Just to guage people's thoughts... Is anyone feeling optimistic for next season? My feeling is that our fortunes next season will depend on at what point, if any, Jewell will get his marching orders. If it's early enough in the season then anything is possible, but if he's still with us come December then I fear we're looking at another mid-table at best finish.
for me its all down to positive signings that catch my imagination, i'm not talking about 'big names' more of players that have shone in the lower leagues and are ready to step up and the building of a team. Plus hopefully to take the reins off the youngsters!
I'm more optimistic for next season than anytime since the summer before Jims last season!! Whilst that optimism doesn't include us getting promoted or maybe not even reaching the playoffs, I'm optimistic that for the first time in a while we will see exciting football and more progression than we have seen in a while. But once again because there will be a fair amount of upheval over the summer interms of ins and outs, I would imagine we will have a slow start to the season and then push on after xmas!! But this obviously depends on signings made.
I dont see how you can not be more optimistic about next season tbh. We have found a formula that works well and current form would suggest it has the potential to put us in a strong place next season. We will not need a massive overhaul in the summer.The nucleus of a strong team is there and we will hopefully be able to fill in the gaps over the next few months. If we can add the rights players to the squad then it should mean the chances of going on a major losing streak next season are greatly reduced and that run was where this season was ultimately lost. It really all depends how you define optimism though. Im not suggesting we will be run away leaders or even certainties to go up so its not ott euphoria from me but I also dont think we will struggle. I feel a top 8 finish would be good for next season. The financial situation is going to bite a lot of clubs and the new regulations could change the face of the game for years. If we can continue to build but bring the scary wage bill down then that would be a good season. (Getting rid of delaney would be a moment of true euphoria for me)
As ever tractorbhoy I agree. I bet you by the time the new season comes you guys who are pessemistic now will probably be the most optimistic out of everyone and say we should be getting automatic promotion. For the first time in a while I feel we are building a team rather than just panic buying(last summer) or chucking money at the situation(Keane & Jim).
I shall probably reserve my choice of being optimistic or the opposite until I see how PJ goes about his summer transfer deals. I do echo a lot of what tractorbhoy says though, like aiming for at least a top eight finish. PJ does have some shortcomings though, and he baffles me sometimes with his team selections and substitutions.
Have yer seen this?? http://www.eadt.co.uk/sport/ipswich-town/town_teen_turns_down_offer_to_stay_at_ipswich_1_1347896 Callum Bennett isn't signing! One of your actual right backs, local, the only one in his year deemed worthy of an offer. "Blues boss Paul Jewell yesterday revealed the 19-year-old right-back had rejected the club’s initial offer, citing the fact he wanted “longer and better terms”. Ipswich-born Bennett has also attracted interest from League One clubs and might feel his chances of first-team football might improve elsewhere." He'd been offered our trademark one year deal with the example of Hyam to look to. Can't blame him really. I struggle with the optimism thing. At least Jewell is promising to give Lawrence some game time before the season is out, though what his idea of "game time" might be I couldn't say. http://www.eadt.co.uk/sport/ipswich...ich_town_s_second_youngest_debutant_1_1348122
Its an absolute bloody disgrace! Yet another reason why our club is in decline, I'm sure Sir Bobby would be turning in his grave.
Well, it pisses all over Clegg's arguments for a Lower Category academy! Clueless. Can't blame him. I have absolutely no faith left in the club anymore, it's gone to the dogs.
Oh dear, words fail me. WTF is going on, we can't even keep hold of our academy scolars. This will probably lead to us signing someone else's young players so that we can help them develop and then send them back to their parent club. We seem to have more bad news than good coming from our beloved club at the moment, when will it end? <distraught>
There is no room for optimism at all imo. There is absolutely no coherent plan for the future progression of this club and the statements made by Clogg and Jewell seem to be completely at odds with what is actually happening! A young Ipswich born player who has made the grade has been offered a joke of a contract. Another young player Luke Hyam has only been offered a year so he is free to walk at the end of next season for nothing. This club is being run into the ground and yet the apologists can't seem to see it! You bet there will be another summer of loanees, freebies and square pegs in round holes in readiness for another year of abject failure. Its certainly great to be an Ipswich supporter!
As an ach enemy own the road im loving it. As a football supporter I can emphasize.It truly is terrible when you have no faith in the people who are running your club(look up the word club in the dictionary and you will be even more pissed off) and there is nothing you can do about it. Been there and done it lads.But as I as I have said before its all about peaks and troughs and you lot are in a trough at the mo.The peak will come. ps.not while Clegg is there.
Perhaps not but we are looking at the bigger picture and the signals it sends out to other young talented kids who will be put off from joining our academy!
Indeed JWM, whilst it may not be a player who will be potential star for us it is slightly concerning how many younger players are jumping ship, by all means none of them have been the more rated but something must be going on. Either the club aren't paying enough, they don't have confidence that we can develop them, they won't get much 1st team oppertunity or their agents are telling them they can get more at other clubs. In a strange way it might be a good thing, we are keeping the one's who really want to stay at the club and getting rid of those who are more motivated by money than to prove themselves!!Or am I just clutching at straws??
He wasn’t kicked oot the youths – he was offered a pro’ contract. He preferred somewhere else having been nurtured though our academy for years. We fret whether our recruitment into the academy is wide and comprehensive enough in the first place; then having offered the one solitary player in his year we deem worth it a deal he sees better options elsewhere. It might not be a portent of doom but it’s hardly good. If your own youths don’t want to sign it’s not a positive signal. Lavery turned up his nose and now Bennett has. They may not turn out to be worldbeaters, but if those two aren’t impressed, what do you think will happen the next time we do produce a potential worldbeater? The last two U18 players we’ve offered contracts to have buggered off.
