Well said Nuggets...15 years is a hell of a long time waiting. And before I pop my clogs, I relish the prospect of a misty-eyed return to the top table! In actual fact it comes down to rebuilding a damaged vulnerable defense and adding flair, creativity and deliverability to the midfield. We have the forwards but nothing for them to work with. Maybe our absentees injured can galvanise things next month and for the Xmas run-in. If we are still struggling by then, I dont see much hope come April/May.
Good point Gaffer, we've been unfortunate with injuries, particularly in midfield. I just feel the squad should be better prepared for that, but then I guess that's the downside of having a small squad and not much of a transfer budget. Toure, Coke, and Douglas have, thus far, been poor. At this stage, I think we can say the summer transfer business has been a bit of a mixed bag. Yes, those aforementioned players haven't cost anything in transfer fees, but relying on cast-offs from other clubs in our division, is a gamble in itself. I'd like to see a few of our young players given more of an opportunity, really. We keep hearing how Klug has turned around the academy, and players like Bishop and Mings last season prove we do have the potential at this club, so let's use them more! At least it would put a bit of a silver lining when we do lose, knowing we've given a few of the young lads a chance to get minutes under their belts.
You are making excuses for MM!! ME does not pick the team, MM does and he is not selecting the best players in certain positions!! No ME is not faultless but these results are down to MM's stubborness and poor management!!
Seems to me that money has been there from Mings sale, Cresswell etc, but it doesn't get invested back into the squad. Maybe ME is making up for past losses but as someone else said, money has to be invested at this level to have any hope of promotion. Last season was amazing considering, but can't see that happening again.
Spanish, I've already mentioned that I disagree with the bizarre decision to persist with Gerken in goal, and the fact that Mick is playing players out of position and failed to bring in a right-back when he had the chance. Yet to attribute our recent poor form solely on Mick, when both key players are under-performing and there has been a lack of investment in this club for the past few years, is a little misguided, in my opinion anyway. Of course Mick has to take some of the blame, arguably most of it for some of his decisions over the past couple of months, but he, and he alone, is not responsible for our failures this season, or indeed our consistent failure to get out of this division for the past 15 odd years. "How much should we have spent and on who??" Weighty, our club scouts get paid considerably more money, and presumably have more time than me, to make those recommendations and enquiries I can't think of any players off the top of my head, but I'd like to think that some highly-rated first-team players from other clubs in our division, or indeed League One and Scotland, would've jumped at the chance to move to Portman Road. Maybe we just aren't that appealing anymore?
Maybe our scouts are so well paid that they find players that don't cost anything. I think we 'invested' money on keeping hold of 5M rated top scorer Murphy and possibly in attracting those players that arrived for nothing, just because you don't pay a fee to a club doesn't mean it doesn't cost anything..............I'm not having a go I just find it strange that sometimes people get obsessed with price tags.
I appreciate that we've done business in the free/loan market and, to be fair to the club, we've signed more hits than misses using that model. However, there is only so much you can do with constructing a side from cast-offs and loanees. The perception this summer was 'business as usual Mick, let's see if you can repeat the achievements of last year' rather than 'we've got a decent starting eleven, we've made a lot of profit from the Mings deal, let's bring in a few quality players in areas such as right-back, and push on for next season'. Case in point. We were in the market for Jordan McGhee in the summer. He's 19 years old, the regular right-back for Hearts (approaching 50 caps already), a Scotland U21 player, and tipped for big things. We put in two offers, both around £250,000, but Hearts were reportedly holding out for £500,000. We walked away and signed Malarczyk instead, who, it transpires, isn't even a right-back. If I recall correctly, he hasn't even played in that position for the club. To me, that's a stupid decision. We clearly need someone providing competition there, so why didn't we go for it? An extra £250,000 (if reports are to be believed) was what it took, but no, we can't afford that despite making £8m off the Mings deal! It's austere decisions like that which make me believe, rather pessimistically, that we won't be getting out of this league anytime soon, regardless of the manager.
I thought that we raised our offer to match what they were asking for McGee and then they raised it again so we walked away....I could be wrong. Mate I'm not disagreeing about bringing quality players in its just that I don't think price is relevant to it.......if someone's contract is over at another club it doesn't automatically mean they are a cast off. Tbh at the start of the season it seemed like MM had managed to keep the team together apart from Mings who I think was easily replaceable and MM also improved the squad with a few signings and a couple of quality loans...............I'm still hoping that we are just going through a bad patch and things will turn around.
We had the chance to buy McGhee from Hearts who is a Scottish international defender but wouldn't pay the asking price of £500,000 I think it was for a decent player in his early twenties, we had just put £8M+ in the bank for Mings for Christs sake! I fully understand that ME got well and truly turned over with Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee but he appointed those half wits they were his men so no blame to be apportioned anywhere else, now we have a management team that's shown it can work he starves them of funds, you just couldn't make it up. If for no other reason the loyalty of the fans should be recognised, that's right us people who were supporting ITFC long before the current owners, management, and players were here and will be long after they've all gone, we pay rip off ticket prices, and travel thousands of miles to away matches to watch Town regardless of league position etc, does MEs enthusiasm and commitment match our own? Its a fact hes put in a lot of money but that's not difficult when someones virtually a Billionaire, back your man ME, back your Club, and back those fans who didn't get home until the early hours this morning or get out now.
Anyhow, none of us know whether MM was given a decent transfer budget or not, so its kinda all hypothetical!! The one thing we do know is, whatever he is doing at the moment aint bloody working and i cant see it changing unless injuries force his hand!!
Don't worry Weighty, I know where you're coming from because, after all, we got a play-off place last season without spending much (Sears deal aside). It's just that I'd like to see a bit of ambition from the board. My point isn't that we can't get good players from the free market (we can and we have), it's that we only seem to operate in the free market, and I don't think you can realistically expect a promotion challenge by doing that. Look at the clubs above us. Brighton, Reading, Middlesbrough, Sheffield Wednesday, and the relegated clubs opened their chequebooks and signed quality players and had to pay for them. Even Birmingham, a club pretty much surviving off their academy, signed a few players for fees over the summer. While that tactic doesn't always work, as we've found out before, it's certainly helping those sides and I guarantee you that the three sides that go up this year will have all spent cash on quality players and improved their side this summer. Seriously, just look at how much Brighton have spent and they're undoubtedly the team to beat in this division right now.
I liked this post and then thought about it a bit. If a club doesn't decide to renew your contract then that kind of makes you a cast off. Something about your ability, or age etc made your current employer not want to keep you. Good players, ones that are worth something to a club, are normally always offered new terms either to keep them there or to make sure they're worth something should they be sold. It doesn't make them bad players all of a sudden though, obviously. Then there are the Roy Keanes of this world who just let every contract run down so people can walk for free.
Some players decide not to sign contracts offered by their club so they can get better deals when they move......
Of course, but I would say the majority of free agents were deemed surplus to requirements at their previous club.
No doubt mate, although I think players do run down their contracts more and more these days.......... We have lost players for nothing that were certainly not cast offs like Delaney,Leadbitter and Shandypants McAuley
