Well, we all feel pretty gutted the morning after. From what I heard and seen, that was another painful reminder about our present state of affairs on & off the pitch. The difference in quality was stark. Lambert has inherited a make-believe side of young, well intentioned, with some skill, but out of their depth, and the one strong point, they are all trying hard for him, with apparently good club spirit! The loss of Murphy, Lawrence, Waghorn,McG, and all the other quality players we had that merited a proper championship performing side, has been the real undoing of us. Ipswich TFC has been starved of funds, proper investment, committed passionate ownership for years. As a community, family-owned club with so many outstanding traits over all the years I have supported them – some 55 seasons now!...it is so sad to witness the depths we have sunk. IMO, we can't fault the present players for effort. And it’s no good criticising Lambert, yet. I am sure he knows they don't have the quality to really compete at this level. And dear me, another glaring Bart cock-up, flapping around uncertainly between the sticks. And their 2nd goal as described enthusiastically, showed the gulf. The chasm between us and most of the rest. Such a swift, sweet inch perfect passing game that ended with a simple tap in by Grabb’em, was once the hallmark of ITFC and our many admirers here and in Europe. So, yes, we have glimpses of a better team, a threat and in recent games, more shots on goals(not scoring mind you) I still feel sorry for the team. Huge uphill task now, and will we get the required shooting power and experienced defenders to shore up the back? I doubt it. So, perhaps brace ourselves for the lower tiers, train & develop the squad for that, try to play with flair, entertain us and go down with a bang! I shall always support the Town, smile wrily at those magnificent days, and pray for a new, different, passionate owner who really has the club and community at heart – and deep, oh so deep pockets. Because our beloved game is immersed in the dirty waters of ridiculous money.
The sad thing is gaffer, there is a competitive team amongst the squad but the selection decisions are now even more baffling. Some of the players’ attitudes are wrong and Lambert has done nothing constructive. We need investment but money is not everything. More than anything we need an owner with good judgement or a DoF to help the club make better decisions. Either way something needs to change. A relegation dogfight whether we succeeded or failed would be a lot easier to stomach if we were really having a go. But what we have for a club now is just absolutely pathetic. We probably have six months to endure of listening to Lambot telling us the players are doing everything asked of them, we played well. I hear Paul Hurst is available ...
Yorkie, Lambert has done all manner of constructive things since he's joined. It's quite apparent! Sure, results have been Hurst esque, but the squad is bad in key areas. While I think this squad IS pants - there are capable players in there so I'll give you that one. However, for ANY side to succeed you need a key spine - GK - CB - CM - CF Bart............. nuff said. Pony this season.......... CB - not good enough CM - MEH CF - OH MY GOD
A good manager would take this squad and make it competitive pretty quickly. We’ve appointed a former Norwich manager with an appalling track record since to continue that track record at Town and for some reason that I can’t get my head around instead of being angry about it many are swallowing his garbage and talking about obvious improvements. Yet nobody is able to say what those improvements are. The public gets what the public wants as Paul Weller once said.
If somebody could give me an insight into some of the tangible improvements that Paul Lambert has made that would be wonderful.
I'll have a go - To me ( others may feel differently ) I LIKE the following from Lambert - * Defending players in press conferences. Absolute basics of management. Get players on side. Like it. * Like what he did with former players. * Like the game he's attempting to play - though perhaps naive with that backline. * Like the fact he doesn't make 100 changes a game. * Like the fact he sticks with a system instead of 100 systems. Sure, results have infact on paper been worse than Hurst. We've a worse points total per game. We desperately need that win, but to date, sure - I'm a lot happier with Lambert than the previous idiot we had.
Would you say that Sir Alex Ferguson knows the basics of football management Westy? https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/46411576
Westy, unfortunately your list doesn't include any tangible improvements, it's mostly just management style and PR, all of which is very subjective. Game he's trying to play I can only go by highlights but it looks like the basic errors at the back and in team work have got worse. The rate at which we are getting points has not improved either. so not a tangible improvement on the pitch. One tangible improvement I can think of is Sears. But that doesn't get us very far if the back line has gone the other way. (4 of 5 of which are McCarthy era so Hurst can't really be blamed completely in that department) This isn't designed as an anti Lambert post but we don't have the time to tread water until January. Lambert was ostensibly brought in to stop us getting relegated, to do that he needs wins on the pitch now, not Jam tomorrow. If he was brought in to have a promotion season next year id rather they were honest about it.
Well each to their own, however I’m happy to see the back - and Lambert doing his best with what we have. January cannot come quick enough. Sheff Utd and the Wigan at H present a good opportunity.
Of course Ferguson is a good Yes, I would say he understands “the basics” of football. What SHOULD we do?? I’m calm and listening to Hampy. Oh tell me and I will agree oh wise one.
Good post Gaffer, straight from the heart. Measured, balanced analysis of what has gone wrong at this club and the lessons that we desperately need to learn, regardless of what division we play in next season. Like you, I also cannot see a way that this team avoids relegation. This squad of players is hands down the worst collection of footballers I’ve seen following the Town. The only hope is that we get the funds to start rebuilding this team, sorting out the myriad of problem areas we have in this squad, and to hopefully continue blooding the young players we will need for our hopeful resurgence and immediate promotion to the Championship, should we suffer relegation.
