Next seasons squad and out of contract players

I had a feeling I was being overoptimistic ffs.

 

Its hard to argue with the person in question very own words, but if anyone can it's you ffs.

 

OK, right, lets look at this squad again with some nice retrospective hindsight and now the season is basically over we know what we've got and how we've done and can think how things might shape up later in the summer when we kick off agin in a new division.

My overriding feeling is we've kept fighting and seem to be trying to do something with the players we have.even Nolan looks less of a rabbit in headlights the last few matches...And crucially, we've not been spanked all season. no 5-0 drubbings. thats unusual for a crap team at the foot of a division. we all remember being on the end of these in the (other) bad old days...

maybe its because the Championship is The Most Competitive Division in major European football. That man city winger we had on loan last year said he left the Dutch Eridivisie to come to us because it was a higher standard. and in no other top division is the bottom teams as competitive against the top teams. its been the case for years now that anyone can beat anyone in this division. which is why its such a nightmare to get out of. and we might be bottom, but we've not been completely spanked, we've just routinely failed to win(!).

So, the players aren't, i dont think, so bad they all need to go for the purposes of mounting a promotion campaign in the division below. doing that would bring us back to where we were this season with a new set of players going into the gladiators pit with well oiled machines that know the drill already. and we've come off second best. surprise, surprise.

I know were losing the loan players. fine. we'll clearly need replacements. I think we'll be attractive for decent players looking to push their careers on with a 'big club' relative to the division that can probably mount a serious promotion push and put themselves in the shop window. its just the way football works between players and clubs and we can take advantage of it as much as they can. i dont know who these players are (i'll rely on our scouts for that), but Norwich put together a tight team of 'nobodies' and bounced up and up under...well You Know Who...

I imagine that tieing down Bish is designed to give us a chance that he'll run the midfield at L1 (add in hughs if he gets fit and it'll be fun to watch...) and/or be worth a decent fee on account of his contract if he does turn in good performances, a win win for us and him.

Lankester seems to have played to little to be likely to move on, but shown enough to indicate he could be bright and useful for us. the two dunces up front Hurst bought will be fine at L1 level as they've shon that before, we'll never sign Keane and as for Quaner, maybe we'll keep as he can batter his way up front to create space for the quicker poachers alongside him (Sears, if he is the same player, would do well in that scenario and at that level i think). and that will all cost us nothing if we run with these guys beyond what were paying them already.

defence needs some work, to say the least. Bart has to go for financial reasons as much as he'll likely want away, same for Knudsen. But i trust Lambert to find decent replacements that can do the job at L1 level. I think the bigger question is what is going to happen if we go up? We know most of these guys cant compete at champ level so it all falls back to our owner in terms of will he put in place the funding and means to push forward or just hope we hang in there, which has been his Modus Operandi since Mick came in. I hated that football but MM was pragmatic, played who he did how he did in order not to get relegated, that was his brief and he did it. it was just pointless and horrible to watch. I dont want to go back to that and i dont think Lambert will hang around if he does so maybe if we go up we can be sold to an owner with more interest in moving the club forward.

 

Agree with a lot of what your saying however Jackson hasn't proved he's good enough at League 1 level yet in his career, so I have doubts there with him. Regards Harrison, did well at Bristol Rovers last season - however plenty of Rovers fans I know weren't ever keen on him and at best 5050 were sorry to see him leave. I wouldn't have a great deal of faith, if we're going to have an instant return in either of them being good enough over the course of a season. Harrison has had a really injury disrupted season too - hopefully he doesn't next. Sears out for ages, Quaner on too much and to be honest not good enough I don't think - Keane the elephant in the room - has injury issues and I'd be reluctant to offer him what may tempt him to sign - I think he'll be able to get more from another championship club too. Likewise, I'd be surprised if Judge ended up staying, clearly good enough for the championship.

Fortunately, quite a few can leave due to contracts expiring etc.

££££ will be interesting, apparently a good few players DO have relegation wage drops which is good, as mentioned before U20s AND Hurst's signings don't count to the allowed wage budget under L1 terms ( season 1 ) so the wage bill will certainly drop from £18 mill down - realistically we need it to be at around £7 mill, however we DO have one season to perhaps do a little more trigger happy.

Clear as day we need additions, certain players will go and I maintain perhaps 1 / 2 assets may be cashed in due to our annual yearly loss - lost ANOTHER £8 mill this financial year ( football is broken )

Providing we go down, and find a way to bounce straight back / gain some momentum on and off the pitch - I think it could be one of the best things to happen to us as a club.

However, if we don't bounce straight back, I can well see us being another Port Vale / Charlton / Coventry ( albeit differently ) and marooned in league 1 for a long long time.

That is not an easy league to get out of - opposition are going to relish coming to Portman Road for away games, and make no mistake some of our players aren't going to fancy away days at Fleetwood Town for example one bit.

For all the technical ability the kids have, Dozzell + Kenlock in particular stand out as not being remotely physically strong enough for L1. There's every chance some of our players will get kicked off the park and bullied some games.

Really interesting time as a town fan.

 

Luke Chambers has just signed a new contract - interesting.

 

Whether or not he is still in the first team in two years, he will be a very good League One centre back and is a good character so this makes sense.

 

Might be a similar deal to Mowbray in that he does some coaching as well as playing

 

Nice to have around the place and is clearly well respected by a majority of players, staff, and perhaps even supporters. However, he shouldn’t be considered an automatic starter anymore, even in League One.

 

It's an interesting one this - certainly at worst a great personality, leader, will inspire the young lads off the pitch etc. I do wonder about Chambers on the pitch.

One point I'm happy with though about this is a decision has been made early.

Make no bones about this, I do not like Hurst. However, he arrived late and I think we were always behind a lot of clubs from day 1. Waghorn going late was a big issue - see Murphy 16/17. We MUST learn as a club - if an asset is to go, if possible they need to go a hell of a lot earlier to get the rest of the jigsaw in order.

I'm actually more upbeat about next season than I've been for a while - a month ago, I think I thought perhaps 5-10.

However, the more I think about it........... the more I think we may have a chance of bouncing straight back. Time will tell I guess!

 

I think Lambert is doing all the right things, making sure youngsters are signed to good deals and ensuring players he wants to be a part of next season are signed early. For far to long we have sleep walked into bad decisions, it seems like for the first time in a while we have a manager who is being proactive. Just results have yet to follow.

There must still be a half decent defender in there with regards to Chambers before he was moved to RB he was one of the best defenders in this division, he just hasn't managed to pick up that form since. I still think given we are now trying to play football from the back and have very few defenders who can actually pass the ball we should try to convert Skuse to a CB especially if we go for a 532 formation.

 

Yeah I'll go along with that - I must say right now, on the pitch to date Lambert is making me feel incredibly uncomfortable from a results standpoint, however regarding literally most other things he's done very well.

It's such a weird time to be a town fan, it's difficult to put into words!

 

Westy results are of course ‘everything’ but when you’re not in the running for anything but failure (relegation) other stuff is significant. I accept that pound for pound tesults are poor but I don’t think even if pep took over they would be any better. We’ve not been turned over by anyone and we’re fighting to the end which is a refreshing feeling after years of crap mediocrity. I recall the early burley years and we were still losing (9-0) but we were starting to play differently, be more positive, more passing, more progressive. I see that here again with the team so much more than under hurst. Well go down but it feels like we’re not going down in flames with players exodusding and the management all over the place. ME is still a stumbling block to our progression but lambert is making the 90 minutes in the pitch a lot more relevant to watch than the dirge and shambles of mm and hurst. We can bounce back with this lot, give or take, I really believe that so coyb!

 

We are starting to play with real attacking purpose for the first time in years,for a good proportion of the game today we closed Forest down with aggression we’ve not seen since the better days under MM and we at last look like we are at least trying to win games.
Albeit the results aren’t there yet we are definitely moving in the right direction.
My main concern is we will obviously lose the likes of Chalobah,Pennington and ,probably,Judge with little hope of getting replacements anywhere near as accomplished.

 

I honestly think from a result stand point, purely, Ronald McDonald,you, I, Paul Jewell, even Paul Hurst would have accumulated more points. Not even kidding.

* When Lambert took over, we were 4 points off safety with 31 to play. 5 with goal difference.
* Now with 8 to play, we're 13 points off safety, 14 with goal difference.

I cannot stick up for Lambert's results at all, 2 wins in 24, no wins away, no wins in 11. His P P game total is lower than Hurst's too.

HOWEVER!!!

What Lambert HAS done is given people hope. Appears we have a manager desperate for a connection with the fans, who believes we've made glaring mistakes before, wants a total rebuild, wants to develop the kids etc.

Time will ultimately tell - it's the weirdest situation. He's very likeable Lambert, something Hurst didn't get. Really does give you a chance / gives you time!

 

I see it as Lambert conducting the overhaul early in terms of playing style, philosophy and approach.. We are now beginning to see some fruits from that with the kind of performances that we'd like from our club, along with some players we can genuinely get behind. Hopefully that means that this Summer is fairly straightforward, were we offload a few, add in a couple and hit the ground running as we'll have a squad well adjusted to the manager and his demands and style of play. No huge changes that see us take time to adjust.

The obvious argument is whether Lambert could have done more to save us in the first place (make us hard to beat etc.) but I think Lambert has the rare quality of being able to read situations well and not tone deaf to what has happened before, so knew that his best option was to go along the route he has done.

 

Wasn't sure where to put this, but thought it makes some very interesting reading and will spark some debate (between two of you lot anyway)..

Apparently McGoldrick was open to staying, but Hurst said he didn't want him and therefore no contract was offered.

https://www.twtd.co.uk/ipswich-town...was-open-to-staying-at-town-but-hurst-said-no


I am a little unsure what to believe as there are conflicting stories on this, but I tend to side with Hurst on this as I think it was widely expected McG to leave and quite believe that he wasn't factored in the squad when Hurst arrived.

Mick made it quite clear that McG was going to look at his options and I expect that any communication (before the end of last season) with McG, Mick, ME and his agent to alluded to McG wanting away.. so I think any blame on this one falls at ME's door, though I expect McG in all honesty was intent on leaving us in the summer anyway.

 

That article implies Hurst was speaking to Ipswich before being appointed as McGoldrick had already left!

 

Not sure it would have been that early otherwise he would have known about the McGoldrick situation.. Though yes, there must have been some dialogue before the League 1 season was over

I don't think either Hurst or McG have any reason to lie about this as Hurst has a perfectly plausible rationale if he did decide not to offer a deal and McG owes us very little, so think this is another dogs dinner served up by Marcus Evans as it sounds like McGoldrick was under the impression that ITFC (and Hurst) didn’t want him and Hurst was under the impression McGoldrick didn’t want to stay..

 

I think that's the most likely set of circumstances, or the mists of time clouding McGoldrick's recollection a bit. Maybe he has interpreted it somewhat in his mind this way to save face at being rejected. There can be different interpretations without anyone brazenly lying.

That said Hurst was 100% having conversations with Evans in May so it's not beyond the realms of possibility that it was his call. He may have looked at his track record and how much money he was on and thought 'no thanks'.

What's telling and quite damning of Mick McCarthy and David McGoldrick himself is that McGoldrick didn't feel motivated until he was a bit of time without a club.

 

Despite the terrible position we find ourselves in for some reason looking back at that time it feels alot darker than things are now. Despite the results we have a club that seem to be all pulling in the same direction and crazy as it sounds even a feel good factor.

Looking back at the MM and PH reigns there certainly was no feel good factor and I think this story sort of sums that up. McGoldrick talks about Ipswich being a midtable team yet Sheff Utd pushing for promotion without knowing specifics I would imagine in terms of finance Sheff Utd aren't too dissimilar to us. But they showed ambition, we didn't and this was embodied by our manager. It also sums up Hursts reign to simply disregard senior championship players trying change too much to soon and not bringing people with him. Hurst in my mind was ultimately neither experienced enough or had enough personality to be a figure head and to take the job on. I think there could be a good manager in there but we weren't the right club at the right time for him.

Saying all of this with regards to McGoldrick despite his good form and lack of injuries at Sheff Utd. It was the right decision, he was injury prone on high earnings and I was never totally convinced by him at Ipswich if I was honest, certainly a talented player but I was never convinced by his positional play or teamwork but perhaps that was down to Micks style and he may have performed alot better under someone like Lambert. We are not a team who pass and move under Mick any technical players like McGoldrick shouldered the responsibility of making something happen out of nothing whilst the rest of the team remained rigid