I'm sure we've all said stuff like that this season. That run of draws which seems like a different season now, wasn't great, we were slow predictable and easy to play against. We are light years away from that now, fair play to the team and manager for turning it around. It's only a couple of months ago we were what 10 points behind Sheff Weds and now we're 4 pointe ahead, incredible run of form
My favourite post is "We have our Club back!" How true, gotta feel a teeny weeny bit sorry for Sheffield fans, what a blow-out!
I think we've heard that phrase several times over the years, usually to come unstuck a few games down the line with each manager struggling to work with the resources at a run down club, with a real lack of infrastructure. I think what we've currently got goes beyond getting our club back, since the new ownership has come in they've given our club back and more. I've never known our club like it is today in a positive way, every part of the club is being invested it and it seems sensibly. The only thing I can think of which isn't perfect currently is it'd be great to have ownership of the club by fans however that's the world we live in.
All, true PTC, but I beiieve Pompey were owned by their fans as a Trust, which in principal is a good idea, identity, experience, volunteers, community, passion etc, but they probably did not have anything like the funds to invest in their club and players. And so Michael Eisner Disney CEO stepped in to provide funds and they are thriving now.
Spot on, itfcptc. I think the new owners deserve a lot of credit going their way. In my opinion, there were two massive decisions they've made - which weren't wholly popular at the time - but hindsight has proven them correct. The first was the summer of 2021 and the massive upheaval of the playing squad. I can't remember the last time we jettisoned so many players (some of them popular, long-serving players). The signings we brought in that window, such as Morsy and Chaplin, helped lay the foundations for the winning culture and quality that this squad has got. That strategy could easily have gone wrong - and it looked like it might have done, early in the process - but the investment was needed. We also needed to remove the complacent, comfortable mentality a lot of those former players had. Not helped, I'll add, by some previous managers. The second was firing Paul Cook and hiring a relative unknown with no prior first team management experience. Another decision that could easily have gone wrong. Cook was possibly the right man at the wrong time, but the poor quality of his coaching staff and the absence of his right hand man (seemingly key to a lot of Cook's prior success) hinted that we weren't a club going up with him at the helm. The owners realised this quicker than most. They certainly picked the right guy in McKenna - a more progressive manager, who is genuinely ambitious and modern in his approach to coaching and managing players. Our high transfer budget in this division has helped, but it was high time the club actually used its resources to bully our way out of this division - presuming we go up of course. Doing so by playing the style of football we've seen over the last few months is an added bonus. On a wider basis, the owners have also been willing to invest in the club and they've made Portman Road a nicer venue, even with the small touches like the nods to our history around the Cobbold and North Stands. Mark Ashton got a bit of stick from Bristol City fans on here when he first arrived, but I have to say his recruitment (obviously working as part of a wider team and with McKenna's input) has been positive. Particularly the four signings made in January - those players have been invaluable in giving us balance across the pitch and helped us go on this crazy unbeaten run. Talking of pitches, the investment in the new playing surface this summer is long overdue and welcome. And the club has been more embedded with our local communities, giving a sense of togetherness and ownership that we just didn't have under Marcus Evans. The club also made the long overdue, sensible decision to think 'I wonder how much money we could bring in by partnering with one of the best selling artists, who also happens to be an Ipswich fan?' The key challenge and barometer of their success will be what we do moving forward. Hopefully we'll be playing Championship football next season, so how will we avoid the fate of so many promoted clubs that get relegated in their first season in the second tier? I believe we've got the ambition, coaching staff, and players here that will ensure we don't get complacent again. Maybe, just maybe, this isn't the limit of our journey, but just the start?
Thank goodness KMc has been given time,I can't believe there were some idiots questioning his ability before he'd even been here a year!
I've got no interest in a fan owned club for Ipswich. We had it entrusted to the Cobbold family and I don't think we could run it better than they did, or how the current owners are. That is not only true in times of success, but in setbacks too.
Sheffield Wednesday are a fine football club, one of the greatest in fact. They will be back where they belong in the long run.
The proof is you also don't just need to get success to bring alive a football club, hopefully we will have success this season but the fans were coming back last season, its about engaging with the fans, playing to nostalgia, creating a community and playing good football, something we've missed for 15 years. Even though I find Ashton a bit David Brent, he hasn't put a foot wrong since the appointment of McKenna and did alot right before then, the recruitment and professionalism compared to what we knew before particularly around the transfer window when neither him or Cook had been in post very long was incredible in comparison to what went before. However I still have some caution with Ashton partly due to the stories from Bristol but also i felt his behaviour undermined Cook because he wasn't his man and clearly Cooks way of working didn't fit with how he wanted things done. If you look at the interviews, Ashton was constantly front and centre and talking about issues which really the manager should talk about and that celebration after our first win with fans...what was all that about? It felt like there was an internal battle going on for power and there was only going to be one winner, comments from Norwood, Dyer and Cook I think allude to that when they left. Cook almost stated he almost knew from the start his number was up and I wonder whether that reflected in his recruitment of coaching staff, who were clearly too inexperienced, he does have a good history of developing young coaches (he also had success before Richardson). I felt given the changes going on at the club Cook should have been given more time given his track record with clubs and as I said earlier in the season we've been on worse runs of form this season that what Cook got sacked for, I guess if you have 2 people at the top of a club who can't work together its better to get it over with earlier than later. I feel the reason he was sacked wasn't genuine and I'd hope if someone like McKenna was in a similar situation he would back him. Then the appointment of McKenna was a huge gamble particularly given the context of who we just sacked. But since McKenna has been appointed Ashton as I said hasn't put a foot wrong and is behaving in a way which befits his role. Ashton's certainly got an ego and as long as that is being satisfied I think he'll do well but that may come at the expense of others. I think we're also lucky to have someone like O'Leary who is an experienced individual for Ashton to lean on and feels much more calming so probably keeps him in check.
I don't think I have ever called for a manager to be sacked apart from Roy Keane but I have certainly questioned McKenna and whether he had it to be a manager. Last season under him our set pieces were awful (defensively and attacking) and showed no sign of improving in season but this season is a different story. Even though we started this season well, there were clearly areas things didn't look quite right tactically and this got worse during our poor run of form, it seemed like McKenna was too ideological in his thinking and becoming stubborn, our team now is lightyears away from that and the performance against Barnsley really highlighted that in that we scored from a clearance. What I have seen from McKenna is he might not change things straight away but he learns e.g. with the set pieces and with our style of play. I think my gripe wasn't necessarily with McKenna as he deserved time and was showing enough potential to be given it, it was more with what I had discussed surrounding Ashton and Cook and the fact Ashton said we sacked Cook because we wanted to challenge for promotion last season, you wouldn't appointment a long term (hopefully) manager with no managerial experience if you wanted that. He ultimately wanted his own man and someone who aligned with his own ways of working and used a poor run of form as an excuse to sack someone he never wanted. McKenna has been on worse runs of form than that and not many people given that form and how we were playing expected to be where we are now. Given what happened with Cook and really doing that Ashton put his neck on the line I wondered whether Ashton or the club would show the same ruthlessness. I'm pleased they didn't as it shows hopefully we still hold some traditions of giving managers time (even though things weren't that bad) and I'm assuming that the sacking of Cook was more of a clash of personalities rather than not giving managers a chance. Given Cooks track record I was also frustrated that we didn't give him time as it seemed to me playing the odds there wasn't anyone better really to get out of this division and part of me didn't care how we did it and felt the club could've held their nerve rather than taking a gamble on someone who would clearly take time to develop. Hopefully we will get promotion and will have done so in a way which both a young team and manager have developed together playing high quality football meaning if we do get promoter it gives us a far greater chance of working our way up the pyramid in the long term with a real identity and McKenna at the helm. I'm sure I will criticisms of McKenna in the future but the recent run of form we've been on and his recruitment and tactical nous really have reminded me of a modern day Burley team, in that we play good football but we can mix it up and show resilience all over the park. I honestly currently wouldn't want any other manager managing our club.
Perhaps I didn't mean a fan owned club, more of an ownership or Board which had more fans or people who had a connection to the area on it rather than individuals who ultimately want to sell the club for a profit. I realise that is more of a pipe dream and am harping back to 20-25 years ago and football has moved on since then.
I didnt think the atmosphere at Pboro could be beaten but Barnsley was a Hell of a place to be on Tuesday night, Barnsley had a good 20 minute spell in the first half but didnt create any chances in fact they didnt create a worthwhile on target chance all night, Town on the other hand could have scored 6 with Luongo hitting the bar, a missed penalty, and Hirst putting a chance over the bar as well as the 3 we scored and Barnsley were a well beaten side long before the end. The away end was rocking the whole way through the game with deafening noise and the stand vibrating under our feet but no disorder that i saw apart from the blue flare thrown onto the pitch when the teams came out at the start, Saturday cant come soon enough, it should be absolutely mental.
A lot of great posts here today so I'll add my long winded take on things. The way I see it is that since Gamechanger have come in, almost all decisions are being made with the Premier League in mind. We are currently using our time in League One to get the stadium and infrastructure right, long overdue after years of neglect for sure, but a good decision nevertheless as we can afford to use money on those areas because we don't need to see serious investment on the squad. The type of fees we pay for players now is nothing compared to what we will have to start coughing up should we reach the top division. We've done the big screen TV, we've done the electronic advertising boards and the Desso pitch and undersoil heating is going in this summer. This all makes so much sense because the Premier League have certain stipulations that need to be done on reaching that league and some teams may find that they need to spend more on the stadium and facilities and media centre when they get there, taking away funds that could've been used on the squad. We will already have those things in place should we get there. They brought McKenna in, clearly a person that is very used to operating at high level clubs and comes with the vision and knowledge of what it takes at an elite level. He is being given the financial support to make the changes to the squad and Playford Rd that will stand us in good stead in the future. McKenna has also created a Premier League way of doing things as I mentioned before, bringing the team to the stadium on the coach etc. He has built a culture that is very appealing for players and Ipswich must be a fantastic place to come to work and enjoy what you're doing. We will be able to attract a much better calibre player with McKenna at the helm than we ever would with Cook purely because of what he has done here. The mantra of doing what is right for the team and not focusing on personal goals has created a brilliant culture of everyone pulling in the same direction. As Kieran says, make the right decisions for the team and your personal stats will naturally follow. It's also evident that a lot of time has gone into engaging with the community and getting the connection back with the town businesses and the Suffolk people. Along with the style of football we're playing, this has already got us to a point where tickets sell out and fans are excited to attend rather than feeling like it's an obligation to go just because it's 'my club' As a whole package, you can see that things are clearly moving in the right direction. The stadium has improved, the club to fans relationship has improved and the football on a match day has certainly improved. Who knows how far we can go but I'm certainly enjoying it and feel confident for the future!
All of this gives us a real competitive edge on the pitch. Good vibes and inspiration have a tangible effect on athletes when their muscles are starting to get tired or they have a setback in a match and Marcus Evans could never get his head around it.
Great posts all round. We are indeed aiming and preparing for.the Premiership one day, perhaps sooner than we envisaged! Whatever the ins and outs, the what ifs, I have not witnessed such a happy Club atmosphere and terrific performances on the pitch for decades. We are lucky to be behind the best Club in the land, and they are lucky to have us!
I've lost my club, ive got no idea who they are anymore... need to win a game to secure promotion...5-0 up by half time, no nervy moments....13 wins in 14.....accumulative score 43-2....who is this team who I support, where's the disappointment
