Good evening all, I thought I'd create an article here. I went to Bristol City ( my local side ) vs Boro Saturday, as City had a tenner a ticket promotion for ALL fans as the game was on sky. Very clever idea by their board I thought. I remember us having Coventry on sky recently on a Monday night, yet the ticket price remained the same. £26 minimum to watch a game that's on telly on a Monday night, I mean come on ! The next thing I was thinking all game at Ashton Gate, is what is actually going on at Ipswich. Now I'm really unsure regards the blame here. Is it Jewell's management, or would many managers have the problems both himself and Keane have been having here ? Rewind Magilton's era. We all thought he did a good job given the circumstances ( I think correct me if wrong ) however he did need to go as we wanted to push on. I don't think he spent very well when we had money, however did well without it. The next issue I think with both Keane + Jewell is size of squad. I believe its FAR too big. The last time we had a relatively small squad, with 12 / 13 players always playing was 04/05. Now our wage bill, where would we rank in the league ? We must have a good 15 players earning between £12,000 to £20,000. I know the buck stops with the manager, but I personally feel Jewell has on paper built rather a good side here. Players like Bullard / Andrews / Cresswell / Chopra / Stockdale are all quality. Even with very poor management, we should be NOWHERE near 21st. Even if Jewell played 1-8-1 with the squad we have and asked them to run around like fairys, the quality of players we have should be doing better. What are peoples views ? If Jewell does go, okay fine perhaps he deserves to. But will another manager have any more luck ? Keane + Jewell, like either or hate either, I fully believe have given their all and tried very hard.
Sack Clegg and Sack Jewell with immediate effect. Install Russel Osman as a caretaker until the end of the season and bring in Joe Royle as director of football. If we finish in a reasonable position which I believe we would, make Osman full time manager. The positives for Osman taking over is that he knows the club inside out, he knows the youth set up and will be a track suit manager who will invest in youth and give our blossoming talent the chance they deserve. He will be the right man to get behind as he understands the founding ethos of our club and with the right people around him I think he would do a super job. The mandate he will be given is to rebuild the club from its foundations not like we are doing at the moment which is ripping out the very heart of our football club. Osman will restablish the Ipswich way and the traditions that us fans all grew up with.
I like the fact you have come up with a solution, however I'm really not sure that is the right one at all. Osman hasn't managed since 2004, and hasn't really done a great deal as a manager. Royle hasn't been involved since Oldham, which was a disaster. Smells a bit of Shearer at Newcastle to me !? Though fair play you have stated what you'd want !
How would you feel about Butcher being given a shot at managing Ipswich? Is it possible? Would he want to? Could he manage at this level? Would you want a former 'hero' managing you, bearing in mind what happened to Gunny with us?
Need someone like Holland to be the Venus to the Mowbray, or the Tarrico to the Poyet! I think Magilton would have made an excellent number 2 to an experienced manager. Holland and Curbishley from the Charlton link?
I'd personally be tempted to give Matty Holland a go as manager. He's got no experience, granted, but he comes across as a very astute analyst in the media and he's a modern legend of the club, which may well galvanise the players to perform better and learn what it means to where the blue and white of Ipswich. It may work better if he comes in as an assistant to someone more experienced, though. I wouldn't mind seeing Alan Curbishley here as he can identify a good young player and plays football well, as well as having a solid track record. The problem is he's been out the game for three years, so he might not be up to scratch with pricing and the like. Curbs and Holland would have a good rapport from their time together at Charlton, too, so it's a match made in heaven! Sean O'Driscoll is an alternate candidate - good football and works well without pissing money away. But I still want Holland (or another club legend) to get in as assistant or coach, just to instil some passion and pride in the side!
if we look at the last 3 managers, 2 have been very inexperienced and PJ, despite having experience failed pretty badly on the last job. if paul jewell were to go i think it would be an error to appoint another young manager with no experience. we need someone who has some experience (doesnt need to be extensive) who has had recent success.
I agree that a young manager would be risk considering the position we are in hence why someone like Holland would be a good foil for an experienced manager who can steady the ship and make sure we get away from that bottom 3. But Paul Jewell is still the boss so until that changes I pray he can turn it around.
It's a bad situation but changing now in my eyes will only make it worse, Jewell, i believe has his eye on what he wants, and if the links are true then hes looking in the right areas, young 'hungry' players that have something to prove and if they do have anyselfish traits it'll be so they can make a name for themselves, think Walters (which i think Drury could emulate if given another chance, i remember Walters also not doing anything amazing in his first season.). I think if Jewell resorts to buying more old names in january or doesnt play the youth hes brought than itll be time to think about getting rid. Cleggs career at town will depend on who the replacement is if Jewell goes, because we need as a club to stop expecting, we can appreciate the facilties and history we do have but it doesnt mean it'll eventually come with minimum effort
Unless we as a club make some sort of long term plan with regards to moving forward I fear that the Ipswich job may become something of a poisoned chalice. If PJ is sacked within the next couple of weeks after ME has recently come out with the dreaded vote of confidence I can't see many decent managers being interested. We are currently putting too much pressure on the manager (past or present) to deliver promotion at the earliest possible moment. Nobody is going to want to come into an environment like that unless they can see that there is a coherent plan to take us forward. Jewell himself is probably not far from walking out himself. He said last week that he didn't want to walk out but also that he wanted what was best for Ipswich. I see this as him saying basically that although he doesn't want to quit he will walk if results don't improve, thus doing the best for the club. If I was in his shoes I would be getting to the point where I would start thinking that I can't get anymore out of these players. Imagine how frustrating it must be if he is telling them one thing in training and then not seeing his orders carried out on the pitch. He has acquired some players who you would think would be doing a lot better than they are. Could/should he have invisaged this when he brought them in or are his tactics solely to blame? I am hoping results improve enough to buy him some time, I want to see what he has planned for the january window. We have a lot of fringe players out on loan and I want to see what he has planned for them if they are performing well too. We will lose a couple of key players when their loans finish, will this mean PJ will look to fill the gaps from within the existing squad or look elsewhere? It doesn't help our plight to already have Steve Bruce's name floating about on the gossip columns either.
what is the solution. Short term its quite easy. Stop making stupid mistakes. Sat - Martin trying to be clever - failed - conceded a goal - he could of got rid earlier but tried to be clever - 1 points lost previous Sat -30 seconds to go - Edwards throw in straight to their player - goal - another point lost. With the experience of our players then we should not be making these errors. We would be underperforming without these mistakes so Im not trying to paper over the cracks in our club but if any of our players used a brain then we wouldnt be 7 games without a point.
Good last 3 posts, agree with them completely. I think we should really give Drury a chance when he comes back in January, he's looked decent when ever I've seen him. If Jewell is still here in January, I don't think we should expect too much, I'm sure he will do all he can to strengthen the squad but January transfer window is a strange one and often leads to paying over the odds for players, plus the season is at its busiest and often teams don't do alot of business at this time. Personally I'm not sure about having Holland here in some form, I don't think he wants to go into coaching/management and also noone really has any idea if he'd be any good or not!!! Same with Osman, he's not really proven as a manager and I don't think with the players we currently have we can afford to have an inexperienced manager or one which hasn't managed at a fairly high level. About the most inexperienced manager I would go for would be someone life Darren Ferguson. But if Jewell does go, which I hope he doesn't and turns the results around, as if he doesn't, he will be sacked and noone can argue against it, I would like to see Dave Jones as manager. He done a great job at Cardiff(apart from the end of every season), whilst often selling his best players year after year, he also spent good money well, something we need to bare in mind as someone like O'Drisscoll, who I like as a manager but he has never really experienced a big budget and there have been many managers who are good on a shoestring budget but when it comes to the big bucks haven't got a clue.
" With the experience of our players then we should not be making these errors. We would be underperforming without these mistakes so Im not trying to paper over the cracks in our club but if any of our players used a brain then we wouldnt be 7 games without a point. " Exactly, I agree with this. It wouldn't matter if we had Mourinho or Ferguson with the players self destructing. I also agree with " I fear that the Ipswich job may become something of a poisoned chalice. " Out of interest Spanish, you haven't commented on this post, so what are your views ?
