PJ said that he took in the Sheff Utd v Huddersfield game to run the rule over a couple of players with a view to the future. He says that he wants young and vibrant players to come to the club and play a big part in the future of the team. It sounds all well and good until you consider that he has got Hyam, Whyte, Griffiths, O'Connor and Murray currently not featuring with Carson on the fringes. He has let Troy Brown and Tom Eastman go for nothing in the summer and in my view unecessarily sold Wickham a year too soon. Yes you can argue that some of these players may not be ready for first team football but what sort of message does this send out to Luke Hyam for example? In my eyes Luke Hyam had shown a lot of promise when he played in the holding role in the Keane team. Our results dipped after he got injured and ever since then he hasn't had a look in. I think the boy has got what it takes and he needs encouragement and experience of being in the first team squad. I like the fact that PJ is at least looking at younger players but the question is why didn't he bring in a few more during the summer? Cresswell was the only signing under the age of 25 and you cant count Stockdale as he isn't really our player. If the PJ Strategy is to use older experienced players to "Keep us up" then all I can say is that I am appalled at the lack of ambition. It is a short term sticking plaster that doesn't solve any of the long term problems. What happens next summer if we stay in this league? Rebuild again? We now have too many loans and too many journeymen and when they get injured who can come in to replace them? I have just remembered we signed JET as well but after watching him a few times can we honestly say that he is any better than what we already have? He is too hot or cold, not ideal for the constant demands of the championship. A win against Coventry is a MUST!
I think you have made some very good points. When the likes of Hyam, Peters & O Connor played I cant recall them ever letting us down during runs in the team (instead of being bit part players or thrown together for the cc match) and would honestly prefere to see Hyam in the team over most of our current midfielders. I like Cresswell but I always thought OConnor had done a good job there and Peters is equal to Edwards for me. Carson was probably our brightest spark other than Bullard last season and looked a real prospect - we are crying out for width, crossing ability and trickert yet he has rarely featured. Eastmann and Brown are slightly different. Eastmann was only ever played out of position and Brown featured rarely so I couldnt form a true opinion although there were signs of optimism. I feel the problem we have had during the ME era is the constant call for promotion every season. It means we look for immediate but short term fixes rather than look for a TEAM of players. I would much prefere us to have a 3,4 or 5 year plan for promotion built on a stable footing where we could give the likes of Murray time to grow into the team. The big problem is our squad is already over the top on numbers, We have many players who are never going to featured yet are still here and if we do sign these younger players they are either going to have to hit the ground running or disappear as our reserve fixtures are frankly pointless. I had high hopes that our squad would have regained some sense in the summer. Jewell was willing to play the likes of Carson last season and I hoped we would put behind us the Keane 'premiership reserves are best' strategy and look to bring in players whose best days are in front of them. Unfortunately we have gone the other way and signed 'names' whose best days seem like light years away. Im not writing PJ off but I do feel we could have a much better strategy when it comes to signings.
Some fair points here form both of you. However I think you may be being a little harsh on PJ, you have to remember when he came our squad was in a terrible state, we lacked quality and experience and many key players had their contracts running down. I'm sure Jewell wanted to keep the McAuley and Norris but they didn't want to stay and because of this PJ has filled these positions with players who have experience at the highest level who he believes can get this team top 10/top 6 this season. Now obviously I don't know what PJ is thinking but I expect he will now buying/playing the younger players as he has a backbone of experience. After all if we finish top 10 (I know we are struggling at the mo) it will be easier to attract the young payers in the summer and Jan. I'm the same as everyone else in terms of Hyme and Carson, for me they should be at least on the bench for most games but hopefully they will be given a chance as the season progresses. There must be some training issues with O'Connor as both Keane and PJ seemed to drop him. I don't think Murray is championship level yet, a season lone to div 1 or 2 would be great for him, if PJ brings him in to early and he flops he may never recover. As for Peters… I would have him over Edwards any day just because he’s my fav player and I do rate him (in an attacking sense), but maybe he’s not training well either as Keane and PJ haven’t seemed to like him.
It’s this constant thrashing about for loans that worry me. A sure sign of a panic-stricken and quite possibly clueless manager, imo. I was never a fan of Magilton, but at least he didn’t actually take us backwards and was never one for fannyarsing about with multitudinous loans. Keano most emphatically did take us backwards and he brought in 13 loans from memory, possibly more, in a mere one and a half seasons. PJ inherited a shambles and hasn’t had (or at least hasn’t spent) anything like the post-ME budget Jimbo or Keano used. Nevertheless, the fact that he has four loanees now and all we hear is that he’s after even more does not inspire me with confidence. Neither does the appalling loss rate and unforgivable amount of goals shipped. Perhaps TractorBoy is right and too much pressure is being put on the managers to get us somewhere fast. Perhaps Warky is right and the mere fact that ex-Prem veterans are required to keep us up (assuming that Bullard, Bowyer et al can even do that) is the measure of the damage Keane did. Either way these are the most depressing times I can ever remember.
I am with you Jonah. I have witnessed many highs and many lows but I have never been so depressed about the prospects for our football club. We have been in the wilderness for over 5 years and I just can't see any real progress being made. Forget promotion! I'm talking about watching us play decent, attractive and coheshive football that entertains! That would surely be a start?
These arguments you've put forward are some very valid points but I think many of you are getting slightly carried away in how quickly PJ can actually address all the problems at the club. And Jewell has alway reiterated his desire not to just build for the here and now but for the future aswell. He's had a big job on his hand and there is still a long long way to go. I agree I would love to see younger players given a chance and I think Jewell will do, a) if they are good enough and b) at the right time. I do not think it would be a great time to introduce youngsters into the team after the last few humiliating results as it could destroy they're confidence, I'm sure Tommy Smith can appreciate this. I agree that we can't just cover up the long term answers with short term solutions but lets face it our club has needed both. I'm sure if Jewell is given enough time he will hopefully sign a few more younger players and gems like Cresswell. Your point about JET sort of defies your point of sticking younger players in the team as they are going to be hot and cold. The most concerning thing for me that you have all pointed out is our lack of width in matches and even if he doesn't see the likes of O'Connor & Peters in his future plans I would prefer him to play them than CM's in wide positions. And I agree with you tractorbhoy in the fact I think we need to formulate a 5 year plan rather than saying we want to achieve promotion at the earliest opportunity as it seems that we should be challenging for promotion every season when the past 3 years IMO opinion we have not been anywhere near challenging for promotion with all factors considered and that is including this season. I completely agree with your points Clapham tractor I think although people are bringing up some valid points I think Jewell recognises these weaknesses and will address them if given time, unlike our predecessor the problems he faces are in general not of his own making and he has had faced alot of problems, we need to give him a chance to deal with them. As for being the most depressing times as an Ipswich supporter last season I am so much more optimistic this season that I have been in the past couple of seasons with Keane under the helm. And I knew the next manager would have a massive task on his hands and will almost take some of the flack for ITFCs downwards spiral over the past few years and hasn't been given the patience previous managers have been given purely because previous managers were given more patience and f**ked it up!!! Patience he will get it right but this was always going to be a hard job after what he has been left with.
It takes time to scout young players from lower leagues. You can't just rush in after half a season in charge of a club and buy younger players from lower clubs as you will end up with more misses than hits. We would just have a bigger reserve side full of more average players like O'Connor, Peters, Hyam etc. Jewell is spot on with his strategy, buy in experience pros who he can rely on and spend some time scouting younger players in view of getting them in either in the Jan window or next summer when he is sure they have the hunger and the quality to take us forward. As for the young players we have not getting a chance, I think there are many reasons for this. It's easy to say they're not good enough but why? Why have so many failed to kick on? I think they are spoilt. They get paid a decent wage too soon and they work with premiership standard training facilities day-in day-out, it's no suprise some don't have the hunger you would expect. Then of course you have the problem of a joke of a reserve league meaning whenever they get a game it's of almost Sunday league standard and playing in these games does more harm than good to their development. I'm reassured Jewell knows these issues and is working to resolve them so that we can make the most of the talent our famous youth system produces. He's said he doesn't want to give young players big contracts too soon, Carson being a prime example. He's encouraging young players to go out on loan to experience lower league football to hopefully keep that hunger alive and he's taken us out of the Butlins Joke League and is arranging reserve matches himself. We are a long way off being promotion candidates but we are definitely on the right road.
