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

Agreed. But we are where we are because of a failure of ambition from the board, a lack of any discernible playing style or strategy on the pitch, and an inability to adjust to the changing world of football. In our league games this season, our gameplan has either been lump the ball up to the two strikers (which doesn't work) or pass the ball through midfield and freeze when we're in the opposition's final third. Fortunately we're up against a much-changed, slow-to-start Peterborough United side on the weekend, and I hope we can get three points there. Let's face it, we're a League One standard side now. But we should be a top six League One side, avoiding the play offs this season would be a catastrophic failure for this football club.

The owner should still take main responsibility for our decline. He implemented a back-of-a-fag-packet five point plan a few years ago, and proceeded to ignore it. We've had years of selling off our best players, most of them undervalued, has contributed to the gradual decline in the quality of our squad. Let's face it, 2016/17 we were saved by an inspired loan signing in Tom Lawrence and the form of our goalkeeper. In 2017/18, we struck gold with Waghorn and Garner whom contributed over 30 goals and half as many assists and then proceeded to offload them both the summer after. It has not been sustainable.

 

The real sickener about all this is that it’s blindingly obvious to just about everyone but our clueless owner and the numbskulls he employs to “caretake” our continuing decline.

 

You make a lot of sense for a Remainer.

 

Marcus Evans, if truth be told, is an excellent businessman (you have to be to amass a near £1b fortune).

Problem is, he's running our club like a traditional business. If a business is struggling, revenue is down, and is losing money, then the expected thing to do is to cut costs, tighten your belt, and hope that the economic crisis eases, and that your business nouse eventually helps you turn the business around.

ME is doing the "right thing", if he was running a traditional business. The issue is, running a football club is not like running a traditional business. You need slightly unconventional methods, and a plan that you actually stick to.

Cutting costs and selling off your assets will not move the club forward. Yes, it will stabilise it, and keep it afloat, but unfortunately that is all we are doing (just). In this day and age, if you don't have 5-10 years to wait for a potential group of kids to hopefully turn into superstars, then you really do need to speculate and spend some money (doesn't have to be transfer fees) but, to get the best, you need to pay for the best (and unfortunately we are only paying peanuts)

You'd think after 12 years he'd have learnt his lesson, but alas, he hasn't.

It's taken me a while, but i've now finally come to the conclusion that ME really needs to step aside, count his losses, and sell to someone who has more vision, more drive, and a little more ambition. ME is not fit for purpose, the club is being ruined, and is dying a slow death.
I've given him the benefit of doubt up until now, but, i really feel he needs to sell up and get the hell out of dodge.

 

Looking at the cases of Bury, Bolton, Portsmouth, Coventry, Rangers...

I think there is a case for a set of regulations that implements jail time and seizing of assets for negligent mis-management of league football clubs.

What we have at the moment doesn’t work. In fact the points deductions will only put off good new owners taking over and the fine handed out to Manchester City is completely ridiculous.

Maybe in some cases the Football League takes ownership and provides interim playing staff from a pool of out of contract PFA registered players or from the other 23 clubs in the league. If the league is having to guarantee wages in the case of a club seizure then perhaps we would finally get a handle on player wages.

Football clubs are too precious to their communities to leave entirely to market forces.

 

This sorry mess that we find ourselves in all rests with that upper class buffoon Sheepshanks! Yes he was successful in the early days of his tenure when he brought in George Burlley and together they formulated and carried out the famous "5 Year Plan" but unfortunately with success comes hubris and it was his that saw us plunge into the financial mire, Anyone with a half a brain would not have gambled with our club's future the way he did. Spending money like a drunken sailor after we finished 5th in the Premier League our first season back! He is public enemy number 1 as far as I am concerned as he is the man that destroyed our football club. Ipswich fan he may be but it was his reckless actions while Chairman that has led us to the state we now find ourselves in, You only have to look back to when the club went into administration and he wanted all creditors to accept 5p in the pound while he was still drawing a nice fat salary!

 

Well said, Stretchy. Spot on with how Evans is viewing us (and thus treating us) as a business in an industry that operates on a completely different financial level. Football should not be about making nice healthy profit margins every year - or at least it shouldn't be. While we can't be a basket case club, and we can't run up massive losses year-in, year-out, but look at clubs like Wigan, Swansea, Brighton - to name just a few - who were / are financed by passionate, local owners who consistently pumped money into the club with the ambition of achieving promotion. They take losses here and there, but they have an ultimate objective. What was ours in the Championship? Tread water and try and punch above a self-inflicted weight? No wonder thousands of people refused to come back to Portman Road.

All that's left is for a majority of our fanbase to do is to stop swallowing the lie that Evans puts £6m of his own money into this club every year to keep it afloat. He doesn't. It's there in black and white in our most recent accounts. He put in about £400k in 2017/18. And all the money that he did put into the club, particularly during the Keane and Jewell years, went into the ballooning debt that we owe him and his businesses. It was around £35m when he bought us from Sheepshanks, it's now over £100m. That is not investment from our owner. That is plugging gaps and expecting to be paid for it at a later date - with interest.

If we were in a position to do so, I'd sweep out Evans, the Board, the manager, the coaching staff, the physio department - and start again. Set up a well-run coaching staff with a clear playing style throughout our teams (including the academy) and have a clued-up, proactive medical team. Our support so far this season, and indeed last season, was amazing. We're consistently selling out our away allocation and a majority of supporters are clearly connected and engaged with the club once more. It would be a shame to see that evaporate off the back of continuous failings that this club appear predetermined to make.

 

Well, yes and no. If Joe Royle had triumphed or Evans hadn't dragged the club through the dirt for a decade we wouldn't be where we are. Then again Evans would have never had the opportunity to buy the club if it weren't for the administration and debt.

I would much rather an ambitious and somewhat reckless owner than the slow painful death we are now experiencing.

Burley takes equal responsibility. He did not have to buy Sereni and Finidi George after all.

 

Its quite painful thinking back to those days of such euphoria followed by such ignominy but its interesting to explore if the rot started then and has been perpetuated ever since by poor decision making from ME. I was there for the seasons on the ride up and it was so much fun watching the side grow and play that way. Sheepshanks had to be given credit. I really dont know how it all went so wrong-obviously we lost key players, bought overpriced crap and (to my mind) biggest error of all, persisted with Venue and Mcgreal in defence. in the ****ing PL?? once was lucky with a superbly in form Bramble, without him though, hoping it'd work twice was plain stupid. There must have been something of the Ridsdale going on too-those were the beginning of crazy financial times and they were all into it across the world doing unsustainable things with money. its was 'their time' to cash in and make millions. we've been paying for it ever since.

But I agree the club took a big nosedive in that second PL season really out of nowhere-we had a great hand of cards after finishing 5th, but we contrived to **** it up more than anyone else-has any other club finished 5th and then been relegated? i doubt it. then the financial melt down. then the new owner, the big spending on poor players and managers (Royal aside), now the austerity (ironically with the first decent manager i think we've had since Burley did his thing).

But Luton are doing it. Norwich too. and Shef Utd. lots of teams have grown successful within budgetary limits. its not destiny to be on a downer forever. we can turn it around but probably not with this owner.

 

The Millions spent and subsequently wasted on developing the 2 stands after just one season in the PL was the epitome of sheer reckless stupidity! There was absolutely no need to develop 2 stands. Just look at Bournemouth and the attendances that they get!! Anyhoo the damage has long since been done and now we are really paying the consequences. It's going to take a bloody miracle for us to ever get even half way back to where we once were.

 

I don't know how true this is but have been told the building of the Pioneer Stand in the 80s led to us having to sell off talent and we effectively made the same mistake twice.

 

We sold Mariner, Muhren and Thjssen to pay for it!

 

I remember it as Butcher to Rangers but can’t be sure.

 

That was several years later Big Al, Butcher left when we dropped out of the First Division.

 

.....age related memory loss!!

 

Terry was sold to Rangers after the 1985/86 season after our relegation.

What would we give right now for a CB of even half his quality!

 

Woolfy is comfortably the best centre back to come through the ranks at least since Titus Bramble and I do think he can be in the company of those top, top defenders we have had at the club.

It's a real shame for him that he's come through when the club is on his knees. I'm sure if he was coming into a top flight side with better players around him he would have quite a career. The likelihood is he will have to move on after a season or two to fulfil his potential.

 

He is a Class apart from everyone else we have at the club right now.

 

I can’t say I’d seen much of him before Saturday but he certainly looks strong,good on the ball and fired up,the big worry is how long we’ll hang on to him.

 

Wolfenden has had a very good start to the season and he should be one of the first names on the team sheet. My concern is that when Nsiala comes back to fitness, it's going to be Wolfenden that gets dropped rather than the liability that is our skipper.

It's still early days of course, but I think Downes has added a lot to his game over the past year and is our best player in the squad - based off the first couple of games this season. He should be the first name on that team sheet, as far as I'm concerned.