Next season - early debate...

Yes okay an idiotic time to write this for numerous reasons however this season seems to be drawing to a close / I'm done with it so thought I'd look ahead a little.

Any side you think may surprise / dark horse? Perhaps a Forest etc!?

How do you think we may fare?! Yes okay - no new manager etc however we can edit this / come back to it.

How about them up the road, will they be contenders again or things get tougher!?

If someone could put this as a sticky that'd be great - clearly we can add a lot more to it over time / when we know more etc however thought I'd get the debate going a little early!

 

Eager beaver, Westy!

Okay, so I'll stick my neck out despite the fact the summer business has not begun yet, and I think Hull will have a much-improved season next campaign. If Birmingham avoid the drop, and under Gary Monk they may just do that, I'd expect them to improve next season if Monk is still there. Also, as seems to be the case recently, the promoted sides are likely to surprise, so I think Blackburn and Wigan may have decent campaigns, presuming they both get promoted. I think Wigan in particular have used their relegation to clear out their deadwood, get the right manager in, and play a style of football the players are clearly comfortable with. Forest may surprise next season, but over the past decade they have stagnated and I think their problems are more deep-rooted than a change of manager and a couple of new additions, so I'll say mid-table for them again. In terms of the possible relegated clubs, West Brom, Swansea, West Ham, Palace, and Southampton will be tough clubs to beat. I wouldn't mind Huddersfield going down, as Wagner will likely be off and I don't think they'd be the same side without him. Stoke will lose good players if they go down and I don't think they've got a strong academy to support the senior team. If Wolves, Cardiff, Fulham go up, that'll suit me, as we haven't won a point off them this season. If we lose against Villa and Boro in upcoming fixtures, they'd have also done the double over us, so won't be sad to see them go if that's the case.

Early days again, but I think play-offs is beyond us next season. Usually when a long-serving manager departs a club, there is a period of transition and I think that will apply to us. We have some talented youngsters coming through, but they'll ideally need a couple of seasons under their belt to start performing consistently. I think we have a solid squad and one that, with the right additions, could play an attractive style of football. Will the money be there though? Probably not, so it'll be interesting to see if our recruitment continues to be shrewd and generally impressive under the new manager. I think our ambition for next season is to be more entertaining and heal the divide between the club and its fanbase, a cheeky play-off run would be a bonus. Cheaper season tickets and pricing initiatives are a good indication that the club are going to proactively work on improving relations with the supporters, hopefully match-day tickets will also be made cheaper to encourage people through the turnstiles. Getting that managerial appointment right will be just as crucial though.

I think Norwich will also struggle for top six, but they likelier to get there than us. Their money has dried up and, financially speaking, they're in a bit trouble from next season. Ultimately, it will come down with how they use the James Maddison money to improve the squad and they're expected to get a fair bit of cash from him. They arguably have a better academy than us, as it's Category 1 and they have a few academy players embedded in their first team. They will probably persist with Farke for another season, so if he has adapted to the Championship and is a bit more tactically astute, they could be dark horses for promotion, but personally, at this moment in time, I think they'll fall short again next season.

At the bottom end of the table, I'd say Sunderland are down and out. Burton, Barnsley, Bolton, and Birmingham will be the other two sides down, with Barnsley having a game in hand and a two point difference to make up. Burton are five points adrift, but look at their run in:

Burton fixtures - Sunderland (a), Bolton (h), Preston (a)
Barnsley fixtures - Leeds (a), Forest (a), Brentford (h), Derby (a)
Birmingham fixtures - Sheffield United (h), QPR (a), Fulham (h)
Bolton fixtures - Wolves (h), Burton (a), Forest (h)

Personally, I think Burton and Bolton will go down.

 

It may be a little early to be making predictions but I'm going to stick my neck out and say that now we're rid of Mick next season Ipswich Town will run away with the Championship and lose on pens to Burnley in the League Cup final before beating Leicester 4 - 2 to lift the FA Cup. Fact.

 

I'll have whatever you're on!!

 

Be nice if we could use the cups slightly better perhaps - though in this day and age it's far from us using the fa cup R3 in particular as a ' have a go and see what happens ' lottery......

The league cup I think rotation is required with rounds 1 / 2 in particular as so early on / players require minutes etc so fair enough there.

 

Hopes/ambitions for next Season?

1)Beat the scum for the first time in way too long.
2)Progress to the Fourth round of the FA Cup
3)Not get humiliated by opposition from a lower Division in the League Cup (or whatever it’s presently called)
4)Watch my side put in a performance where the passes strung together,shots on target and corners won need the fingers on more than one hand to tally them up.
5)Start to look forward to visits to PR with anything other than meh/apathy.
6)Pitch to be in better condition
7)Fewer injuries.

I know it’s a long list Father Xmas,but I have been a good boy!

 

This ^

 

It's a long time since we had any kind of cup run. Top 6 and a decent cup run please and a win and draw in the derby.

We should be saying Top 6 is our minimum target for any given season.

 

Seriously? We've got no divine right for finishing in the top six. Over the past 30 years, we've been in the Premier League for five seasons, suffering two relegations, so we cannot claim to be a big club, certainly not over recent decades. We do not have the finances for a realistic, sustained push for the top six, particularly in the contemporary world of football. It should be the ideal target, but certainly not the minimum target, otherwise we wouldn't enjoy going to Portman Road.

 

I agree about top six as of a right.
I'd happily settle for upper mid table if 3-4 of my wishlist above was met.

 

While perhaps we should.....
Forest / Norwich / Leeds / Blackburn / 3 relegated sides / sides that don't go up through the play offs / QPR / probably others may well share that opinion!? Both Sheffield clubs!?

 

I don't buy the "we've got no money"' crap .
We have an owner with an 800m fortune .
We're just too sensible and nice .
We need tondo what other teams do and spend relatively big if we want promotion

 

While we do have a wealthy owner - he clear as day doesn't seem to wish to go down the expensive approach. Milne's gone on record to people in a room / online saying before than Evans perhaps was naive with ££££ before / thought it would achieve a lot more than it has and would be short term anyway very unlikely to do an approach similar to he did under Jim / Keane / Jewell.

I've no doubt Mick would have spent more if he possibly could - any manager would.

I mean take Keane with Priskin - that's quite a famous story and in his book. Keane identified him as a target, perhaps naively / wrongly / however you wish to put it thought he'd be available for say £500k. Anyway Keane rightly did his bit. Clegg goes in, we get the deal done. Keane then discovers it was over 3 x more than he thought it would be!

I think Marcus is going to continue being extremely cautious interms of obvious spend.

I think I heard somewhere the other day Mick's transfer total spend was something like £3.5 mill in 5.5 years. That's very low interms of this - however of course Evans also bankrolls the -
* Wages * Bonuses * We do quite expensive loan fees people never mention, the likes of Celina/ Lawrence / Fraser etc all a minimum £500k upfront sum + loan wage %%5 hell various other spend too so he does put ££££ in a slightly different way perhaps.

Be very interesting to see what we spend purely interms of transfers this summer.

 

If Evans is not going to give a decent fund to the new manager, then we can probably kiss goodbye to the notion of a young upcoming manager and instead will go for experience . If though a younger hungrier man comes in, then I'd expect a lot of transfer dealings to happen

 

Don't you you think it's more likely to be the other way around?That a more experienced manager will look for a budget for wheeling and dealing and a youngster will be more willing to prove what they can do by working with the existing squad/youth?

 

That's what I would've thought Bigal

 

Nuggets - unless we were competing in the Premier League or aiming for the Championship title money has bugger all to do with it. The standard in the Championship is overall pretty poor, which is the only reason we have been so poor for so long and still held our own. Lack of ambition, acceptance of mediocre and this small club mentality will keep us firmly rooted in the Championship. It's not the mindset that Alf Ramsey, Bobby Robson, John Lyall or George Burley had.

Our players have one job to do - play football. Train for fitness, do the basics of defending, pass the ball and score goals. If we can be organised and positive that is all we need to get in the play offs. It should be the minimum expectation from the manager, players and fans.

I would be a lot happier to go and watch Town if we had a bit of ambition and belief than the shovel of **** we have been served up for years. If you'd prefer it to carry on as we are then that says it all really

 

Personally, I think our main focus should be on building an exciting and entertaining team with a positive environment and a strengthened relationship between the club and supporters. Get those main aspects sorted and promotion would be more realistically attainable. At worse, we would have a club to be proud of again and one we'd enjoy watching regularly.

Supporters demanding and expecting top six and instant results every season, regardless of context and regardless of club investment, is one of the worst aspects of club football these days. I like to think that most fans would realise the stupidity in expecting a top six place by witnessing the current state of this club, the average standard of player, and the simple fact we are currently 13 points off 6th.

I don't want to see us stuck in this division for several more years. Don't mistake my realism for a lack of ambition, of course I go into every season hoping for promotion, but I don't expect it. After the last decade of stagnation and one top six finish in the past 13 odd years, I want a club I can be proud of and a club that I enjoy following.

 

Afternoon Nuggets.

I take your point but I think generally when a good manager comes in there is an instant impact.

If I was Marcus Evans I would expect my candidates to have some knowledge of the team under Mick or at the least be prepared to spend a day or two to watch some footage and tell me what they think we would need to achieve a top 6 finish by season 2.

If anybody told me they didn't think that was a realistic target with the current team we have and some acquisitions from the lower leagues - we already do have solid players all over the park - I would be questioning their desire, hunger and ambition. That lack of hunger from Mick is the reason we are 13th, not because of investment levels.

Just look at the way Darren Moore talks - you can see with a bit more time he would have turned a dead and buried team into Premier League survivors. Confidence, inspiration, organisation and strategy. These are the things that Ipswich Town need, not a whopping transfer budget.

Mick lacked #2 and #4. He undoubtedly knows the game inside out but he was negative and would react to the way the team was playing - plugging one leak and then seeing another appear somewhere else - rather than having a vision and building and drilling the team to achieve it. The right man really doesn't need a load of cash or five years to achieve that.

I would go so far as to say anybody who comes to the club and talks about levels of investment instead of the type of player he wants for certain positions is already set up to fail or at best maintain the status quo.

 

To be honest - Mick has never even been a million miles away from achieving it himself.

Where we have fallen down under him is so many games where we made stupid defensive mistakes or the players didn't have the confidence or empowerment to keep possession and spray the ball about enough to create plenty of good opportunities. On a good day we have seen enough in spells to know the players are capable of beating anybody. We have played the occasional 45 minutes of high quality, high tempo football and dominated the opposition for 15-30 minutes here and there. But then for the rest of the game we would be so poor or invite teams onto us, not manage the game and end up drawing or losing.

We have a great captain, a top 'keeper and plenty of players who can stick the ball in the net. The only key player we are missing is a really strong number 8.

Those are the reasons I think someone coming in should be able to achieve top 6 without ripping everything up and starting again.