I have had similar thoughts myself TB. Marcus' only real contribution so far has been to save us from administration, beyond that he's only helped take our club backwards. At the time he came in there was no FFP to worry about and he invested heavily into the squad. Unfortunately the wrong people were spending the cash and other teams took full advantage of our new wealth by bumping the prices up on mediocre players, which we then naively/gullibly paid. Fast forward to 2013 and we now have our best manager in the last few years steering the ship but he is severely hamstrung when it comes to funds available. At times I have been embarrassed at what has been happening at Portman Road. We had serious clout financially to do something when he arrived but instead success has gone to other, better run clubs like Blackpool who spent far less but had other areas of the club right, resulting in promotion without throwing money at it. I have faith that Mick can work some wonders with no money and a hard working team but it will only take us so far. Investment in quality is also important to give you the edge over your competitors and this is where Marcus must realise when to back the manager, before he loses him.
I agree with TB on the whole building the stands and although not the best of moves buying finidi and sereni etc I don't think these decisions were stupid decisions although the concequences were terrible, I think perhaps yes we were naive but also very unlucky, I think we certainly went down at the wrong time. But I do think we could've had alot of worse people in charge than ME, he didn't come in like alot of owners and make rash decisions but I think he made a number of naive decisions, perhaps also he's made the right decisions at the wrong time (if that makes sense) and the thing which riles me most is the lost opportunity. We were doing okay under Jim, we had a good team spirit, good young players who played attractive football, this changed when ME came in but ever since the day Keane came in we've been on a downward spiral that didn't just mean we got worse in terms of league position but we lost our soul of the club. Even now under the stewardship of Mick I think we'll do well but we really could've built something special had there been a long term plan when ME came in and he would've made the correct appointment after Jim or even not given Jim quite so much money initially!! For me it's the wasted opportunnity which annoyed me the most. I just remember when ME took over, it felt inevitable we would do well and even when we stuttered under Jim, I can just remember in his last match against the Scum, laughing at their plight and thinking we may never play them again because they're on a downward spirral and we were on the up, how things change!! I think things would be considerable different now had we appointed Lambert and they appointed Keane despite all of the other intermediates!!
