The results since Blackpool have made the start to the season so awful after what was a promising first two games. This could be bad luck, a lack of confidence, bad management or a mixture of everything, although increasingly it seems to be pointing to the Latter. I'm going to try and give a balanced assessment of Ipswich since the summer and give reasons as to why my patience has run out with Jewell. Cast your minds back to the end of last season, a disappointing season came to a close with not even a whimper but there were some positives. Namely since January and what can be seen as (intended or not) the end of Jewells dads army and the emergence of the more youthful side that played with Play-Off form. http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/league-championship/2011-2012/custom-table That shows us in 10th but on equal points with 6th. As a result the general consensus was that a few key additions would give us a competitive first 11 though a few more additions were needed to give the squad the necessary depth to really push for promotion. Either way we had what appeared to be a good foundation to finally build and develop a squad in comparison to the panicked reconstructing and patching up of the previous summer. The other perceived positive was Leadbitter moving on. Although now i wonder if the hole he left was bigger than we thought, and more important It happened seemingly in backwards order of priority but the 3 main positions were filled. RB - Billed to be the right sided Cressy, Hewitt - once he got back from injury we could finally have a recognised RB for the first time since Keane let Wright go. CB - Luke Chambers, not a signing that really got off your feet,but seemed to be a relatively solid Championship center back that would give. GK - Loach, Long sought after young, and presumably eager to re-energize his career at his boyhood club. We had our 11. Then the summer got better with Klug returning from Tottenham, and soon after bringing Luongo with him. An exciting talent on loan for the year. There were still calls for reinforcements upfront but the squad was being built in a patient thoughtful way. Harsh comments from Jewell after some worrying pre-season games appeared to give the team a kick up the arse we proceeded to Beat promoted West Ham and Colchester relatively convincingly. Then the season started, tough game against Blackburn that we stayed strong in and fought back to force a mistake in there defense and get the equalizer. Euphoria followed as we got the victory we deserved at Watford, all signs pointed toward being able to compete against Blackpool. I questioned the fragility of the confidence of this latest new dawn, I feared a negative result at Blackpool would get the atmosphere in the stands nervy, an atmosphere that could in turn affect the confidence of the players. I dont think many people expected such a shocking second half, 6-0 was a result that was enough to shatter the new dawn on its own. But no matter Carlisle was next that would provide that should've provided the squad with a game to get Blackpool out of the system in time for Huddersfield. The performance was half-understandably nervy but the right result appeared to be heading our way before our Nemisis struck, the dreaded late equalizer. Confidence gone from us, Carlisle smelling a scalping, the honeymoon of the new season was definitely over. 2-2 against Huddersfield became an acceptable result just to stop the rot before the international break. Middlesborough was a tough game to come back to, but after regrouping in the break and the addition of Paul Taylor and Murphy to help our attack a draw was definitely achievable. But once again an opposition goal broke any reclaimed confidence and we succumbed to another defeat from a match where we possibly could have won. Quickly followed by the same pattern at Wolves the performances were getting worse and worse to the point where we couldn't resist fellow strugglers Charlton. The reasons for this quick turn around from new dawn to disaster then. Confidence - begins as understandable but the management team should instill this, although it can be argued if we capitalised on chances it would become a problem, goals breed confidence, confidence breeds confidence, confident players mean good performances. Lack of Goals - Hard to explain really, as mentioned, the end of last season appeared to see us relatively efficient scorers, Chopra had promised more goals and we were setting up in the same way. No-one predicted it being a problem. We go back to confidence that the management should be instilling Leaky Defence - The biggest bug bear of Jewells time here. Same mistakes still being made even with new addition (s) appears to point to bad management although i prefer we did stay 'we will score more than you' minded. So again that goes back to confidence. Bad management - Oddly enough this is a point im still unsure about, the chosen tactics do give us the chances to win the games. If the Players took them, the confidence would start flowing. But this is my central point to why I now want Jewell replaced, he seems now unable to bring this confidence back and although the recent outbursts can be seen as the team defending each other It shows the frustration and confidence hasn't been kept in check, the spiral has started again and it seems a change of manager would be the only thing that can bring this confidence back. A shambolic performance against Charlton is, no disrespect to Charlton,the final evidence that any hope of Jewell turning it around is gone. I just hope the squad isn't broken up. As a final statement i will say this, if Jewell and the squad to manage to get back to the top 10 by November, there should be a new target given. by the start of January we would need to be comfortably in the Top 10.
Good Post Mike, I know we have had our differences of opinion but it is a very good assessment. Mick Mills on Radio Suffolk today was just so eloquent and everything he said made complete sense. He identified as so many of us have the poor scouting network that we seem to have at the club. Exactly one year ago we were in dire need of 2 quality Centre Backs so we got Sonko and Collins. Fast forward a year and we are still in dire need of 2 Centre Backs so we bring in Higginbottom on loan for 1 month! How is this going to solve our ongoing defensive frailties! In hindsight Paul Jewell should have gone after the 7 games losing streak last season but he was given time and the chance to improve our squad. He has failed miserably and it borders on the negligent when you consider that he had 4 months of the close season in which to bring in 2 Centre Backs. Instead he brings in 1 Centre Back and then allows 1 to leave! The writing has long been on the wall for Jewell and I can't see how his position is now tenable considering the mistakes that he has made in nearly 2 years as manager. He said after last year that we would be less reliant on loans and low behold we have 4 loans and the best player on the pitch isn't even ours! This is piss poor dreadful management and I don't care if he's hurting because he has brought this in large part on himself. Bring in Mick McCarthy to steady the ship and make the vital changes that are desperately required, bring him in now so that we might actually compete in the top 10 come March/April. Fail to act now and we will be in a relegation fight all season!
I have to pretty much agree with all of that. And is why I think I've thought changing manager would be what should happen really until now!! Jewell seems to be a fair weather manager, i.e when we are good we are very good but when we are bad we just collapse and you can just feel confidence leave the players as soon as we make a mistake, we start to feel sorry for ourselves!! Which is probably why his spell at Derby was such a bad one!! Like today for example, so far this season i do not think we've played that poorly but we beat ourselves. As soon as we say have a 10 minutes spell of pressure and we miss a couple of chances it's like the players know it's inevitable we are going to concede!! PJ's tactics today were one of a desperate man, changing things to quickly making rash decisions!! One of the major problems is we do not have any real leadership on the pitch, there's noone to jeer each other up or when things aren't going our way or pick the players up when we concede, heads just drop and unfortunately it seems the managemant doesn't seem to be able to do this either!! We're in a rut!!!
I dont think the scouting network is actually that poor. Its getting the identified players in, from Austin to Davies to Boyd just to name a few we have failed to get the signatures not failed to identify the right players.
Against Boro, Wolves and now Charlton we haven't played too badly..................... god knows what the magnitude of the defeats will be when we play poorly! I agree with the vasy majority of the above thread - i cannot believe that a "manager" of any team/club/business etc can identify the obvious problems and then proceed to do bugger all about sorting them out over such a long period of time. Can this pls be sorted out so that the once mighty ITFC can at least start to compete again. (Worringly i heard on TalkSport last night a journalist say that he thought ITFC would be alright and ulitmately stay up again - how our aspitations have changed!!, and what we have to realise is that the outside world do not percieve ITFC to be a force at all in the Championship any more - that is the reality of our current predicament.)
Barnsley Humped Birmingham 5-0 tonight so god only knows how many we will get thumped by next Saturday!
How Mick Mills can complain about our scouting network Im not sure. We are linked with decent/ promising players from various clubs at both home and abroad. Talent spotting is probably bottom of my list of complaints. The problem comes from getting them into the squad and then moulding them into a team. I think that potentially confidence is the biggest problem on the pitch. We are in a rut that means we are doing ok (nothing special) at 0-0 but the moment we go 1-0 down its like the result is already over. OVerall I think the original post is probably accurate except I have to disagree with the last sentence.
If our scouting network isn't a problem then please show me all these young talented players that have descended on our club over the last 2 years or so! No? Thought not...!
It all depends how you define a scouting network I would say that signing players that are not obvious targets are signs of having a scouting network in place. The likes of Cheik kour(whateverhisname is) Cresswell, Drury & Hewitt are signs that we are SCOUTING outside the obvious. We were also linked with the Belgium Forroune (spelling?) who went to Middlesborough & the Icelandic striker who went to Wolves. All of which suggests to me a scouting network. As I also commented, getting them to sign is a problem.
Warky - Mills said he likes our squad at the moment and would like to work with the players. He also said the main ingredient of success is getting the transfers right in the first place (contradictory of above statement). Mills said none of this is Simon Clegg's fault. I find it fascinating to listen to and i would love to see Mick Mills take the reins but you do have some rose tinted specs on sometimes...
Mick Mills talked a hell of a lot of sense but I don't recall him mentioning a poor scouting network being the problem. I actually think PJ's strength is talent spotting, perhaps we should keep him as a scout, that's not why we currently are in trouble!! Infact it would be great if Mills could come and speak on here as I agree with everything he says (tractor bhoy, are you him?). Someone did ask him the question if he would like the town job and he said a couple of years ago noway because he said whoever took over had a hell of a job on their hands but he said now if PJ leaves the next manager would have a good squad one certainly capable of finishing top half!!!
ptc - he spoke at length about the scouting network. but I don't think that is the problem. But I do think that we need to focus more in on no more than five signings a season and ban loans altogether.
I dont think it is rose tinted but you refuse to see anything positive that has happened at the club under PJ reign. There are not many things to see plusses in but I think talent spotting and obscure/ bargain player signings are one of them.
