experience of this division. His grimly pragmatic but effective approach picks up points against opposition assembled at vastly greater cost even when we have a season full of horrendous injuries. The halfwits barracking the players last night, the team that had just picked up seven points out of nine, will doubtless force McCarthy out because they have made the Portman Road atmosphere so poisonous. There will be a brief respite under a new manager and then things will almost certainly get worse because no-one any good is going to want the job after seeing what has happened to McCarthy and Evans will still be providing a bottom five budget. Very few clubs binning pragmatic, experienced managers like Pulis, Allardyce, Mick, Curbishley have prospered. Take a look at Stoke, West Brom, Charlton, Blackburn, West Ham. No manager is going to get us up on Evans' under-investment, let alone playing super football. A fish rots from its head - Evans
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Sears May Consider Move to Play More Games
at 20:54:13

Just the 325 days since Sears scored a goal. It didn't stop Martyn Waghorn scoring being played out of position on the right wing, just as Tom Lawrence scored from the left or up front last season. Good players will still deliver whether it is their preferred position or not. Poor ones won't. Sears isn't good enough to start up front ahead of Garner and Waghorn. Not many other Championship clubs would let him anywhere near their team after almost a year without a goal and he's had plenty of chances up front as well as out wide. He's looking like the League One striker we signed on the cheap. That's his fault, not the manager's as most other attacking recruits - Murphy, Garner, Waghorn, Fraser, Lawrence, Celina - have blossomed under McCarthy, in many cases having their best ever seasons at this level
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Sheffield Wednesday 1-2 Ipswich Town - Match Report
at 22:03:50

That's 11 points from 15 (and 30 seconds from being 13) in the past five away games and Mick's summer strike pairing of Waghorn and Garner is up to 22 goals. But apparently there's a new criteria among a section of our so-called supporters that you have to win even tricky away games the 'right way'. Warnock's not paying any attention to that either as he grinds out the wins. His ultra pragmatic team of giants is now only three points behind Wolves after all the plaudits for pretty football that they've had. And I don't hear Cardiff fans moaning
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McCarthy: I Won't Be Driven Out By a Small Section of Fans
at 17:06:36

The actual facts are that when we first dropped down to the second tier in season 2002/3 we had an average attendance of 25,455. By the time of McCarthy's first full season in 2012/13 that was already down to 17,525 - ie we had already lost 8,000 fans. We are now in Mick's 6th full season and our 2017/18 average attendance is currently 16,348. We have therefore currently lost just over 1,000 fans during Mick's managerial reign. And that lost revenue is dwarfed by the gains Mick and his scouts are making Evans in transfer dealings. Our average spend over each of the past four completed seasons 2013/14 - 2016/17 was just £0.5 million. Over that period, we received £16.7 million from player sales for the likes of Cresswell, Mings, Murphy, Moore. Evans is first and foremost a businessman and that is why he is likely to want to retain Mick and his scouts. The facts do not support the claim that the majority of fans blame Mick rather than Evans for the club's decline and are voting with their feet. Some are but most likely not enough to make any difference to Evans

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McCarthy: I Won't Be Driven Out By a Small Section of Fans
at 15:19:05

Attendances have fallen year-on-year with every passing season (apart from after Mick took us into the play-offs on a shoestring). What the vocal football genius keyboard warriors don't get is that they are a small section of the fanbase. The silent majority, who may or may not still go to games, are just as frustrated by the club's malaise but can see that it is Evans gradually running it into the ground, not McCarthy. All the evidence points to Mick being well capable of creating successful, entertaining enough promotion sides. He did it at Wolves. He almost did it with us and we were top six winning games 5-2 and 4-2 before Adeyemi and Huws were crocked (as well as Dozzell and Bishop). But he needs to be backed like Warnock, who has taken Cardiff from bottom two to top two in the space of a season on the back of a net transfer spend of £9 million plus whatever the growth in their wage bill is. That is now the minimum required when others like Wolves, Derby, Villa are spending nearer £50 million. Evans is making a net gain on transfers thanks to Mick and his scouts and has still not spent more than the £1 million on Huws. McCarthy is over-achieving on the 19th highest budget in the division but is too often reliant on pragmatic 'needs must' football to negate better opposition sides with his bargain bin players. If Evans backed him, he would almost certainly buy better players, the football would improve and we would finish higher. The silent majority, most of whom do not take part in Twtd polls, can see that
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McCarthy: Second Goal a Killer Blow
at 21:42:49

It is no mean feat being 17 points clear of the bottom three on our budget, which is bottom five in the division. It shows the importance of being a stable, properly managed club with players who want to be there giving their all when you see Sunderland and Hull in the bottom three with their £90 million parachute payments over three years and players earning four times ours. As for people being bored of hearing 'be careful what you wish for' we're all bored of being in this divison. But that boredom stems from an owner unable or unwilling to invest enough to give us a chance of getting out of the division. Mick is making the best of a bad hand, getting the best out of a limited bunch of bargain bin players. If he walks, hounded out by a vocal minority section of our support who cannot recognise the abilities of him and his scouts, no-one of his calibre will want the job and an inferior replacement will be hamstrung by the same shoestring, most likely resulting in the relegation battle our financial handicap would suggest we should already be in.





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Ipswich Town 2-0 Reading - Match Report
at 22:09:31

Two points off the play-offs, second highest scorers in the league, seven home wins out of 11. If only we had a 'progressive young manager' like Garry Monk, Mark Warburton, Slavisa Jokanovic, Jaap Stam, Carlos Carvalho, Daniel Farke. Oh wait, they're all below us in the table despite having tens of millions more than us to spend in transfer fees and wages. Maybe some of our so-called supporters could start giving Mick the credit he deserves for being top ten for the third season in four on what is now the 19th highest budget out of 24 clubs in the division?
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Derby County 0-1 Ipswich Town - Match Report
at 22:22:04

Four games away from the midway point of the season and we are three points off the play-offs - despite having hardly any central defenders and then hardly any central midfielders and now hardly any strikers. All this on a budget a fraction of almost everyone else's in the division. There's no-one above us who has spent less in the past two seasons. And we're scoring freely. And we're playing Academy kids. Anyone would think we have one of the most experienced Championship managers around, excellent at operating on a shoestring?
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Ipswich Town 2-0 Brentford - Match Report
at 20:33:02

This Big Mick post-match quote is dedicated to all those who have been calling him Dino:

Stuart Watson‏ @Stuart_Watson 3h3 hours ago
Warnock/McCarthy sides top @SkyBetChamp.
Mick: “Two old farts who know f**k all about the game hey? I'll have to get my iPad out now." #itfc
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Millwall 3-4 Ipswich Town - Match Report
at 23:19:33

Four straights wins, the division's top scorers, two strikers signed for a snip who have already scored 11 in a Town shirt, kids galore given a chance. All achieved despite one of the division's lowest budgets, horrendous injuries and pressure heaped on one of the best managers in the game at operating on a shoestring by a load of so-called fans. Well done Mick. Marcus Evans doesn't deserve you and you are making everyone who abused you last season look very, very silly
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McCarthy: Fitting Tribute to Sir Bobby
at 21:59:04

Mick McCarthy is no different at all in Press conferences to when we were top six.

The only difference is that in his first poor season out of four reporters are engineering quotes from the same old school manager, who everyone previously chuckled over, to whip up controversy.

And an embarrassing section of our 'support' who think it is fine to chant whatever they like about MM, Evans and Milne, being c***s and wa**ers would rather latch onto this than accept MM is one of the best managers around at operating on a shoestring.

We've just walloped a Newcastle team that's spent 55 times more than us this season on top of the players they already had. Now that McGoldrick's fully fit we're finally racking up wins, points and goals. Imagine where we'd be if MM hadn't lost Murphy and McGoldrick at the start of the season. Pushing for our fourth consecutive, over-achieving top ten position is where we'd be as our manager continues to juggle dust while most others would have us in League One.
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McCarthy Has No Intention of Walking Away and Plans to Build Again at Town
at 00:38:11

For those posting about MM's agent, he doesn't have one.

For those posting that increased season ticket revenue would cover the cost of ME firing MM, it wouldn't come anywhere remotely near. it wouldn't just be a case of paying off MM but him, Terry Connor, Dave Bowman and Ian Evans - ie his whole coaching and scouting entourage. And then replacements for them all would have to be hired.

MM, understandably, is not going to walk away from a lucrative contract. And ME is not going to spend millions on changing his manager, who does a good job limiting his annual losses on a shoestring budget.

The reality of the sitaution is that ME was persuaded to buy the club by Sheepy on the basis a bit of investment would get us up and make him some bucks. He ballsed up hiring Keane and Jewell and has been in damage limitation mode ever since.

MM has had an impossible job juggling dust. We have the 16th highest budget and 16th highest average attendance in the division. All things being equal we finish 16th. He's massively overachieved for three seasons but struggled this season after the Murphy sale and injuries galore.

Very few managers are going to do any better on ME's budget. The vast majority without MM's experience of the division and ability to work on a shoestring would do worse and I have no faith in ME or Milne being able to find one of the few - the next Wagner - who could do better or as well with more progressive football.

We're screwed until someone comes along who wants to buy a club £80m in debt and making annual losses of £6m. And I don't see Chinese consortia queuing up to buy us rather than, say, that lot down the road with far healthier finances and crowds.

The root cause of our problems is under-investment by ME compared to our ever more megabucks rivals but it's his money, so unless the simpletons now kicking off minutes into matches telling ME to get out of our club and abusing a decent manager and man have a spare £100m plus to put in themselves I don't see why any of the rest of us should bother taking any notice of them.
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McCarthy: TFFT
at 00:13:54

Just to recap, the players McCarthy inherited were losing games with scorelines like 1-7 (Peterborough), 0-7 (Chelsea), 0-6 (Leicester), 0-5 (Palace). He then took us to finishes of 6th and 7th, our best in about a decade. We start the season with Murphy and McGoldrick up front and beat Barnsley 4-2. Then McGoldrick (and later Pitman) suffer bad injuries and Murphy is sold and unreplaced. Suddenly, surprise, surprise we can't score and at halfway we are a bang average 7-7-8 in 15th. Absolutely ridiculous the stick McCarthy has been getting. A fish rots from the head and the club is in gradual decline thanks to the lack of ambition shown by Marcus Evans. McCarthy, as he says, is doing a decent job under ME's 'terms and conditions' - both hands tied behind his back, shopping in the bargain basement bin - which would see us already in League One under the vast majority of managers. it's not pretty but nor are the players we are able to sign while others spend tens of millions
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