Kieran Mckenna looked a sad, lonely man at the end, and stood in front of several empty rows. Wonder what he was thinking. Over breakfast this morning " Oh well I gave it my best shot, down we will almost certainly go. I shall be off." Some fans, thankfully not us lot on here apart from a few negative comments, have surprised me during our 12 weeks in the Prem. Maybe these fans were not realistic about our chances. Lets be honest, we are the little old Ipswich, historically famous, but now the underdogs. Our depleted, talented squad is 2-3 years of investment behind every other team. Lets not forget we have a manager who in the last 3 yrs has delivered unprecedented successful and enjoyable football. And this has underpinned a massive transformation to our club. I for one will treasure these memories for the rest of my life, maybe not many more seasons for this Old Boy. I think he and our players deserve respect and lets hope our owners too will be patient. I imagine no-one really thought in 2021 we would be playing in the Prem so soon. If he does stay at Ipswich - personally I doubt it, altho he and his family love Suffolk - then we can hope that more experienced players will come in and push us back up where we belong, alongside the Brightons and Bnmth. So, lets try to enjoy the ride as we often have said, and give him and this amazing team, all our support, in the stands and Online. Its gonna be a tough Xmas period, every game will be a free hit. It was a great game today with superb performances from the likes of Burgess. Yes, we were all gutted, and as always, its such fine margins. And send Muric on his way!
Some coaches just have their level, they are great managing any team outside of the PL, but enter it and they just can't cut it. Then you have the teams like Man U and Chelsea who can destroy a good coach overnight because they want instant success. Kieran Mckenna is untested still, his skills at coaching in the PL won't be truly known until he moves on OR Ipswich survive for another season or possibly two in the top flight. I assume he had a say in this years signings, some of your fans felt I was being Green Eye when I commented on the scatter gun approach and signing players that would be top quality in the Championship but unproven at PL level Philips was a strange signing, nobody else would have touched him, he has completely lost it, Jack Clarke is a confidence player and failed at PL level once already, your signings were strange, maybe attracting top players to a newly promoted club was the issue but around £100m was spent on a lot of players rather than on 3 who might have made a huge difference. The last three games have been really rough for you, before that you had a lot of draws that could so easily have been 3 pointers, losing on Saturday to two late goals will have been a huge confidence drain On a positive, looking at Current form, you are still better than Man City over the last six games. You need to keep within touching distance for when May arrives as you have quite a good fixture list that month
Well said, Gaffer! I don't think McKenna will be resigned to throwing in the towel - he seems far too ambitious and professional for that. He's still learning how to be a Premier League manager and some of his game management decisions have been questioned elsewhere. In his defence, he'll probably be rueing the number of games we've controlled and looked good for a win, only for individual errors late on in games to cost us points. From games where we've taken the lead, our record is won 1, drawn 3, lost 3. Most of which we've conceded goals late on to lose leads, when four/five starting players have been replaced - underlining the lack of depth we've understandably got at this level. One Premier League transfer window against every other team in this division, who have had several (at the bare minimum). That's not McKenna's fault. Not even Mark Ashton's fault really. That's just the reality for where we are as a club currently, as you rightly touch upon Gaffer. I wonder if McKenna thinks back to the summer and regrets not moving to a club like Brighton or Chelsea when he had the chance. A harsher environment with increased pressure, sure, but he would've been equipped with stronger finances and squads to have made the step-up to Premier League management. The transfer policy does look strange - in that we've largely avoided Premier League experienced players in a squad that had no Premier League experience. Most of us were a bit concerned we didn't do more to bring in that much-needed experience. As I said in another post, we've continued to ignore the large overseas market for foreign players (Cajuste aside), where you can often get better value for money. That's where clubs like the three Bs (Brentford, Brighton, and Bournemouth) have excelled for so many years and have managed to stay up year-in, year-out despite being - no disrespect intended - historically smaller stature clubs. In defence of our transfer model, it feels to me like Ashton is potentially planning for realistic short-term outcomes. If McKenna does leave and we do get relegated - both quite likely by the summer - our next manager will have a squad of players in much better condition and quality than the one McKenna inherited a few years ago. A squad that has a winning culture from the core group from back-to-back promotions who have been there and done it in the Championship. A few players essentially taken from the 2023/24 Championship Team of the Year. And a squad that has recent Premier League experience and better understands what the demands are next time we go up. Yes, a few players will have to depart - hopefully only a couple from Davis, O'Shea, Hutchinson, and Delap - but with more money and parachute payments in hand, a new manager will have freedom to bring in a few players that they want. And obviously McKenna himself is largely responsible for that success. Even if we got relegated and finished bottom, as long as we weren't getting blown out of games (which we haven't been) and McKenna is committed and wants to stick around, he should get a fair chance to take us straight back up next season. And that should be the case. He's shown loyalty to us on several occasions when the times were good by turning down job opportunities at established Premier League sides. We don't need to get rid of a successful, promising manager just because we haven't survived against tough odds.
Well said Nuggets! Totally agree about foreign players. Our best teams have had several Dutch and a rich vein of talented overseas players.
Ipswich is very much a long term project. If you look at our signings, they tend to be younger players whose value will increase. Some fans did have unrealistic expectations at the start of the season but although most realised that the jump between championship and the premier league was massive, I for 1 didn’t realise how massive. That being said, special mention to Cam Burgess who most thought wouldn’t be able to make the step up to the championship let alone the premier league. As a club, we need to stick together. Unfortunately, some have short memories but if you take a look at where we are now compared to 3 years ago, it has been an unbelievable rise and a fantastic journey. I look forward to it continuing in whatever division we’re playing in
The PL is a cesspit of the rich getting richer and the divide becoming greater. The Championship is a division where the football is decent, and coaches can make a huge difference, a tactical switch at half time can change a game, a mistake can get punished or equally you get away with it. The PL is about who has the most money, the top teams have coaching staff who are good enough to coach/manage Championship teams, they have scouts and coaches that cost them millions, snapping up young players from all over the world not alone country. It took Leeds returning to it before I realised how vast the divide was, it's crazy how I want promotion again and I ask why, it isn't much fun. Leeds wouldn't even get the advantage of the bounce because we sold the young talent and spent poorly last time around. It won't happen as Sky plough far too much into the game but we need a shake up, we need scouting to be kept to a local parameter, we need to stop teams having a dozen young players they can loan out, the top teams have already edged closer to a European super league, it will happen one day
My thoughts for what they're worth.Recent results have been disappointing partly down to indifferent performances,partly down to fine margins and the odd occasion of just bad luck. Like most of us I couldn't believe our fortune in getting back to back promotions and in all honesty believe we went into the PL a Season too early for the stage we were at both in terms of squad and KMc's experience. I see this year as a free hit where we can give the developing squad valuable game-time and boost the coffers.I'm sure the ownership group see us as being ahead of schedule and will have patience with MA,KMc etc,just hope some of the fanbase can show similar understanding. In the meantime I'm enjoying the visits of Liverpool,Man U,etc,etc with their wealth of international stars and if by some miracle we did survive then woopie doos! Things I'd have done differently with the benefit of hindsight,keep Keifer Moore and Sarmiento and not bother with Jack Clarke and Muric. COYB!!!
There are no boos. There is no heckling from the stands. There might be silence and people leaving early, but this team is getting off lightly and it’s because the fans do have that respect. I’m not sure that it will be extended to the newer faces quite so much and it will have it will find its limits eventually if fortunes on the pitch aren’t turned around or if next season we fail to make a decent fist of the Championship.
Sarmiento, yes - he understands the way McKenna wants the wide players to play and he was doing a good job towards the end of the season - especially in helping covering Leif defensively (as well as 1 of my favourite ever goals in 35 years of watching) Moore is a no for me- not mobile enough for the premier league. As for the GK, as fans, we don’t know what the situation was with Hladky - maybe he didn’t feel he could make the step up. We couldn’t have just Walton with Slicker as back up so we had to bring in another keeper, was there anyone better than Muric available? I think he is a really good shot stopper, commands his area reasonably well but does have more than the odd rush of blood / bad error in him which has cost us a number of points. Can this be coached out of him - I hope so as I would be amazed if KMC admitted an error this early and bought another keeper in January.
I think we have somewhat rose tinted glasses on in regards to Moore and Sarmiento...that's no disrespect to them as they played a significant part in our promotion last season and Sarmiento in particular I'm sure will go down as a bit of a cult hero. But I do think we've recruited better players this season. Moore was quite slow and didn't have as much to his all round game as Delap or Hirst. Mind you after seeing Muric lump the ball upfront several times on Sunday maybe Moore would've been a useful option to have. Sarmiento for all his tenacity still had a lot of development to make for me and from what I saw gave the ball away frequently.
As I was writing it I was doubting myself and you make a good point. I guess the aim was not to have Al Hamidi as our second striker and he was here whilst Moore was. So the comparison is probably between Moore and Delap over Al Hamidi. In terms of Clarke he's not positively influencing games how Sarmiento was at the end of last season but that was the level below in which Clarke flourished and Sarmiento could barely get a game for us. I think we're a long way from seeing the best of Clarke but hopeful we will see it.
To be honest I think KM needs to take some of the flack here, his stubbornness with regards to Muric is costing us, Hutchinson keeps his place every game when, to be honest, he has looked out of his depth for most of the season. He obviously requests that we play the exact same way as will did in league 1 and the championship, like playing crazy risky passes out from the back. The same formation, regardless of who we come up against, you have to adapt, due to the difference in class but he seems unwilling to change. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not calling for his head or anything like that but the man needs to be less stubborn and be more willing to change things, at least until he can get the players in that have the quality to be able to carry out his style of play. I don't know what you guys think but for me, the following are just not good enough for this division.... Muric - a liability in any division Clarke - love him but not good enough Johnson - Mehhhh Wolfenden - maybe back up Leif - controversial but defensively, he ain't Prem league standard, maybe I'm old school but prefer my defenders to defend first and attack second. Phillips - Nooo, destroyed by Man City Chaplin - Great guy, decent but back up at best Burns - Not good enough, out of depth. Hutchinson - I think will come good eventually but play him wide right, not strong enough as a 10. Originally I said broady out but he has looked decent when coming on. Jack Clarke needs more time, new club and all that. Jack Taylor has looked fine when playing. I really like the look of Cajuste but looks unlikely we will be able to sign him. Soooo comfortable on the ball, quality player!! Morsy looks at home in this division, how has he not played in Prem before?? The CBs are ok for now, prefer Greaves to Burgess, pity the 2 can't play together, think they would be a decent pairing but obviously both lefties!! Think we miss Hirst big time, love him as a player. As for thoughts on Sarmiento and Moore, not good enough for this division in my opinion, mot any better than we already have. Delap was a massive upgrade on Moore!! I think Clarke will be better than Sarmiento in time. I actually think KM will stay regardless of what division we are in next season, fingers crossed it's the Prem but if not....it will be another fun season in the championship, one that we would piss!!
Could say I told you so, specially regarding Leif, but I won’t as it’s Christmas, I’m probably already on the naughty list and I know you definitely are . Anyway, Merry Christmas to you all, I hope you all have an enjoyable day tomorrow no matter what you might be doing
Merry Christmas to you as well along with all posters here. I for 1 don’t mind you visiting our board as you post sensible and thought out opinions. I worry about us being so inflexible when it comes to formations - would be happy to see us with 3 centre backs with Leif and Johnson as wing backs in certain games as think it would make us more solid. The other thing we need in the team is pace, it’s ok to have 1 or 2 slightly slower players but we (IMO) have too many for the rigours of the premier league. Hope we can get through the festive period still within touching distance of 17th and then we will see where the new year takes us
Bielsa for us was stubborn in his ways, Farke is now in the Championship, it’s either a trait with many or the tactical changes are so advanced we don’t see what they are. I honestly believe the best coaches for player improvement are the ones who coach in the Championship. You get to the top or so called big 6 in the PL and it’s more about who can handle the personalities. You don’t sign a player for £100m that isn’t the finished article. https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/manchester-city/mitarbeiter/verein/281 Look at their coaching staff, it’s insane Good luck over the festive period, it’s looking a bit grim, I’m still hoping you push Everton into the bottom three
