True Blue Supporter
It was sad to read that Jack Dash had died on his way home from the Ipswich v Blackpool game.
Jack, who was nearly 91, had been a fixture in H2 area of the Britannia Stand for as long as I can remember. At least he saw his beloved Ipswich put on probably their best home performance of the season so far. The scoreline of 3 – 1 could so easily have been 7-1. Ipswich are now looking a difficult side to beat. On Saturday they defended from the front. The two front men Jon Stead and Jon Walters worked tirelessly. They were on their toes all the time which made such a difference. The midfield of Owen Garvin, Grant Leadbetter,Jack Colback and Jamie Peters were excellent showing plenty of bite and winning the midfield battle. The defence is picking itself these days. Liam Rosenior, Gareth McAuley, Damien Delaney and David Wright have a good understanding of where the other is. Arran Lee-Barrett in goal has been well protected. Jon Walters and Grant Leadbetter will be missing for the trip to Scunthorpe through suspension. Perhaps Liam Trotter will come into the side to play against the club that wanted to sign him. If Ipswich continue to show the same committment and work rate they will gradually climb the table. Jack Dash can rest in peace.
Academy Sponsorship
When the Marcus Evans Group acquired 87.5% of Ipswich Town Football Club in January 2008 the club lost its “family run” tag. It is now big business and financed by the Marcus Evans Group. Quite rightly it has to be run like a business and consequently some staff were made redundant especially in the Academy. Gone are the days when nearly 3000 of us invested our hard earned cash to support the share issue in 2004 which made us feel as though we were part of the club we love. The shares of course have no value now. What I find hard to get my head round is why I still get phone calls from a Huddersfield based number working for the Academy looking for my support. I now have raffle tickets received through the post for a Grand Draw, the profits of which go towards supporting youth development at ITFC. I am a great believer in youth development and have been pleased to give my support in the past but surely if the Marcus Evans Group own the club then they should be supporting the Academy. After all if a youngster makes the grade he will be sold on in order to balance the books. Thats business.
School Report after 15 League Games
Progress at Portman Road is “very slow” which reminds me of comments from my school reports ! As long as us supporters see all the players trying and playing to the best of their abilities we know that eventually we will climb away from the relegation zone. Roy Keane seems to be having the same problem that Jim Magilton had in that he is still not sure of his best eleven. Jim Magilton went the whole season without knowing his best eleven, I hope Roy Keane does not take that long. Us supporters can only judge things on what we see on the pitch, we do not know what goes on behind closed doors and in this respect have to accept the team selections that Roy Keane makes. The defence has started to look more solid since the arrival of goalkeeper Asmir Begovic. Delaney is certainly a central defender and not a left back. David Wright has filled that position but is better as a right back. Alex Bruce always gives 100% and Tommy Smith has looked solid and has improved with each game. Unfortunately he was injured in training and might struggle to regain his place. Gareth McAuley, also injured, has looked better now he does not have the responsibility of being captain. The midfield is a bit of a puzzle with a lot of players competing for those positions. David Norris is another player waiting to come back from injury and will presumably play in the centre of midfield and not as a wide player where Jim Magilton continually played him. Luciano Civelli, another long term injured player, will fill the left side of midfield. Grant Leadbetter seems to be making the other central midfield place his own and Jon Walters best position is the right side of midfield. It is a shame to see Owen Garvin sitting in the stand and not even in the squad but as I said earlier we do not know what goes on behind closed doors. We badly need a player up front who can hit the back of the net on a regular basis. In due course I am sure young Connor Wickham will fill that role. He always looks a handful for defenders when he comes on. In the meantime Jon Stead, Tamas Priskin and Pablo Counago will be competing for the places up front. Already there does seem to be too many players at the club. With very few reserve games it must be hard to keep all the players match fit. I am sure we will see some go out on loan soon and some might need to be sold if they want their careers to progress.
Sir Bobby Robson Commemorative Medals
Sir Bobby Robson is to be honoured with a special medal to commemorate the life and times of the much loved Ipswich manager.
Medals can be ordered direct from the Royal Mint at www.royalmint.com
Sir Bobby Robson Stand
In an emotional afternoon at Portman Road on the 26th September the North Stand was renamed the Sir Bobby Robson Stand. Many players from the Cup winning sides of 1978 and 1981 were there so creating a wonderful atmosphere. I am not sure what they thought of the present Ipswich side. The game against Newcastle was very much men versus the boys. Newcastle players were larger and physically stronger than Ipswich players in all departments. All the problems from previous seasons are still there, terrible defending and no fire power up front. There is no improvement yet from the Magilton days. In my opinion we are going backwards.
Sir Bobby Robson Foundation
Full marks to the Marcus Evans Group for providing the Sir Bobby Robson tribute magazine with their compliments. It brought back happy memories of the exciting times under Sir Bobby in his thirteen year reign at Portman Road. One amazing statistic that I had forgotten about was that in his thirteen years in charge he only bought fourteen players at a total cost of £1,038,000. The largest fee paid was £220,000 for Frans Thijssen. Nearly all his players had been home produced. It is a fitting tribute to Sir Bobby that the North Stand will be renamed the Sir Bobby Robson Stand on the 26th September when Ipswich entertain Newcastle United.
Those of you who wish to make a donation to the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation should click here.
RIP Sir Bobby Robson
You gave us so much and we thank you for the truely great times you brought to our club and unforgetable memories that will live with us forever.
RIP Sir Bobby
Roy Keane at the Helm of Ipswich Town
Roy Keane at the helm, new players coming in, the 2009/10 season has the potential to be an explosive season with plenty of highlights and talking points. The national press will focus on Keanes’ point tally rather than Ipswich’s point tally and like us they expect us to be climbing high.
But, what about that squad is it good enough or hungry enough to be up for all 46 games next season that is my biggest concern, the desire to win each game. Too many times in recent season have we seen great performances, team and individual, one week and a shadow of themselves days or weeks later.
Lets hope Keane can drive the winning way home into the Ipswich mentality and we’ll many positives to talk about and get carried away with talk of increasing the capacity to meet the new demand etc…..