Eventhough I still feel numb after yesterdays non performance it will be seen as a watershed for the Marcus Evans regime at the club. Surely even the mysterious one can not now stand back and let the car crash continue! Performances like we saw yesterday and last Tuesday night might start to have some serious business consequences for his group as a whole. Consider the fact that Marcus Evans is emblazoned on the players shirts (which most aren't fit to wear) and the amount of negative messages this must be sending out to his wider business in general. A seemingly basket case sporting franchise (which is what we have become) being made to look a complete laughing stock through pis poor management at the top right through to the players on the pitch. How much longer can Evans sit back and allow this to go on without any kind of public statement or intervention on his part? The chickens have now come home to roost in his tenure as owner of the club. A willingness to remain aloof from the supporters and without a background in football making weird appointments such as a chief executive who knows nothing about how to run a football club. The only statement that we hear like a broken record is "This club remains totally focused on getting to the premiership at the soonest possible opportunity!" That sounds all good and well if there is a serious plan and strategy in place to deliver on the rhetoric. The David Sheepshanks/George Burley famous 5 year plan of improvement resulting in Premiership football worked on time and on budget. Unfortunately Evans and Clegg have no such plan in place and the club just seems to be stumbling around like an elephant in a dark room from one crisis to another. To be honest I'm begining to think **** This! **** the premiership I just want my football club back. The football club that I have been supporting for nearly 40 years and still love to this day. I just want my club to go back to basics and reintroduce the famous scouting network we once had and the youth academy that produced an abundance of young talent. I want the club that used to give young, hungry players the chance to play in the first team and to express themselves on the pitch. The damage to our reputation has been badly dented throughout the Marcus Evans era and it surely must have become a toxic brand for Marcus Evans. Lets get back to basics and if that means severing the bonds with Evans then so be it. Our once proud football club is worth more than one person, it belongs to Suffolk as a whole and if it meant that we dropped a couple of leagues because of it then so be it. Evans has a big decision to make over the next couple of weeks. Either he shows that he is in this for the long haul and hands Jewell the money to buy the quality players we so desperately need or he walks away and cuts his losses. A big couple of weeks in the history of Ipswich Town!
Spoken from the heart, JWM, were it not for the expletives, I suggest this would make a fine article! The baring of one man's soul, how cruel this game can be! Hang in there, JWM, things WILL get better!
Good article but once again as I've said in the past week, I think this is a few months too late. In a way its a shame these results have come in Jewell's era as I think our downward spiral has been pretty much inevitable for the past year or so(though not as bad as the past 2 results). I felt like you for the past couple of years but even though I'm ashamed and embarrassed about the past week, I believe atm we just have to sit tight and wait for the right playing personnel to come in and for them to gel as a team and Jewell to get his idea's accross to them. If ever we've had a transitional year(and we've had many in the past decade) this is the one that truely is the biggest transitional year we've had as a club. ME has backed all his managers to the hilt and I believe he has backed Jewell efficiently enough so far, Jewell just hasn't been able to get the players he wants and I think is being quite sensible(unlike previous managers) in not paying over the odds for players or getting players in just to make the numbers up. The past 2 results have been unacceptable but we need to hang in there I believe as a club despite the results we are moving in a much better direction to what we were 12 months ago, unfortunately we are still feeling the after affects of 3 years of bad management and poor investment.
i take my hat off to warky once again the whole matter needs to be delt with straight away no short measures this club IS the PRIDE of EAST ANGLIA~~~~
Well said JWM One thought... are we saying that all of our players are crap or that they are just playing crap? Many (most) simply not good enough but some should be. Is this a PJ issue above and beyond getting new players in? Motivation, passion, commitment, pride - all absent - just a bunch of useless tossers or something that PJ should take responsibility for?
In all seriousness Rushmere of course they're not all crap. I'll go though the team: Stockdale - embarrassing for us not him! Edwards - need a right back and hes not a star winger Delaney - Looked solid with GMac so maybe don't throw the baby out with the bathwater Smith - Hopeless Ainsley - Hopeless Cresswell - Good going forward, leaves himself exposed on the wing Carson - 50/50 - good last season Bowyer - past it Leadbitter - beyond hopeless Andrews - looks useful going forward Martin - flashy but much too selfish - get rid JET - has done himself no harm even against Posh Chopra - maybe good with different formation and teammates Kennedy - Why isn't he the captain?! Ellington - Hopeless Peters - Got spirit if not ability O'Connor - Ridiculous that he's out of this side Hyam - Could make a killer CM duo with Andrews Scotland - can find the net once in a while Priskin - bags of ability but serious confidence issues So Stockdale, Cresswell, Kennedy, JET, Andrews, Carson, Hyam, O'Connor, Chopra. Those are really the only players I'd keep and two of those we haven't seen play for well over six months. You couldn't play all of these together so i think the new man would be screwed anyway.
A good article JWM but an effective scouting network and a decent youth Acadamy wont happen over night! I am 100% behind training anhd holding on to home grown tallent and scouting hungry players for the future! However Evans backing Jewell immediately in the transfer market with wads of cash isn't really going to solve these problems. I have never liked the idea of trying to buy a team..it rarely works, however with our thread bare squad with the mix of inept youngsters and journeymen its seems our only hope. So really ME needs to fund urgent transfers to get the players we need in but also to look at investing in the acadamy and scouting network for the long term. I think Ipswich's problem is that we are focused on short term success and Premiership at any cost! I really feel for you guys who have been going to the games over the last few years...it breaks my heart to see how poor we have become!
hamps i think you are a bit of a football scout ,you could become the towns new secret squirrel god knows we need something
I agree, short term we need decent players in just to be able to compete in this league. As hampys said the only players worth keeping from Keane's signings are Kennedy and possibly Delaney, that alone says everything you need to know about where we are as club. PJ has made 8 signings, 8 + the two players worther keeping = 10 players that are good enough at this level. We're going to have to settle for mid table again unless PJ can bring in another 5 or 6 quality players by the end of the window and even then it's unlikely they will 'gel' into a team. Baffles belief that people are blaming PJ for this, Keane has left us in the sh1t.
Svendust It baffles belief that people and blaming Keane for this and not Jewell. Could it not be a mixture of the two??? Yes RK left the club in a mess but PJ has had time to address the problem and as it stands we have gone backwards!! Personally i don't think DD is up to the job and i fear unless we bring in 2 cb's then we will continue to get stuffed!!
Right, I have had time to calm down after saturday and here is my balanced thoughts on the situation. Firstly the players that appeared for us. The only players i feel that came out of Saturday with any future for this season at the club are Chopra, JET,Stockdale, Cresswell, Andrews & Carson. All apart from Crason are Jewell signings so he is obviously doing something right on that score. The rest to me aren't good enough and need to be off loaded to some poor mug ASAP. ****ing Grant Leadbitter should never be let near a first team spot ever again, No passion or skill, It was almost he was playing to leave the club! Secondly, The formation, How many of fans have been on here bleating on about 4-4- ****ing 2. Well we played 4-4-2 (well for 45 minutes thanks to a ****ing moron for a ref) and look what happened! Nobody was picking up the player in the hole, we looked almost scared to move out of position, there was no flexibility! yet of course that is Jewells fault, playing a formation that the fans have been hankering for! Thirdly, Marcus Evans, I agree with JWM, Now is the time for him to come out and make his intentions clear. We basically need a whole new defence apart from Cresswell! our last decent defender was JDV, and how many years ago was he here? We need investment on the scouting side of the club. Every other ****ing club can find gems from the lower leagues, why the **** can't we! Do I think that Jewell needs sacking, NO. Call me deluded if you like, but i really think once the backroom staff has shifted out ALL the **** from the previous managers we have the staff to do it for us. Spanish, me and you bud have stuck together like glue over a few issues regarding our club, and i respect you opinion and passion for ITFC, but i can't agree on this one, we need stability at this time one thing is for sure Jewell learnt a lot more about all his players over the week than over his entire reign so far, and i believe he will get this sorted!
PJ has made mistakes, his biggest is probably underestimating the situation we are in. He has other faults too, I think he is sticking to beliefs which won him promotion years ago and aren't appropriate now the league has evolved. He should have realised from teams recently promoted that success is built from good football, usually in a 451/433 type formation, not the direct 442 he wants to play. But the size of the task he has rebuilding our entire team is mammoth and I have sympathy with him for that. I will allow the odd poor performance (although no more 7-1s!) as long as we are improving our squad and our performances. Jewell deserves more time and more support than he is getting.
Guru, if that's you calmed down I can't imagine how angry you were Saturday! Agree with everything you've said though, hope you didn't smash your keyboard up too bad!?
I actually thought Stockdale was very slow at getting down for shots early on, and not great at making the angle difficult. Our last good keeper was Alexander
I was calm until i write the word Leadbitter down, then the rage returned. That was the poorest display from a captain i have ever seen, the bloke is worse than ****ing useless! see what happens, when i write down the leadbitter! I'd like to dress him up as gaddifi and walk him down tripoli high street right now!
As I said earlier somewhere, the only reason I can think for Leadbitter starting is so that he's in the shop window. Although it kinda back fired, I doubt anyone will take him now!
The only reason Jewell should be sacked is for making that useless twat captain, I mean my ****ing dog is more use at dead ball situation that ****ing leadbitter, Is he the only player in history who is ****ing crap with both his right & left foot in equal measure?
"Lead"... yes both of his bloody boots are full of lead. "Bitter"... too damn right - very very bitter!!! I "Grant" him his exit. Please!!!!!!!
A big decision to make after a 7-1 thrashing, should he sack Jewell and replace him with Ferguson!!!!!
