17 Years Ago Today and Counting....

Unbelievably it is 17 years ago today that Town beat Barnsley in the play off final to gain promotion to the promised land! I remember all the elation that poured from us Townies as Reuser smashed in that decisive Fourth goal in the dying minutes of what was a pulsating game. Sadly it's 17 years ago and we are further away of reaching that pinnacle now than we have ever been! We are more likely to be winning the league 1 play off final the way we are heading!

The words of the commentator still raise the hairs on the back of my neck all these years later! "Reuser......PREMIERSHIP!!!"
What has gone so wrong since then?

Those Were The Days!

 

What a great day that was and what a great season followed. Only being in my earlier years as a town supporter I thought that and the season which followed was pretty normal.

I may not have seen the Robson era but i feel fortunate enough to have grown up through the Burley era. I fear we have lost the opportunity to gain many young fans over the past few years, as I have said before if I'd been taken to a match when I was younger and Mick McCarthy was manager I don't think I would have got into football at all let alone supported a club!!

 

It wasn't just the fact we did it either, it was how!!

 

Jim Magilton's Hat-trick in the Semi Final was the highlight for me! The players gave absolutely everything that night!

 

Also getting the better of Allardyce and his Bolton side made that feel all the more sweet.

That match is (and will probably for ever be) the greatest ITFC game I have seen at Portman Road. It had absolutely everything but most importantly, It had a quality town side that played in a way that we all wanted to see and had a host of household names that we all loved.

 

Huddersfield have proved beyond doubt that anything is possible BUT they have a young and very talented manager...

 

The attitude of the side that year was "Never say die" whilst all we've had for the last few years has been "Can't be assed" (shoulder shrug).

 

Good days indeed - three failed campaigns with us playing open expansive footy for years, and even until Big Fat Joe left in 2006.

In answer to your question of what has gone wrong since they - my opinion is....

* Gambled on survival in the Prem a second season and built the two new stands before we were financially safe. Absolutely crippled us.
* Finidi George and Matteo Sereni transfer fees and wages just didn't work. Would we change either? We wanted to go to the next level and didn't. For the record George wasn't such a disaster as seems to be the opinion for me. Classy player who didn't hit his Ajax heights sure, but as bad as people say? laughable.
* Failure to sell many a player for a good fee before we went into administration. Another gamble of us going straight back up 02/03. Matt Holland for £750,000 for instance when apparently we could have sold for over £4,000,0000 the summer before. Ambrose too. Many others.
* Failure to give Big Fat Joe the £150,000 for Ricardo Fuller in 05/06. The straw that finally broke the camels back - fair play to him for leaving.
* When the ££££ finally did come, Jim ( who did a fantastic job on zero £ until 07/08 January ) decided to get THREE cms and not address the problematical left wing issue - I never did get this!
* A little bad luck - ala Civelli / Le Pen signed for big fees ( for us ) and not able to showcase what they were able to do.
* Magilton / Keane and Jewell throwing MILLION UPON MILLION down the TOILET on fees / signing on fees and wages. Laughable. Not even a play off campaign to show for them wasting a combined over £40 mill ( and that is being generous )
* Failure to give Mick a decent budget to work off.
* Some would say failure to SACK Mick after this last season too.

Many a many reason and I'll have forgotten numerous others.

 

It all went wrong when we sold Scowie to Leicester and money grabbing Richard Wright went to Arsenal. That close knit team spirit was never the same after that, I also blame Matty Holland for not wanting to leave for a big money transfer to Villa just when we were hitting the financial crap the following season!

 

Spot on Warky, that concurs exactly with my thoughts as to where it all went wrong. The team spirit was nowhere near the same in the second Prem season.
You are perhaps a bit harsh on Wright but there is no doubt both he and Town would have benefitted from him staying with us for another Season, as his career really stalled with that Season as second choice keeper at the A r s e.

 

The redevelopment of Portman Road sticks out for me.
We didn't consolidate our position in the league before starting the expansion. We're still feeling the effects of that now.
The club has made so many poor decisions over the last two decades and more. Players leaving for free, selling players for good money and never seeing it reinvested.
Marcus has really ****ed our club up.

 

Ultimately it is David Sheepshanks who is to blame for this whole bloody mess!! He sold us down the river and made a nice few quid in the bargain!

 

I think Wright thought he was gonna be No 1 within a month or two... if he was misled by Arsenal or not you can't blame him for moving on tbh.

 

We had just finished 5th in the Premiership with European football to look forward to and with his home town club FFS! I did question his loyalty at the time and my opinion of him has not changed.

 

Was it the club lacking the ambition to keep him? No such thing as loyalty in a footballer I think most of them see it as a job....by the time a player hits the first team I think the joy of the game has been played out of them obviously one of two exceptions

I also think the European football could have hampered our domestic season although I did enjoy it Milan especially.......although we finished 5th I think we should of started that next season just eyeing survival from the start......but it's all if's butt's and maybe's .....saying that LePen was dogsmess George was pretty good.

 

Jug ears was all about the ££££ - left us the second time to be #2 at West Ham and happy ( most of us would be ) to be paid bucket loads at Man City as #3.

I know team spirit was poor the second season in the prem and some deals didn't work out / teams had figured us out however if I had to put it down to 1 reason I'd stick with the stadium development. Had we stayed up 01/02 then was the time, not before in my opinion.

 

Are any footballers not all about the ££££................

 

http://www.goal.com/en/news/12/span...berria-will-donate-his-salary-to-the-athletic

Also the US defender whose name escapes me at Ac Milan when injured opted to not get paid.

I get your point though, a good 98% are greedy.......

 

Didn't Tarricco walk away from his contract at West Ham(?)when an injury all but finished his career?Agree though most are money grubbing little tykes.