Steve Coppell has accepted the job of Director of Football at Crawley Town after the shock departure of Steve Evans. Talk about showing ambition! Why is it that small (no disrepects to Crawley) football clubs likes this go out and show their ambition by appointing experienced football men whilst we on the other hand place our faith in clueless morons? I would have loved it if Coppell were to have come here a few years back ahead of Keane! A driven man who has a proven track record of success with Crystal Palace and Reading. Yes he walked away at Brizzle but can you blame him? It looks like another season of dull and dismal failure for us.
i've always been a big fan of coppell's too warky but you can't deny he is a quitter. i think its a bizarre move but then crawley are a bizarre football club. i can't stand them but that may have been more to do with steve evans than them.
He's a quitter only because he has soild principles and when ever there is a conflict with those principles he walks! I admire any one who is prepared to stand up for what they believe in and for me Coppell is more akin to Ipswich then the moron we have here at the moment! I loved him as a player when I was growing up and I have followed his career in football ever since. I wish him well at Crawley but I get the feeling that it will all end in tears!
can't disagree with any of that. there was a time when i would have liked coppell as england manager! now he's at crawley... crazy.
I would put Coppell very much in the Martin O'Niel mould. He would have made an excellent choice for us but Evans wanted Keane instead! I think that tells you all you need to know about the current state of Ipswich Town Football Club!
what do you make of keane as a pundit? i find it difficult to listen to him because i've already turned my tv off because that twat adrian chiles is always on it...
Serves you right for watching football coverage on ITV. I am a Martyn Tyler man myself and I am even beginning to respect that weasle Gary Neville as a football pundit! He is proving to be most intelligent in his analysis without the huge Man Utd bias that you would expect. As for keane, he can go and rot in hell as far as I'm concerned!
gary neville is easily the best pundit on tv. such a knowledgeable man and when you've won as much as he has you do sit up and listen. lee dixon is pretty good too...
The biggest mistake made by our club in our history was appointing Keane as manager rather than bringing in someone with experience!! After Jim(although I was one of his biggest fans) we needed someone with experience to come in!! I have to say I think Keane is only a slightly better pundit than he is a manager, which isn't saying alot. It makes me laugh when him and Southgate(who I quite like) are on together, it seems like so many before him, he's scared of him and constantly looking toward him to see if he agrees with him!! They're like chalk and cheese though!! I have to agree with you both, I think Dixon is the best BBC pundit, I rarely disagree with what he has to say & Neville is very good which surprises me as despite him being an exceptional RB he was a tw*t and you'd expect some of this to translate into his punditory. I also don't mind Jason Roberts, although he's still playing so this can sometimes mean he's not at liberty to say certain things.
i hate mark bright!! i had a massive barney with him on twitter during the summer when he slagged norwich off and said we were all racists... he still tweets me sometimes when we lose. pitiful man.
the thing with neville and dixon is that they are both clearly educated, intelligent men who understand the game inside out and can translate what they can see into words so we can all understand. there aren't too many pundits out there who can do both. garth crooks can do neither!
The BBC should have pensioned off Lineker, Hansen and Lawrenson years ago! Colin Murray is lightweight and if you are going to give the gig to a comedian then why not Frank Skinner!
Just to stay on topic, I wished we had offered Steve Coppell the Town job. He is deeply thoughtful man who has a great deal of experience within the game and would have been the perfect choice to build a new dynasty. I just get the feeling that all Jewell is doing is firefighting. It may not be all his fault but his tactical acumen has definately been found wanting many times this year.
Garth Crooks is terrible and yeah why oh why do they have Colin Murray. I think the BBC have gone down hill this year, they used to be the best at football(still are) but they try to add all these fancy gimmicks or jokes or show highlights at some fancy angle where you can't actually tell whats going on. Franks Skinner wouldn't be a bad shout actually!! Holland actually is a rather good pundit but not great at being the presenter!!
Yes Coppell would have been the perfect choice for us after Jim. We were in a good position, had a decent squad, we just needed a calm head to evolve us and take us to the promised land, what we got was the complete opposite. I like that anology of Jewell firefighting. He seems to be doing alot of this the past couple of seasons, most not of his own doing but some down to his own making, its one thing after another. To many short term decisions to get us by or trying to change things too quickly. I think any manager who came in would've been in the same situation. Hopefully next season will be a little more settled, yes we still need alot of new players and changes but we have quality now and its fairly clear the areas which most need strenghtening, whereas last year every area needed to be strengthened pretty urgently.
I’ve just had a quick look at Madge’s last few fixtures before Keane came in. Unless I’ve forgotten anyone significant, our squad was (ignoring loans): Keepers: Wright, Supple. Defenders: Bruce, McAuley, Campo, Balkestein, Thatcher, Wright, Smith, Richards. Midfield: Norris, Shumo, Quinn, Garvan, Miller, Peters. Forwards: Lisbie, Counago, Stead, Haynes. That looks like a squad that needed some serious rebuilding. Keane rightly identified left back, left midfield and forward that needed strengthening, then bought three players for those positions that quickly proved to be a waste of space – followed by multi million panic buying of anyone regardless of position. PJ inherited: Keepers: Fulup, ALB, Murphy Defenders: McAuley, Delaney, Kennedy, Peters, Eastman, Smith., Brown, O’Connor Midfielders: Norris, Civelli, Edwards, Healy, Leadbitter, Lambe, Martin, Hyam. Forwards: Wickham, Scotland, Priskin, Murray. Slightly worse than one Keane took over?? Probably, despite having 11 million chucked at it. If someone else took over tomorrow, would they be inheriting anything better than those two nightmares?
You can all keep on blaming Jim and Keane but i honestly think that the current clown is no better!! Jewell was lucky to stumble upon a winning formula and what does he do, ****s it up by dropping Hyam and Drury. Its time some of you got over the Keane era and concentrated on whats happening here and now. Still no RB, 20 different GK's in one season (exageration) still no quality CB and still no target man, which i think is important and will give our strikers something to feed off. For tooooo long now have we been waiting for certain positions to be filled, this is not the fault of Jim or Keane, it is down to Jewell. I can honestly say that i think next season could be a disaster with Jewell in charge, the funds don't seem to be available and the noises coming out of PR are not encouraging. We can look forward to a season of belt tightening, which is not what is required, we need to bring in decent young(ish) players from lower leagues or abroad. Jewell has screwed up by bringing in the oldies and can't afford to make that mistake again, i mean Ellington FFS!!!! I would try to get in Heaton (Cardiff) or Ashdown (Pompy) as a permanent GK I would have liked us to have brought in the Sheff U pair, Lowton (RB) and Evans (CF) but that one looks beyond us now, missed the boat yet again!! As for CB, not sure but maybe look abroad. The current first teamers i would get rid of are, Bowyer Bullard Ellington Murray (will never make the grade at PR) ALB Wright Delaney or Sonko (don't trust either but we would need one as cover) I'm ready for the slating......
JJ you missed Rhodes, Walters and Civelli(I know he had a serious injury) out of Jims squad, who all were quite significant players plus Wickham played a few games and Harding came back for a few games because he was on loan and Wickham had played a couple of games. Which potentially meant if all fit we would of had not a great team but a pretty decent one for this division, with one or 2 signings we could have really been a force and challenge for promotion, it didn't need serious rebuilding or if it did should have been done over time not so ruthlessly. Whilst that team certainly needed strengthening we could of had a half decent season without changing it too much, especially with the emergence of Rhodes & Wickham. Keane ripped it apart, sold a natural goalscorer in Rhodes, sold Wright(RB) after he was the player of the season and didn't bring in another RB, sold bruce when he was actually having a decent season, sold Stead when he was on the best goalscoring run he had been on at ipswich, didn't play garvan even though most of the times he did play he was our best player and brought in average players who cost alot of money on high wages. The team Jewell inherited was one of the worst ever ipswich teams but the problem also was many of them were on high wages and long contracts or players out of contract in the summer who we wanted to keep but were unlikely to sign. As JWM said Jewell had to firefight, on many fronts he needed to save us from relegation whilst trying to keep players like McAuley & Norris. When the summer came we lost both through no fault of his own and sold Wickham(which was probably the right thing to do) and the squad we were left with, lacked numbers and lacked any quality or any players who had actually proven they could make it in the championship. We needed strenghtening in every position whilst getting rid of some of the average players who were on high wages, yes he made mistakes but these were made more likely by the situation we found ourselves in. He should have got more younger players but opted for proven quality due to I think the fact we had to get numbers in, the expectations from the club that even though we've finished nowhere near the top of the league in 6 years or so and got a rubbish squad we should be challenging for promotion this season and perhaps that he didn't want to gamble a large amount of money on these younger players without scouting the leagues thoroughly and being sure they could make the step up. Any manager would have struggled this season, it was always going to be one of transition and the signings Jewell has made, have not been on long contracts or for any fee therefore fairly low risk. If a manager came in now I would say we are in a better position now than we were this time last year, although only slightly. A new manager would need to bring in a fairly large amount of players over a short period of time once again which is why I think we should keep Jewell for at least one more season, in this league continuity is key as so many clubs have been chopping and changing managers and having a large turnover of players. Also we can critisice some of these signings now and Jewells team selections but through the course of the season we've all changed our mind on players. Edwards was the biggest problem in the team, now people are saying he's the most consistent performer and may get player of the season? Sonko, was considered to be miles better a defender than McAuley??!!! Ingimarrsson is like McAuley with pace!!?? Smith was useless and was never going to make it at this level?? Cresswell, why did we sign a young LB when we've got O'Conner?? Why is Martin in the team, he's got no end product?? JET, what a waste of money, he's so lazy and will never make it?? Drury, he'll never make it at championship level?? Murphy, why's he brough him back for and playing him on the left?? Chopra is a has been, he's finished??!! Bowyer, great signing exactly what we need a bit of steel in that midfield, he should be made captain!!?? Signing Bullard could be the difference between us being a midtable side or challenging for promotion??!!! Why is Jewell starting Scotland for, he's been rubbish for us??!! We've heard alot of these all season, I've said a few of them myself, its very easy with hindsight to say some of these were poor decisions or now good decisions!! Next season will hopefully be far more settled, although we need IMO around 6 players and one which we should be able judge Jewell much better on. I still however do not think it will be a season where we will be competing right at the top of the league though!! Spanish the yes the Keane era is the past but the trouble is he was that bad that its going to effect us for a few years after he left and was going to effect decisions made by the next manager!! I find it hard how to contemplate how the only manager you have ever liked in the past 6 years has been Keane, you vermently defended him, yet he was the manager who has done more damage to the club than probably anyone in our history. But I do agree with you that really should have got a permanent GK in, a new RB, 2 new CB's and a target man. But like i said previously over the summer we needed players in every position, so I can accept that he cannot rectify every position that quickly and not make mistakes and the january transfer window is always a funny one. I would also agree with you in players to get rid of, none of them I would be overly dissapointed if the went. I actually also hope leadbitter takes a pay cut as for the first time in a while he's showing some sort of form, which can be said for a number of players tbh. For Jim last season and Keanes tenure, no players really played well!! Bullard has another season here, I'm caught in 2 minds about that, I still think he could offer us something but at the same time if he can't its a player on high wages. Bowyer won't be offered another contract(I hope) and I am also with you in being puzzled as to why he is in the team ahead of Hyam and Drury but like all ipswich managers I've known they seem to prefer to play the big names and have favourites over the so called lesser players. Ellington also has another season, whilst I could understand us signing him, he's probably on not that much money and could have potentially been a decent free signing if he hit the form of old(when Jewell was his manager) and on the few occasions i've seen him, I though he held the ball up pretty well but I cannot understand why we gave him a 2 year contract. I also have my reservations about Murray, not too sure if he'll ever make the grade, but probably worth giving another year just to see if he can make the step up. I would also keep ALB, definitely not good enough for 1st team but decent understudy and appears to be content to be on the bench. I'd get rid of both Sonko & Delaney, I think Sonko will go, he's decent enough but probs a high earner and we can do alot better, Delaney has another year on his contract which is a shame but i expect he will stay. I think Jewell last season offered contracts to a few players because he didn't know who he would be able to get in, i.e Delaney & Healey!! I would also offer Martin & Drury longer contracts as I think they both only have a year left on them and we don't want to be in the situation we've been in the past couple of periods. Apologies for the essay, I'm also ready for the slating....
