I do have to question us at times. We're linked - well more than linked - with Jerome Thomas who is training with us. 32, and hardly played for 2/3 years. Hmmm. Now he may be worth a look and it may go well - who knows - but it appears on the surface that we're in a very weird transfer position. I don't expect us to spend ££££ millions but the odd £300,000 - £500,000 signing may make all the difference. When you consider Brighton have J Wilson on loan, Wendy are throwing ££££ at it now even getting top 6 is going to be difficult. Mick's doing the best he can, in no way shape or form do I want anyone else at the helm but I do have to wonder a little bit as to the clubs ambition.....!
Tbh spending a Million on a player won't mean you get a better player than a freebie, because if said player is any good then his/her current club would rather keep him/her unless it's from a lower level club which would then be a gamble to see if they could step up. Also there are teams above us that spend big bucks but also teams below us that pay big transfers......
I don't buy the "there's always someone worse off " attitude (ie, other teams below are us are spending millions). The fact of the matter is, the size of our club, we need to keep progressing and evolving. Our transfers were fairly good at the time, but it's coming to a point where we need to take a (calculated) gamble. I don't mean go out and splash 4-5 million on a player, but we have to start thinking medium to long term now. Getting players in that are in their thirties, who haven't been playing that much is not akin to a team looking to get promoted. The financial value of our team is extremely low, in fact, we probably only have Bishop that would attract a worthwhile fee. That means that, when our players leave, they leave on a freebie. We need to start looking at getting in either top (young) league one players, or players that haven't quite made the grade in the premiership. Weighty - you're correct in that we don't have to spend millions on a player, I think it's more the fact of what player we are attracting. Kevin Foley, Jerome Thomas..seriously, come on, is that the best we can do? Yes, other teams are splashing the cash, but at least they are trying, and they are getting in good players (some work out, some don't). We just seem to make so hard work of things at times. We know MM has his 11 favourites - so to play 46 games with pretty much the same eleven is just pure madness! This is why we fell away a bit last season, and if our policy continues, we will fall away again this season. There's no way the likes of Murphy, Sears et al can continue playing hard pressing football all season. We need a freshen up and we need players that are hungry to progress and not players that are looking for their last decent pay cheque. If things don't change we will never get out of this league - we are simply not good enough.
I suppose it's about timescale on how long people will give to progress and evolve........often it's got to be in six matches. I don't think we really have an old team the only over 30s that start regularly are Murph and Douglas the rest should be able to improve and evolve.....I'm sure we could get money for Sears,Pitman,Hyam,Berra,Smith,Chambers,Bru,A fit Goldy aswell as Bishop, probably not Millions but a fee of some sort. Foley has been brought in as short term cover and Thomas is only training with us, if he has something to offer over the second half of the season I'm sure he will sign a short term low cost contract no risk. And I don't see any reason why a professional footballer should not be fit enough to play 46 games a year without a problem, they have nothing else to do but keep themselves fit.
No while I don't want us to spend ££££ for the sake of it, frees can be good ala Berra/ Chambers/ McGoldrick / Murphy / Skuse plus some others, however, at times it is well worth spending a fee - take Sears for instance. I just think perhaps we could splash a little bit of cash. The ambition behind the scenes doesn't seem to inspire me massively at the minute with the club. Foley I have no issue with - full back cover that's fine. Should Jerome do well while training then again no issue for us to offer something. There is just something that's starting to not sit hugely right with me.
I wouldn't moan if we went out and spent millions( it's not my money after all so why would I).... But we won't be taking million pound gambles on anyone, I thing that a good thing about the way we recruit currently is that we seem to take a good look at a player whilst on trial/training with so it gives a good idea if they fit in at the club. Putting the first team to one side, from what I've heard from people in and around the club it is a much better place to be in than it has been for a good few years and everyone buys into what is trying to be done, that said would I be happier if the club was a **** place to be but we were in the prem....probably not.
The 'ambition' and direction of this club is, put simply, footballing austerity. If this transfer window passes by with a complete and insufficient lack of investment, lack of activity, then we're going to struggle to achieve a top six finish. Kevin Foley and Jerome Thomas, while most likely decent chaps, are intended to be like-for-like replacements for Jonathan Parr and Tommy Oar. The problem is that Foley and Thomas are both older and inferior squad substitutes, and have not played consistent first-team football for years. This is not investment. It cannot even be called progress. It's regression. I don't completely blame McCarthy; his hands, presumably, are tied in a very restricted market. But we're not making ANY moves for recognisable, consistent quality. No attempt to sign hungry, promising players from below. Yeah, so the good ones are going to cost a bit of cash. The alternative is dipping into that all too familiar market for cast-offs, never-has-beens, and journeymen. It's not sustainable. Look at last summer. We were restricted to freebies and most of those players, (Malarczyk, Toure, Coke, Varney et al) can already be considered deadwood, especially if performances in the cup are anything to go by! Last season we signed Sears, who proved to be a revelation for the latter half of the season. But we still fell away. Yes, we only spent £100,000, but if we stuck with our current tactic of signing freebies, we'd have missed out on him. Just like we're in danger of missing out on the play offs! Unlike last year, we're nowhere near the top! We don't have a points buffer. So Evans, for God sake, back your man! You handed him a new contract, potentially up to 2020. He's had nothing but pennies to spend throughout his three years here! Most of our defeats this season have come against big-spending sides like Hull, Reading, Middlesbrough, Derby, et al. Teams that have invested cash. I fear the gap in quality between us and seven/eight other clubs will become more apparent. We're hitting a glass ceiling! What's the effing point?! Rant over!
Micks hands are tied? He has openly said that he is more than happy with the squad he has and does not want to or need to add to it, it's Mick thinking he can gain promotion without spending anything that is the problem! Typical of the arrogant Yorkshire git! New years resolution failed, like the diet!
Of course his hands are tied, he's barely had a penny to spend since we appointed him! As for the squad comments, yes, he's going to publicly support his players and toe the 'party line'. Fact is, he has brought in two players this window, potentially a third, and the grand total of those players is zero. One loan, two freebies. This is what he's had to work with, and it isn't sustainable!
You say fact is we have brought in two players, I only know of Foley, who is the other, can't be anyone great coz I can't remember, speaks volumes
You seriously believe that, Spanish? McCarthy's come out several times and revealed he has not got money to spend. When he got given funds at Sunderland and Wolves, he spent that money straight away and got both of those clubs promoted. Why would he not do the same at Ipswich? The man's stubborn, true, but he isn't an idiot.
Oh yeah, as I said....... Yeah I do believe that Nuggets, why would the club publicly state there are funds if there wasn't? Would be easier to just say that we are skint at the moment. Trust me, there is money!!
I think all we want to see from the Club is a couple of quality signings which would be taken as a serious statement of intent as far as the play offs go, theres 8 of us including 2 Town fans from Sweden going to QPR and Bristol City after that so we put the investment into the Club with regards to support and from a fans perspective some signings that will improve the squad will be appreciated.
From Ian Milne, Marcus hasn’t told Mick ‘make sure you just get frees’, he’s told him to go and identify the players that you think you need to take us forwards,” explained the Blues managing director. “Throughout the summer Mick and Marcus continually talk – but it’s got to get through Mick’s test before it gets to Marcus. He’s not going to waste Marcus’ time. “If Mick says ‘we need to get this player and we need to pay this money’ then, provided it’s a reasonable demand – not a low demand, a reasonable demand – then it will go ahead. “I don’t hear from Mick or anybody at the training ground that Marcus is being stingy. I’ve never heard that. “Regrettably a few fans might sense that’s happening, but that’s really not the case. “Yes, you have to be prudent in any operation. But we’re not being prudent to the detriment of the whole object of why we’re here. “And the whole object of why we’re here is to get promoted – and we know it needs funds to get promoted.” He added: “There are the monies to do things now. The Tyrone (Mings) deal was a great piece of business and it’s made things easier for Mick and Marcus to look at a wider range of opportunities. “There is no starving of funds and the ambition burns brighter than ever.
McCarthy says, With the January transfer window fast approaching, McCarthy said: “We’ve got a group of lads looking at players all the time and we continue to do that. “It always strikes me that, even now, when we’re doing alright, it’s like ‘what can we get to be better?’ “Actually I don’t think we can do better than the ones we’ve got, unless we spend a whole chunk of money and blow the wage bill.” Really??? I don't think it would cost a whole chunk of money to improve on Knudsen, Douglas and some of our back up players like Coke, Toure, Tabb etc. Whilst our starting eleven is pretty good, the backup is piss poor imo!
