If it wasn't for bad luck,we'd have no luck at all.

Too right Royston - this been scrutinised by several on here over last 3-4 years. If we can see the repeat pattern of injuries, falty re-hab, poor training ( some injuries are caused on the training pitch ffs!) This puts us in a weak place at the season starting line...and what another long season we all have. How many potential 1st team players are out now, 4, or 5,more?!

 

I don't really know much about the fitness staff but if everything is done on the cheap even down to the pitch and the groundsman then it's probably the same story on fitness coaching and facilities. Mick we know didn't take this seriously but I suspect Lambert does and is just always trying to make the best of a bad situation.

 

Nydam stretchered off in the friendly at notts county. You can’t make this stuff up

 

No surprise there, really.

 

Nydam has broken his ankle and is out for six months. More alarm bells.

 

So that's Nydam, Lanky, Bish and Toto injured just at pre season stage.
Add judge, nolan, edwards, Sears and Flynn and that's nearly a full XI

 

Talking of injuries, it seems we cannot even provide basic duty of care for our young players, due to a focus on cutting costs. Who's seen the story in The Independent about a former academy lad of ours has quit football and is diagnosed with mental health issues, all because he picked up a back injury in our academy team and he did not receive proper care, treatment, or a recovery plan. The club refused to pay for an MRI scan to treat the player's injury, instead opting to put him on a series of cheap, misdiagnosed treatments that did not work. When he was eventually given a scan, it was revealed he had two slipped discs in his spine, and we still didn't provide proper treatment to the injury!

So no wonder we pick up so many injuries and have loads of players on the treatment table, it appears we cannot even treat some players sufficiently or accurately diagnose their injury! What a shambolic indictment of the decreasing standards in this club.

 

It sounds like a very unfortunate situation for the young chap. He had a pre-existing condition and it doesn't sound like he could have ever had a footballing career, but the way Town handled the situation has compounded what would have always been a miserable and disappointing time for him.

I think it's fair to say that we are a million miles away now from the golden days of the academy in the Sheepshanks era but the fans have got to ask what their priorities are. The two managers of the Evans era who have come in and tried to raise the standards and bring some professionalism to the club - Roy Keane and Paul Hurst - are the two that have also come in for the most stick from supporters.

 

I’d argue on-pitch results is the main reason why Keane and Hurst failed, hence why they are unpopular with the fanbase. I’d also argue Keane’s approach to the academy, and how he dismantled and shunned it in an attempt to raise first team standards, set us back massively as a club. But this is all old ground covered on here, so not point resurrecting that debate.

It cannot be denied that Hurst came here with a presumption that Ipswich Town would be much more innovative and professional than the unfortunate reality. So he was let down there. His approach to sports science was further undermined by the fact we had only just started implementing that line of thinking at the club, which cannot have helped him realise his ambitions here. But then he got a lot of other things wrong, not that he’d ever admit it.

Aside from the debate about managers, I think it’s clear that the whole running of the club - and our approach to on-field success - has got to get a lot better if we ever want to be in the Premier League again.

 

It’s the shoulder shrugging “that’ll do” attitude that pervades every single aspect of the Club that really saddens me.

Sport science and the holistic approach to running sports teams (see Team Skys’ success) is taken for granted elsewhere but seems to have passed us by completely.

I can’t see us enjoying an sort of revival/success until we have joined up thinking between the owner and manager to get all the details right.

 

Bit of a contradiction on the one hand to say that we need to change the culture and to take time and effort to get the coaching right, but at the same time it's short term on-field results that really matter. You don't make an omelette without breaking some eggs and Keane and Hurst are both egg breakers.

As Big al puts it, we have reverted to a 'that'll do' manager, which of course feels more comfortable to the owner and sleepy season ticket holders.

In our favour this season:

- We have the kind of support you could really only dream of in the situation.
- We have a handful of very talented players that could walk a League One five-a-side competition.

We are relying on that being enough to catapult us back into the Championship.

If we are ever going to get back to the Premier League under this owner it will be more by luck and sheer determination from players or staff than any strategic judgement.

I don't fancy our chances because it is that joined up thinking that we severely lack.

 

"The training ground looked terrible, the stadium was run down. You could tell why it was where it was."

"You can have a great team with terrible infrastructure, then if your team falls then it's going to fall to rock bottom. If your infrastructure is good and your team starts to fall, then it only falls a little bit and bounces back again. The club, for me, was too run down. There was no TLC there. There was nothing there."

Paul Lambert in the EADT. Damning of Mick McCarthy more than anyone else, I would say.

 

Some cheerier news,the Budgies are already 3-0 down in under half an hour!!

 

Make that four. The 9-0 is in sight already.

 

Get in!!

 

But Lancaster is out for minimum 5 months

 

Or even Lankester

 

Not so much a blow for Town as not looking good for his career, poor lad.

 

Normal service is resumed the Budgies are “winning” the second half.Cue open top bus celebrations!

 

Liverpool practice match.