Was very pleased to watch a impressive Ipswich Town last night take on a premotion chasing Birmingham. We made them look average imo. I am also pleased with the direction that we're going in , all down to Mr PJ . I am enjoying watching Ipswich again and i'm looking forward to next season and imo think the team needs tinkering with rather than a wholesale clearout. I loved the newish chant from the north stand ' woooooooo wooooooo , clap clap clap etc ' . Now i'm bracing myself against the doom and gloomers ..... COYB
How can you be pleased when we're finishing bottom half... if I'm not mistaken this looks like we'll finish further away from the play offs than even Keane's dire season... it was an opportunity to blood some kids not taken. I am struggling to be barely interested in what happens in the transfer window this summer. It's groundhog day. Ipswich 'Groundhog Day' Town. On the upside well done Reading, they were unlucky last year and fully deserve their Prem place and it looks as though West Ham have blown it despite having players like Kevin Nolan. It just goes to show once again it's all about having a well run club and a good manager and not about your resources.
Saying that you are pleased with the direction we are going is not the same as being pleased of our league position Hamps. I agree with you Hog two or three good signings that go straight into the first team and i think we can start looking to move on, Imo this season has seen us a bit stagnant but this is not a bad thing if you look at the previous decline over the Keane/Jim **** Eras, the fall is over we have stablised and with a bit of luck Improvement next season.
Last nights performance on the whole was very good, jewell was right when saying it was up there with our best performances of the season........But why was Scotland, who whilst on the pitch was just about our best player taken off for JET....don't get me wrong I had no problem with JETs introduction, I was surprised that when jewell stated he was going with his strongest available side he was left on the bench. Murphy again last night was at best very average & Chopra again looks totally out of form, they both played 90mins and both missed complete sitters 2nd half to win the game for us, their overall contribution to the performance last night was well bellow the rest of the teams, yes I know Martin also missed a sitter (although flagged offside) but at least he had a decent game and looked dangerous when attacking down the flank or cutting in to the middle. Again I find myself questioning the managerâs tactics and ability to spot the bloody obvious. I appreciate Murphy has height etc etc but it was not as if Birmingham had been pumping ball after ball into our box. One other point why adopt the risky tactic and pick 5 outfield subs and only use 1... Bowyer included in the squad again, Carson left outâ¦.FFSâ¦.
For me it's not about being ABLE to play well... all it shows is that we have the players capable but there are tactical, motivational or selection issues. In fact, we all know there are selection issues. i know he is doing a lot of good and hard work but PJ is not the first manager at this club in recent years who can't see the bleeding obvious.
How any one can be happy with a negative goal difference at the end of the season is beyond belief! Another lower mid-table finish and a season ending in a whimper. If you count that as progress then good luck to you!
On top of what Jewell has said about including youngsters, ie he didnt want to do it against teams which could have an impact on the promotion/ relegation situation and also that the likes of Whight has struggled to adapt to becoming a professional, I cant believe that anybody wants to throw youngsters in to struggle against the better teams in the league. They need experience but I dont see the point of potentially wrecking confidence by chucking them in against some of the strongest teams here. Imagine we did include 2 or 3 youngsters last night and Birmingham beat us 5 or 6-0 - what would that honestly achieve and how would it help? Including them against the likes of Millwall and Doncaster makes the chances of a thrashing much less likely and in my mind is good, sensible management. I think it also says something about the quality of our youth when we only feel that 1 of the current crop are worthy of a contract offer. We all want to see young local talent come through but the majority of us know next to nothing about any of them except names and possibly the odd match report/ news article. we automatically assume that there will be someone in there who can fill a gap in the side. It may work on Football Manager but the management, who see them all on a daily basis, obviously dont think they can fit into the side or they would be here already.
If you take the season as a whole then I doubt anyone is happy but if you cant agree that we have made massive progress since the start of this year and that is a reason for some kind of encourage then I think it says more about you and your issues with the club rather than the club itself. When reviewing the season as a whole then it will not be one of great enthusiasm but it could be argued that it is the first time in 4 years that we have a good platform to build on.
We only started to improve when the changes were forced upon Jewell and he stumbled on the best midfield pairing of Drury/Hyam along with Lee Martin in his preferred role! Progress has been made but lets not kid ourselves, we were absolutely woeful for a large chunk of the season. Our surrender against Watford and Leicester pretty much sums us up. Looking at the whole season and not just selecting the last 3 months, it has been a woeful season and one that will definately not live long in the memory.
Bloody hell tractorbhoy if they can't compete against Birmingham they shouldn't be given terms. Our players used to be thrown in against top flight sides!!!
First half of the season was crap, second half very encouraging. Hopefully decent signings in the right areas will help to bring the feel good factor back.
JWM, As I said I doubt anybody is happy with the season as a whole. Once performances have been forgotten and we only have the final league table to remind us of the season it will definately show one of failure but for me that would only tell half the true story. We have never hit stellar heights with our performance this season but we have got some decent results and runs of form along the way along with times of total abysmal failure. I dont buy into the anti Jewell argument of the fact he stumbled across our best formation. It obviously wasnt his preferred formation at the start of the season but he could of done a number of things at the time he implemented the change. The way some fans talk about it makes you think we only had 11 players fit and available and so we couldnt play any other way. I think its hard to bash the club for the performance against Leicester. You only have to look at the qaulity that both clubs had on the benches to realise that the £15m the spent last summer was invested with a lot more intelligence than the £20m spunked by Keane and Jim on our squad. Our first team is almost there (defence aside) but our lack of squad depth is frightening when you consider what resources we have had available. The period since the turn of the year hasnt been one of total domination and success and there has been errors on along the way, but as I previously stated it has certainly given me more confidence than at any time since the ME takeover.
FFS its no longer the 70's and we no longer have one of the best set ups in the country. If we had players that were capable of being thrown in against the best in the country they would already be in the squad.
They dont need to be big money. They need to be able to do a job! A couple more Cresswells/ Drurys and a lot less Leadbitter/ Edwards would be fine with me.
Adam Le Fondre signed by Reading for £350K from Rotherham last summer! Now he'll be playing in the Premiership. For me we should be looking at players like Kane Ferdinand, Matt Lowton, Matt Tubbs, Matt Ritchie, Paul Taylor, George Boyd, Lewis Magugan, Ched Evans, Gary Madine, Jordan Rhodes, Nick Powell - Young hungry players with a point to prove and the odd ambitious signing to show our true intent.
Finally, an Ipswich fan sees it! It's not your God-given right to be in the Premier League or even top half of the Championship. At the moment, you are a fairly mediocre team, but Jewell as it least saying the right things weather he acts on these will remain to be seen however.
