The Paul Hurst how long do we give him thread

Completely agreed with this. I cannot get behind the somewhat warped and presumptuous idea that relegation would benefit this club and somehow cleanse over a decade's worth of mediocrity and mismanagement. A more likely scenario would be further asset-stripping of the club's resources and maybe a greater emphasis on playing our academy lads. But the idea that we'd achieve an immediate promotion back to the Championship is incredibly optimistic, in my opinion.

 

it is a shame your mob languish's in bottom place, Ipswich was one of the few teams I always dreaded playing. My team, BCFC ..Skusey's old club! has suffered somewhat over the years trying to get it right.. we still are! We went down … unavoidable really but not as a direct result of the manager although some say it was … but came back up....

Mick would likely have you in mid table about now, he had a way in utilising what he was allowed to have player wise, and I know there will always be fans who go out of their way to be the most voiciferous and develop a following that adds to their baying … wanting more for their club, which is always right, but you have to look at the wider perspective and move with the times …….. new transfer / loan windows parachute payment advantages etc

last season you finished 12th that's top half, season before mid 8 teams, before that 7th [ top 8 ] before that 6 th before that 9th [ mid 8 teams ] and before that again mid 8 teams, pretty consistent 2 opportunities, in 6 seasons, maybe to have gone up ..... once in playoff's other just missing out 7th … and really never having to to worry to much about relegation although you did flaunt above it a couple of times …. to be honest that is a reasonable 6 seasons, especially as a lot of clubs have a couple good years then rebuild, as they had a squad that did it then and decided to move on or were deemed replaceable!

you have what you wished for … mick out … a new manager and after 7 games some of you are baying for him to go !
it is rare a manager turns it around on a sixpence, so maybe you should give him till game 10 next season ...irrespective of the division you are in!

 

Everyone is right in that if Mick was still in charge, we would be mid table now. But, if Mick was in charge for the next 20 years, i guarantee you we'd finish between 8th and 14th EVERY season. That's not for me, i don't want mid-table mediocrity every boring year, not trying something new and different - same old same old same old same old year after year.
We've finally got a change in management, a younger man, with different, more expressive ideas. He's young, and raw, and is still finding hi feet at this level. If we get rid now, or even this season, then it's a travesty. I always say a manager needs at least a season and a half to see his tree bearing fruit.
At least we are finally changing shape, trying to be more progressive, building a new footballing team. I don't care that we are bottom at the moment, sometimes you have to go back to move forward (no, i don't want us relegated), i want to see my team try and do things the right way, sometimes the gamble pays off, and sometimes it doesnt - but if you carry on doing the same old sh!t week after week, month after month, and year after year (as Mick did), then everyone loses interest, and we become a joke of a club.

I'm happy that Hurst is in charge, and i happy with the "very slow" progress he's making on the pitch - even if the results don't show it.
I'm keeping the faith...

 

I can see that you've willingly bought into the national media's narrative that we 'hounded out' Mick McCarthy from this football club like a baying mob. It's a load of rubbish. Several mouthy idiots at a few away games have somehow become indicative of an entire club's fanbase. Mick did get some verbal abuse from a few supporters, I'm not denying that, but every football club unfortunately has its idiots. Games at Portman Road were not toxic, poisonous events where we were baying for Mick's blood. It was usually a tired, sedate, and apathetic atmosphere that reflected the style of football we played and the feeling around the club. I have a lot of respect and appreciation for the work that Mick did for this football club, and he certainly had a knack of keeping us away from the bottom three, despite the budget. Having said that, with hindsight, he should have walked when we finished four points outside the relegation zone and left with his reputation generally intact. In his final season, his arrogance, overly-defensive style of football, and the general air of apathy within the club and among the supporters was just too much. I didn't really care about watching games last season (far too expensive for what it was worth and a majority of the games were just a slog to sit through) and thousands of fans just stopped turning up. The same old favourites kept playing, even when they were out of form, and across Mick's almost six-year reign here, we never progressed past the first round of the cup or get three points against our rivals.

The decision to replace Mick McCarthy was the correct one, as I don't think you'd see over 10,000 at Portman Road if we had persisted with him. I also don't think a mid-table position would be guaranteed with him in charge, because of the feeling of decline over the past couple of years along with the fact that Webster and Waghorn would have still departed. The irritating and concerning thing is that we may have replaced Mick with the wrong manager. I'm not going to be critical yet, as you rightly point out, it's still early days, but no wins in seven is a negative statistic and the early signs of promise have slowly reversed. In the last couple of games, we are playing the type of football we'd see under the worse days of Mick. I'm hopeful it's just a case that we need the elusive first win and get the monkey off the back, and then we can start climbing the table.

It's difficult to describe the style of football under Mick to a neutral, or somebody that rarely saw us play, but honestly there aren't many of us sad to see the back of Mick McCarthy, even with us in the bottom three!

 

good to see you are "looking for a season and a half" we got LJ most couldn't understand why but we got him because our manager before had a successful formula to get us out of div1 but would not bend and tried to keep the same formation in the champs.... LJ WANTED 3 WINDOWS AND HE GOT THEM … our chairman stuck by him, although there was evil "so called fans but really just anti LJ " LOUTS out there who did despicable things ….
our fan base is resigned to wanting prem football but happy if we get to challenge most seasons until we do...

 

I don't think anyone really wants him gone, now or in the coming weeks. I wouldn't take too much notice to what is written anonymously on an internet forum.

As for wanting Mick out. It wasn't quite as militant as some corners would have you believe. He was with us for 5 and a half years, which is an absolute lieftime in football and was able to walk away at the end of his contract.. Not fired, but a natural ending of an era that I think everyone (including Mick) was desperately in need of

No arguments in terms of results.. We were comfortably mid table throughout, but I think for most people the rot started to set in during the 2015/16 season where we had (arguably) one of the best squads we've ever had, but began playing some of the most turgid football. Setting up with 3 defendive midfielders at home to winless Wigan & lumping the ball forward to 5ft 8 Noel Hunt an example that still rankles with me (we drew 0-0 Quelle Surprise)

Also, we stopped doing some of the things Mick teams were famous for: Winning personal battles, making life difficult for oppositions, hard to breakdown etc etc. Teams were finding it easy to score against us and easy to defend against as we had zero pace or creativity, just a lot of huff & puff.

As I said 5 and a half years is an incredibly long time and I thank Mick for what he's done and would shake his hand if I saw him in person, but sometimes things need freshening up and to see us go through another season signing some 34 year old of free transfers to see us through the season would be too much to take.

 

Jon Walters...? LOL

 

It's alright if other managers do it ha give Hurst a pass on that one.

 

I was thinking that when I wrote it.. But my comment was more a nod to the signings of: Coke, Varney, Digouraga, Douglas, Feeney, Pringle, Gleeson, Carayol.

Some of those contributed, but were always short term fixes to problems and other than Douglas only ever played a handful of games whilst we were short on numbers due to injuries

 

it's alright lads, I've run the numbers for this season in Fifa.

Rashford gets injured just before Christmas, but Calvert-Lewin is signed in January and gets a couple of hat-tricks along the way. Foden does well in midfield and Town finish third behind Villa and Wolves (who, it turns out didn't get promoted last season after all).

 

I've got a horrible feeling that what we are seeing is the next stage of the demise of ITFC. We've had MM keep us punching above our weight in mid table with a plain average bunch of players with no pace or creativity, as Scowey succinctly put it, playing the most boring but appropriate football we've ever seen. so as we all agree, change was needed.

But if we can't keep half decent championship players were really on a downward curve because you can't build without continuity of players and if everyone just buggers off as soon as they stand out even remotely as being fairly good at this level to ANOTHER champ club, not even a PL one were just a feeder club to the rest of the division. If Derby are a better bet for a player like Waghorn than us it shows how lacking in the necessary funds and ambition on the pitch needed to keep above average (but not even top dollar) players like him at our club and how unlikely we are to further the career of players like him and therefore not attract them. it feels like its a self fulfilling prophecy and no I've not drunk to much (or enough?) to be this pessimistic.

there's no plan to our play despite finally having some pace and creativity. thats worrying.

Our player of th season for the last 3 years (think?) is benched. that's really worrying. whatever the reason. he probably kept us in the division as much as the good fortune Waghorn turned out to be pretty good last year.

now Nolan is benched.

The other, depressing future I see is Big Sam (unless yet another PL side recruits him under similar circumstances) has be brought in at Xmas to do the same thing MM did only for a lot more money before he buggers off not quite managing to pull it off.

maybe I'm wrong. obviously I hope so. but so far its not looking good despite what I think can be a competitive team if its set up right. with pace and a trick in midfield there's always a threat. so far we seem to have stifled it though...