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New season. Can we do even worse?

Discussion in 'Ipswich Town' started by YorkieLancsHampyLondoner, Jul 30, 2020.

  1. YorkieLancsHampyLondoner

    YorkieLancsHampyLondoner Well-Known Member

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    I am reading that Kayden Jackson is likely to move on (and step back up to the Championship). We’ve released Jordan Roberts who didn’t exactly set the club alight, but nonetheless I still rated.

    You have to wonder why players would be motivated to join or stay.

    All of this smacks of a continuation of our progressive deterioration on the pitch, or are we finally going to have a realistic transfer budget?

    How can it be that a club like Brentford can get it so right, when we continue to get it so wrong? Or is the restart the dawn of a new successful era for Town?

    I cannot see Paul Lambert surviving the season. Kieron Dyer has been a bit more visible in recent months, I really think he could be the key to unlocking Town’s future.
     
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  2. San Diego

    San Diego Sir Mediator
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    Yes, it could get worse.

    I have no faith that we will improve in any area...team quality, stadium or league position, as long as Marcus is owner.
     
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  3. itfcptc

    itfcptc Well-Known Member

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    Yes we can do worse, but it's also quite unprecedented times at the moment and alot of clubs will struggle. Could teams rely more heavily on academy players which in our case could be a strength.

    With regards to Jackson, I'm surprised, I said last season if Jackson is in our main striker or even in our first 2 we're not good enough to get out of this division, he's an average striker for this division. Definitely a good one to have particularly to change things up but if we want to get out of this division we need 2 strikers ahead of him. On their day I think Sears and Norwood could form a great partnership problem is injuries.

    As for Dyer, who knows as he's only ever managed under 18s so would be an unknown quantity but from what I've heard and seen I'm not sure he's got the temperament to be a manager
     
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  4. Bigalreigned

    Bigalreigned Well-Known Member

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    It's difficult to find anything positive in my expectations about next Season and given the World's wider problems football shrinks into insignificance.I have renewed my Season ticket but the main reason is the social aspect of an afternoon out with my aging Dad.

    On the very minor factor of whether Jackson stays or goes,he (or more likely his agent) is deluded if he seriously thinks Championship Clubs are going to come knocking!
     
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  5. YorkieLancsHampyLondoner

    YorkieLancsHampyLondoner Well-Known Member

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    Dyer’s temperament is spot on ptc. He has the passion and spirit that McCarthy and Lambert are both desperately lacking without being an absolute head case like Keano. Plenty of examples of less experienced managers doing well - a far better choice than another old git with nothing to prove and could be helped to succeed by figures like Burley.
     
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  6. Nuggets

    Nuggets Well-Known Member

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    Unfortunately, I also think things can get much worse for Ipswich Town. This squad looks pretty ordinary if you take out Wolfenden and Downes, and let’s face it – one of the two will almost certainly depart this summer. We’ve been gradually declining for over a decade now, and nobody at the club seems intelligent enough or possessing of the right talents to reverse it. Hampy, you rightly cite clubs like Brentford who have a system and culture in place to bring the best out of staff, players, and supporters. I don’t think we’re anywhere near that.

    Ultimately, it is down to people in authority to set examples and drive progress within organisations and football clubs. We’ve got an owner whose main plus point seems to be that ‘he puts money into the club to keep it running’. In other words, the bare minimum expected of an owner. And most of that money gets added onto an ever-increasing debt that the club owes him. In terms of strategy, recruitment, and ‘setting a culture’, Evans has failed on all counts. The vague ‘five-year plan’ gets contradicted and broken every season. He continually hires poor managers (with the exception of Mick McCarthy). The General Manager of Football Operations, Lee O’Neill, means well and comes across as a nice guy, but he looks completely out of his depth in his job role – which requires somebody with more talent and experience. He serves more as a ‘yes man’ to Evans, which is a thankless task at the best of times. The manager, Paul Lambert, arguably should have been fired last season when we picked up only four wins in the last 17 league matches. Lambert said the right words initially, and undoubtedly helped heal the divide in the fanbase, but his results have been consistently poor. We don’t even have a clear playing style of philosophy, compared to those successful teams like Brentford. Since Lambert was awarded that five-year contract (it’s worth stressing because it sounds so ridiculous, but it expires in 2025!!), he’s become much more morose and tolerant of the club’s willingness to cut corners and do things on the cheap.

    My main concern with the club though is the Academy. This was traditionally viewed as the ‘jewel in the crown’ at Portman Road and has contributed to our success and tendency to punch above our weight for decades. I’d argue its status in domestic football has significantly decreased over the past decade and we do not produce nowhere near the required number of talented footballers to consistently make a profit. Even clubs like Wigan and Blackburn are surpassing us in this regard. It’s true that the Academy’s budget has been gradually reduced and now, following relegation from the Championship, COVID-19, and the failure to achieve promotion last season, the budget has been cut to the bone. It is widely reported that we have issues attracting a high standard of player to the academy, partly down to our failure to achieve Category One status back in 2014. Standards have significantly dropped over the past couple of seasons – partly due to offloading any promising young players to rival academies and partly due to our policy of helping to fund the Academy through a ‘pay to join’ scheme, which clearly does not reward meritocracy. There are reports that we are struggling to find the right calibre of youngsters and clubs like West Ham and Norwich have made significant inroads to hoovering up the best talent in Suffolk. Academy coaches and scouts are leaving due to the noncompetitive salaries, leading to a brain drain from the club. It’s all very worrying.
     
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  7. Nuggets

    Nuggets Well-Known Member

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    Kayden Jackson is a decent player, who notched 11 goals last season and several assists, but I think he is a little one-dimensional and I struggle to see how his skill-set would fit in a lone striker role - which is the direction I can see Lambert wanting to take us. Jackson cost us around £1.7 million (in one of those Hurst transfer deals that look progressively worse and worse as the months crawl by). If we can get around £1.5 million for him, I think we'd be mad not to take the money. Considering the amount of promising free transfers that are available - and the availability of quality strikers like Danny Graham, Armand Gnanduillet, and Sam Winnall - who can play in the lone striker role and have a better scoring record than Jackson, any move could potentially be an upgrade. Jackson out for Jonson Clarke-Harris and Danny Graham, for example, would be great business and should leave some money to invest in the defence. The question, as always with player sales under Evans, is how much of any Jackson transfer fee would be invested in the playing squad?

    As for Kieron Dyer, I can see the romanticism around hiring him as Ipswich manager. I've no doubt his heart would be in the right place, but I wonder how much influence he'd have over the likes of Evans and O'Neill to change the culture from the top. Ideally, we need a charismatic, strong-willed manager to come in and question Evans and O'Neill on everything about the club. He'd need to be willing to stand his ground and take matters into his own hand. McCarthy did this, to an extent, but built the team around his philosophy rather than adopt a Brentford model. Hurst also did this, but his lack of experience in the Championship and his methods of motivating the players ultimately backfired and cost this club its Championship status. Lambert initially looked like he could do that with Evans, but relegation to League One changed whatever positive initiatives we could have implemented. And then his five year contract stopped his critical comments to the media. I've said it before, but I think we missed a trick getting in somebody like Mark Warburton.
     
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  8. TopBunk

    TopBunk Active Member

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    I would certainly give Dyer a go....
     
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  9. Westlake33

    Westlake33 Well-Known Member

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    Good evening all. Hope you're well under the silly situation / safe / well.

    Saw this article so thought I'd comment.

    Can we do worse? Under Lambert / Evans - quite possibly, yes.

    Way I see ITFC, and I've lost the plot with ' us ' as a club actually - I'm very apathetic to Ipswich and have lost a lot of interest.

    Reason - and this is my viewpoint - you're all entitled to yours, is as follows.

    Like it or not, under Evans Mick was the glue that held the whole club together. Given naff all budget, many players injured etc, he kept us comfortably, without any problems in the championship. Never a problem. Outside chance or a chance of play offs. A bad season he'd get us 17th or 18th, otherwise you're talking what 6th / 7th / comfortable midtable. Style of footy sure. Not good. However gone over that time and time again.

    Remove Mick, and Evans has been well and truly shown up. Hurst was clueless, Lambert is. Not many will be able to do a job remotely as good as Mick's, and not many will like that. He was a bloody good manager given our set of circumstances, and the club since he left is a bloody shambles.

    Careful what you wish for.

    You throw SCMP limits next season, factor in Hurst's pile that will count towards the budget - revenue down - some younger players will now count towards the pot too................

    Jackson doesn't wanna be around. He'll be off. I'd imagine Downes will too, quality player. Bishop will be broken, will Lankester be back? Far too many powderpuff players like Dozzell etc.

    Do I fancy us to go up next season in a league with Posh Pompey Sunderland Oxford the relegated 3 Bristol Rovers who have already got 6 in? No - No I don't. Maybe play offs, but over the line with Lambert? Not really.

    I'll continue to read, but lets be quite clear, we're a club going absolutely nowhere.
     
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  10. YorkieLancsHampyLondoner

    YorkieLancsHampyLondoner Well-Known Member

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    I see McCarthy as the reason we are in League One. We signed so many loan players that inevitably the squad was eroded. For every player he signed that worked out, he signed three or four duds.

    We would have been nowhere in our play off season without Daryl Murphy and he was brought to the club by Roy Keane.

    Players were used to getting an easy ride so we ended up with a squad of second rate Championship players with huge egos.

    The relationship with the fans was at an all time low.

    Then there was a clash of these egos with the new manager and the owner failed to back his man.

    From there we have only deteriorated further and it is beginning to look as though it may be terminal.

    Ultimately Evans is responsible but McCarthy’s tenure was an unmitigated disaster.
     
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  11. Westlake33

    Westlake33 Well-Known Member

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    ROFLCOPTER.

    Some things never change, absolute guff.

    Have a great summer, be back in the future.
     
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  12. YorkieLancsHampyLondoner

    YorkieLancsHampyLondoner Well-Known Member

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    Some clubs are inevitably going to go bust. Loads of staff are being laid off. When football does return I’m definitely not taking the existence of our club or being able to watch Town for granted whatever our fortunes. It’s a brand new era.
     
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  13. Farked19

    Farked19 Well-Known Member

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    You finishing mid table and us finishing bottom are arguably equally disappointing results, although personally I'm happy to be in a league where I can ( hopefully post virus ) go to live games again without parting with fifty quid. Good luck for 2020/21. I have a feeling that everyone is going to need it!
     
    #13
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  14. Bigalreigned

    Bigalreigned Well-Known Member

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    Here’s to the Old Farm Derby being back 2021/22!!
     
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  15. Redruth

    Redruth Well-Known Member

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    well your £50 went a little bit towards Mezil Ozil & co getting £350000 a week.....:)
     
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  16. Farked19

    Farked19 Well-Known Member

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    Ha ha. It didn't because I never parted with it. That amount of money for a potentially tedious ninety minutes is beyond my ken.
     
    #16
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  17. Mike_Holmes1990

    Mike_Holmes1990 Well-Known Member

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    New Season. Familiar feelings of optimism which I know are unfounded, but let's try to spin something.


    KVY is back and getting a full pre-season. How our success last season was evidently so tied to him being on the field I won't try to understand and is very worrying, but the correlation can't be denied, keep him fit and the glue might just hold together.


    We are still one of the bigger fishes, it's meant nothing up to now but it may yet work in our favour. Maybe some of the complacency has been embarrassed out of the Squad...
     
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  18. Bigalreigned

    Bigalreigned Well-Known Member

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    If the relegation Season didn’t do that I really don’t think things will be any different with regards attitude.
     
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  19. YorkieLancsHampyLondoner

    YorkieLancsHampyLondoner Well-Known Member

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    I'm sure this will come back to bite me on the arse, but there have been encouraging signs in the three (or four) friendlies. Better organised, comfortable in possession and (today more than Saturday) positive going forward. There are some glaring weaknesses and a massive imbalance between the more accomplished and weaker players - and the way we are playing is really going to show up the less competent - but... some clubs will be way off the pace, sluggish and unprepared and we look about as good as we can at this point I'd say for the playing staff we have at the moment.
     
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  20. San Diego

    San Diego Sir Mediator
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    I watched the Tottenham game and some of the West Ham game and what was clear to me was that the team have definitely been told to play out from the back. We haven't looked like very good at it at the moment, playing ourselves into trouble in our own half on many occasions. It is commendable that Lambert is trying to instill a playing style, something that was seriously lacking last season.
    Playing out from the back is a risky game plan and it normally takes a team a while to get efficient and effective at playing that way, so we could see many more heart in mouth moments as the team grows into the playing style. It may also turn out that we just aren't capable of it and after a few losses early on in the season we may see it completely abandoned.
     
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