On the basis of that performance, and our recent form as a whole, we've given up. This entire club has given up.
Mick McCarthy with his overly-cautious, defensive, and restricted tactics, has given up. He's happy to grind out a point at home to relegation-threatened sides and persist with a not-quite-so-winning formula. Where are the young players? Why is he persisting with out-of-form favourites? Why is our form so bad at the business end of the season yet again? Why does this meek surrender feel like a loss?
The players on the pitch look to have given up. They are capable of much better and our attacking players, in particular, have under-performed all season. Sears has the caveat that he's mostly been shunted out wide, and can't implement himself on games out there, but Murphy, McGoldrick, Varney, Bru, and Bishop have struggled with form and fitness all season, and it's hurt us. I thought the Mick to Villa rumours would have reinvigorated this lot, but their heads have dropped. The team spirit doesn't look all there. Blame McCarthy and other factors as much as you like, I'm in the camp that it's ultimately the players that make the biggest difference in a game of football and, with the exception of a few, a lot of those lads are playing well below their normal performance levels. They look limited!
The fans have given up. We saw the team sheet and most the people around us were understandably frustrated at Skuse and Douglas being played together in the middle. We had no width. One positive was defensively, we looked solid, but we were at home against a side in the relegation zone! There were audible sighs of frustration and a scattering of boos throughout the game and at full-time. We know the play-offs are beyond us. Not mathematically impossible, of course, but we can rule ourselves out at this stage, I think.
And of course the board have given up. In fact, they seemed to have given up before a ball was kicked this season when they gave Mick next to nothing as a transfer budget and then failed to back him in January and announced a hike in ticket prices. They've failed to upgrade the status of the Academy, when they said they would. Instead, this board takes the paying fans for mugs by offloading our best players for inflated fees, failing to reinvest that money into the club, and then continuing their absurd policy of pricing out fans from going to the game. They even gave McCarthy a very generous, long-term contract in the hope that he'll continue to get us punching above our weight while investing as little as possible into the club.
We need a complete overhaul. I'm glad for what McCarthy has done for the club, he stabilised us and got us competing at the right end of the table, not forgetting last season's play-off finish, but we need somebody more progressive, more ambitious, who can implement a more attractive playing style, and pick a team based on form and potential and not on how many caps they have. I hope the board will then provide this manager with the financial resources required to make us more credible promotion contenders and offer fans an olive branch by lowering ticket prices and encouraging Portman Road to fill up again! Because, let's be honest, if we're going to consistently be outspent, and continue offloading our best players, then we're not going to finish in the top six, are we?
I've not felt this angry about Ipswich Town since McCarthy has come to the club. Something needs changing, and if McCarthy isn't going to do it, then I hope somebody else will! We're a mid-table side, in stature, finances, and the quality out on the pitch. Our club should stop settling for this and start showing a bit of ambition, particularly considering the prices they charge! Rant over!