Is relegation to League 1 really all that bad? We would be playing some 'real' football teams and visiting places like Crawley, Carlisle, Brentford, Walsall and others that we would only get to in a cup competition normally. We would be a big fish in a smaller pond in League 1 and no doubting we would win the majority of our games. It is the opportunity relegation will provide to rebuild and regroup with a new team of hungry players. We could pretty much have our pick from most of the talented players that play in the 2 lower leagues. We are all pretty much sick to death of the boring scrappy ugly football that we see from our team every week as we battle for safety in a league where we are just making up the numbers! If relegation meant a long overdue root and branch reform of the whole football club then perhaps relegation wouldn't be so bad afterall! I have always been a big fan of MM as you have already guessed but I am sick to death of mediocre crap football where we are lucky if we dig out the odd win here and there! This is not the Ipswich I grew up supporting as a kid so if League 1 does beckon lets bring it on and restore some pride back again to the greatest footbnall club in East Anglia!
I'm just playing devils advocate here boys The thought of it doesn't fill me with any joy or ethusiasm at all BUT we may have to face up to these realities! For the first time since 1956/57 we could end up in the 3rd tier of English football. If the worst does happen it will certainly sort out who the true supporters are!
I kinda understand where you're coming from Warky, but that would be one helluva gamble. It may have worked for our 6 fingered friends, but it's a very rare occurance for a team to rebuild so quickly. I don't think leagues 1 and 2 suit our "style" of play, as they all seem to be 17 stone northern bruisers. All i want, at the moment, is to improve every year. If MM stays for the long haul, then i expect, and hope to start challenging for the play offs in 2-3 seasons. Once we've consolidated our position this season (and i'm extremely confident we will) then MM will slowly rebuild this club from the root up. The likes of Taylor and Wordsworth are excellent signings, and are players that can propel our club forward, even McGoldrick will be a useful addition to our squad (assuming we sign him permanently). One thing i do agree with you Warky, is the football we've been playing since Magilton left has been extremely dire. This isn't the normal Ipswich that i know, and i have confidence that MM will slowly get us back to the promised land. I think once we are there, then it will be time to find a new young hungry manager, as i don't believe MM is cut out for the premiership.
I said I would've been more inclined to accept relegation it if we would have appointed a young up and coming manager like a Paul Tisdale and give him time and money to really build up the club in his own image, as was done in the Robson and Burley eras. But that didn't happen, and I believe it would a be a disaster if we did go down now and it would make me royally fed up particularly as we've had to put up with scrappy boring football recently because 'it's all about results now'!! We must stay up this year and then the squad must be properly funded this summer!!
Its not often I disagree with you jonny but are you on something? And yes I remember going to some " real " football places like Scunthorpe ( twice ) where its like watching football from your garden shed with the door open! Novel and quaint I grant you but not something Im eager to repeat.
Good thread JWM and I sort of agree with your points (as we all do) that we are playing some drab and dreary football and it really isn't the exciting experience that we once had. I have to say that (as Stretch said) relegation would be a hell of a gamble, there are a few examples of how it's worked but others have dropped and stayed there and I wouldn't put it past us cocking up all over again. I also agree with ptc that in signing MM we have almost removed relegation as an 'option' (if it was ever an option!) but I think we'll have a couple of difficult months and years coming up and I'll reserve judgement on MM until he has had a good enough opportunity to make his own mistakes.
FM It's something that needs to be debated and I'm only playing devils advocate. I certainly don't want us to be relegated but we have to face up to reality if we don't start scoring the goals that will keep us up! If we do go down then I really hope that lessons will be learned and we can start to build a football team that we can all be proud of once again. I would rather have a team challenging to win League 1 and playing some attractive football then support a team struggling like hell in the Championship yet again!
Our year in League 1 was fantasic. Decent prices, proper football fans and clubs. You dont get treated like a criminal at away games. We we was winning every week We came back up a hell of alot stronger then we did when we went down. We suffered a loss of 14M but managed to keep the core of the team and added some young and up and coming players to it As good as it was for us I dont ever want to go back
Why do people assume that we couldn't achieve what Leicester and Norwich achieved when they had a stint in league 1. We are crying out for a fresh start and some forward momentum as we have been stagnating for 5 or 6 years! Sometimes I just think what is the point of scrapping in a league just for mid table mediocrity when we could be amongst the pace setters albeit at a lower standard. When was the last season that Portman Road was a fortress where visiting teams hated to play as they knew we would roll them over? Magilton's incredible first season when we only lost 2 league home games all year and we won the rest! 5 years of continual decline is getting boring and perhaps League 1 for a season is just the tonic this club needs to wake up from its slumbers!
But what if we were struggling and playing football in our current style in league one, would that be acceptable? I can hear what you are trying to say, I was saying the same things at times last year, but I just don't have the confidence that everything would suddenly fall into place for us were we to go down. Unless the ticket pricing radically changed I can see us having a big loss in revenue and with the FFP rules that might spell disaster.
You have had a similar experience to us in recent seasons. Stifling mediocrity and bumbling around in the lower reaches of the Championship. I found it pretty dull playing chapionship standard football and losing more often than not for season after season. Going down to L1 was dreadful and having the joys of working with a number of people on the blue side of the fence the week afer the Colchester 7-1 debacle was not a pleasant one however roll the clock forward three months and suddenly we are walloping teams by three or four goals and there is a huge feel good factor coming into play. I am convinced that the momentum we gained from winning L1 was a huge factor in us getting another promotion and the same could be said of Saints. Trouble is that with all the Sky money going through the roof in 2014 it's going to be damn hard for the Championship clubs to compete with the teams relegated from the Prem in future. All that being said I wouldn't want to do it again for fear of doing a Sheffiled Wednesday or Leeds - down to L1, stay a while and then back to Championship mediocrity. All this is very hypothetical as you won't be going down as like us there are just enough worse teams to keep you up.
point taken jonny, and I have to say that the quality of football we are currently seeing is absolutely dreadful. Saturdays game at Huddersfield was the worst I have ever seen although playing on a ploughed field didnt help matters much, by the way fantastic Town support there I dont know the actual figure but it must have been about a thousand of us freezing in a bleak Yorkshire town. I suppose its the thought of relegation that scares me and what happens if we dont get back quickly, troubling times yet again.
There really is no advantage whatsoever in going down to League One. If you could pick the best L2 players in L1 then you can do it now! If you go down, you will have less people attending your matches and so on too. And also League One isn't so straightforward to get out of either. But for what it's worth, don't think you need to worry about relegation anyhow.
Thanks hoppers what a brilliant turn out to support a struggling team, it was a long journey and christ wasnt it bloody cold.
It was taters mate, the Pie for a £1 after the game was most welcome though. I hope mick has rewatched the match this week cos it was a hopeless lackluster display, we were lucky to come away with apoint. I hope we are better going forward today.
