This is real response from cleggy to my email, below is my letter and his reply. Dear Mr Clegg After another spineless display on Saturday I feel the need to write a letter to vent my frustration at the lack of direction from our manager and the lack of football business sense that you are showing as the CEO of a club that i have supported since birth. Firstly Paul Jewell the manager has shown a lack of leadership, tactical knowledge and sheer common sense. His transfer dealings are a complete nonsense, relying on ageing premiership players that are a good 2 years past their sell by date on sky high wages is just sheer madness and any fan can see that the club is suffering because of it. Then to top all of this, it seems that we are now a blooding in school for other championship sides to give experience to their 3rd choice keeper, this smacks of a 2nd division mentality from yourselves. What are our scouting network doing, are you looking to the lower leagues to find the gems that are obviously there! look at Norwich City and their progression over the last 2 years and that (and i hate to say this) is what we need to do. All of this, is on top of the this is the obsession to sign a striker without dealing with the obvious problem in defence. Us ITFC fans know the problems (we have to sit through this rubbish) every Saturday and then have the unfortunate task of sometimes a midweek game as well. Paul Jewell has totally lost the supporters and needs to be removed ASAP, with a talented young manager brought in, who has used the lower leagues as a stepping stone and not a 'big name' to massage the ego's of the bigwigs within the walls of Portman Road. This brings me on to yourself, while i think that you are probably doing your best, it is abundantly clear that you are out of your depth without the knowledge to deal with the freefall that we are in. It seems quite clear that you are clueless on how to finalise transfer deals, and the best you can come up with is that we have newly painted turnstiles, Talk about trying to turn the supporters against the club. Have you had any thoughts about the attendances that are falling by the week and how to attract the true supporters rather than the corporate clients which this club seems to have a fixation about. Now the academy issue, This club has a proud tradition of producing young players and this has been a good financial tool for the club and has produced a lot of revenue for the club, not going down the academy route is once again a scrimping exercise because you do not have the foresight to see that not only can we sell players from it, but it could also save us valuable transfer funds. You are clearly out of touch with the fans views. All in all, i (and the majority of Ipswich fans) can not see anyway forward until the manager and more importantly yourself either step aside or are removed from your positions within the club at the earliest opportunity. Like i have said, I am sure you have tried your best, but for the sake of the club (because this is the most important thing) that is the only way forward. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now here is his Reply! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Steve, Thank you for your e mail, the contents of which I have noted. whilst your e mail is peppered with inaccuracies, for example I don't know where you think we are obsessed with signing a striker - unless you really do believe everything you read in the press or on the websites. Ipswich Town however has a proud track record of supporting its managers through difficult times, indeed had the late and great Sir Bobby Robson been sacked after the six successive defeats he had to endure at the start of the 1969/70 season the Club probably would not enjoy its history of which we are all so proud. The current position is not acceptable and every effort is being made to turn things around. Thank you for taking the time to share your views with me. Simon Simon Clegg CBE Chief Executive Ipswich Town Football Club --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If we are lucky he will disappear up his own arsehole!
he may as well have written, 'i don't care what your opinion is - i'm running this club and i have no regard for what you and your like think. oh, and we shall continue to rip you off. mug! thanks for sharing your views with me - i have filed it in the bin'
I like the bit where he refers to the Six Successive defeats that Bobby Robson sufferred in the 1969/70 season! Two points the first being that the fans only started getting restless after a defeat by Manchester Utd in 1971 and secondly we have now suffered under Jewell 11 Defeats out of the last 14 games! We have also conceded 52 goals so far this season! It just shows you how complacent this fool really is!
I feel like going back to him to say if he really wants to see the damage He & Jewell to the club and the supporters then he should come to this site and TWTD to get a feeling of the unrest. I fear the old ITFC is dead and buried!
Guru, it sounds as if you hit on one or two too many truths for his liking. Extraordinarily tame response on his part, and as Superman says, he doesn´t seem care a damn what you or any other supporter thinks.
I must admit, despite being a 'budgie', that I find the refernce to Bobby Robson more than a tad disrepectful, so I can imagine what you 'binners' may be thinking. Bobby Robson was a great manager. Comparing Jewell to him is downright disgusting IMHO. I can't see Jewell achieving even 1/8th of what Bobby Robson achieved, not only on the pitch, but also off it. This has genuinely annoyed me, and I'm almost tempted to write to Clegg myself. Good luck with somehow dealing with this lads.
Almost word for word I saw the same reply to someone on the TWTD forum last night (unless that was posted by yourself Guru?) I have a feeling he has a standard multiclip for fans emails, quoting about Sir Bobby just to make it seem like he is one of us. I don't agree he is comparing Jewell to SBR, he's just saying we have a history of giving managers time which has served us well but there is giving managers enough time and giving them too much time, we should have learnt that with the last manager. Haven't sent mine yet as I have a feeling I'm going to have a few more points to add in a week or two!
Definately not me on TWTD sven, but i do believe that the Bobby Robson bit is just a blanket bit that he will put on an email to any fan. Just imagine that, Sir Bobby would be turning in his grave if he knew that his name is only being used as a PR tool from a clueless coporate idiot. Today, I feel ashamed to be an ITFC fan if this is what is happening to our club.
Clegg can not just simply compare a different situation over 40 years ago to the one that is happening now. It is disgusting in my view and totally debases the memory of SBR.
Banter aside, I genuinely feel sorry for loyal Ipswich supporters like yourselves. What seems to be happening to your club is worse than what was happening when we had Neil Doncaster and co at our club, and that is saying something! My Father (God rest his soul) was a massive Town fan (born in Blaxhall and raised in Saxmundham) and while we used to fight like cat and dog over certain things football related, the way he used to talk about Ipswich made me respect them fully. With what is happening to his club now would make another Ipswich man turn in his grave. I truly and sincerly hope you boys come out the other side of this turmoil with a club you can still be proud of. You and my old man deserve nothing less than that. ****, that wasn't easy!
Get on it Maestro. I think that's exactly the kind of statement that needs to be made. I'm preparing my letter now.
