Albion on a Friday

Will be very interesting what Evans / Lambert do in January.

 

Plus Ward and Spence?

 

And it's different from shoplifting,how?

 

I don't like Spence but I don't think you can pick out individuals to 'leave'. I think every one of them is capable of playing in a winning Championship team, we don't need to change all XI but we need some real quality in there to help and most crucially that spine of the team in central defence and central midfield.

We have Bart, we have Woolfenden and as far as I can see these are the only true top players we have at the club.

 

Martin shivers (one for the kids)

 

We can't pick out individuals to leave but Lambert can after all its part of his job, and he will know who isn't going to make it, a good player who's permanently injured isn't worth keeping because he never plays.

 

I disagree Westy, the last two seasons under Mick were hard to watch and some fans conveniently overlook the 2016/17 season, where we finished four points off relegation and were overly reliant on both Bart and Tom Lawrence having standout seasons.

The decline of this club has been apparent for a while now, we’ve had a lack of any forward-thinking off and on the pitch. While I don’t think we’d be in this position with Mick, even he would struggle after losing the players we’ve lost and going through another transfer window spending less money than we raised. Money aside, Mick had six years to put a plan of sorts in place. Other clubs in this division have achieved an evolution of playing style while not breaking the bank. How many clubs have played us off the park over the past couple of years? Far too many for comfort. And Mick doesn’t deserve blame for that? The harsh truth is that none of Mick’s old guard have adapted to a more attractive style of football. One of the few points of sympathy I have for Hurst is that he probably came here expecting an adaptable Championship standard squad, but the old Mick favourites have been coached out of any technical proficiency. Three of the four defenders playing last night were Mick signings and while we started trying to play from the back, they soon reverted to aimless long balls.

Don’t get me wrong, Evans and Hurst are the big two culprits who are ultimately responsible for us propping up the rest of the division. But you cannot ignore or overlook the stench of decline over the last two years and let a six-year reigning manager off the hook, because his signings and “experienced pros” left in this squad have been performing well below standards and have failed to adapt to a new way of playing. Some of us have been concerned about relegation for a few years, ultimately when your club owner underinvests and strips the club assets after several years, this kind of situation becomes inevitable.

 

A couple of great posts from Nuggets today, well done mate, saves me from having to write something similar

 

Don't agree with this. Webster was already gone so not much PH could do about that. The rest, and correct me if I'm wrong, were all on that Spanish camp. I reckon a combination of some players wanting to move closer to family, Hurst's extreme training out in Spain and being told to sell before buying made it easy for those that left to fashion a mutually agreeable exit. Hurst had a long list of transfer targets that he thought he needed so made big sales to buy his wish list. Who was it that mentioned something about Hurst assembling the squad he wanted at Shrewsbury? Somebody hit that nail squarely on the head!

 

I do agree with this though

The stories I've seen about cost cutting within the club makes me despise Evans with a passion. We'll never get anywhere if we continually sell our best and replace with lesser.

 

How is the replacement pitch on top of the North Stand getting on

 

I heard today from someone within the Club that Hurst wiped all the team and individual data from his office computer before he left, fortunately someone had backed it up, no reason to doubt this and shows what the nature of the man was.

 

Im not disputing that a few players went out with Hurst’s say so, but if we keep those players Hurst has no transfer funds so what choice did he have?
That’s why I say he didn’t have the luxury.

 

Jason Dozzell has been pretty scathing. I do agree with some of his comments about sending youth out on loan but that was going on under Mick and nobody criticised it. It seems to me as though everyone involved with the club is used to Mick McCarthy’s lazy laid back style, where nobody has to work that hard and no-one’s nose gets out of joint.

I’ve been really unimpressed with all that’s come out in the press this week - those players have not covered themselves in any glory and their performance certainly in the first half against West Brom was absolutely pathetic.

If they want to prove anything they need to do it with victories on the pitch because at the moment it looks for all the world like a sinking ship.

It very much sounds like the club is riddled from the inside with vermin and rotten eggs.

 

It’s easy to make Hurst the big bad wolf but our Club has been going down the ****ter for several Seasons and Mick was happy to collect his pay cheque and keep schtum about things.

 

There’re comments on a TWTD that Doig was shouting in Chambo’s face.

First of all whoever is leaking all this stuff is a / are weasel(s).

Secondly it sounds like everybody at the club needs to man the **** up, worry about their own game and get on with it.

Dozzell should know better. He’s not doing his son any favours.

 

Absolutely

 

Fair points by all I’d say.

What is clear, whatever way you look at it, is we are a right mess of a club currently.

 

I’ve no deffo info but seeing Andre’s body language and expression pitchside all Season he doesn’t look a happy bunny and I wouldn’t be surprised if he wants away.

 

He probably feels like he should be starting matches, and understandably so. I think he’s one of our most creative and technically gifted players, in what is a very ordinary squad, and he’s spent most of the season on the bench.

I think we can confidently say that if we were to get relegated to League One, Dozzell wouldn’t hang around if a Premier League or Championship club came calling. In fact, I think the idea that an academy-centric Ipswich side, full of bright young players potentially tearing up League One next season, will be undermined by our owner flogging off our youngsters to any interested club.