 | Forum
Reply | Possible Hull transfer targets ....?
at 07:05 6 May 2024
I’d say no to him...have watched him since he was a lad playing in the Lincolnshire youth leagues. Skilful for sure but he strolled about then and I think he still strolls through games now. Great left peg but not got the fight or effort we’ll need next season. Omari is much better imo... |
| Forum
Reply | So.. who do we want up in play offs
at 07:47 5 May 2024
My order of preference and reasoning
WBA - they’re not Southampton, Leeds or Norwich and I saw Frank Skinner last week who was very funny
Southampton - they’re not Leeds or Norwich
Leeds - they’re not Norwich
Norwich - they’re Norwich |
| Forum
Reply | Hutchinson
at 23:20 4 May 2024
Happy to take Gallagher off their hands for £30m :-) |
| Forum
Thread | David Walsh - The Sunday Times
at 23:15 4 May 2024
Ipswich’s bright blue day that would make Sir Alf Ramsey so proud
The ‘long-neglected’ town is flooded with renewed hope as the club’s fans celebrate their return to the Premier League after a painful 22-year exile
David Walsh
Saturday May 04 2024, 8.30pm, The Sunday Times
Early in the morning, before hordes of blue-clad followers descended on Portman Road, someone walked purposefully towards the statue of Sir Alf Ramsey outside the stadium. You know how seriously this person felt about what they were about to do, because of the way the blue-and-white scarf was wrapped around Sir Alf’s neck. Meticulous. Not easily pleased, Alf himself would have approved.
Ramsey came to Ipswich Town in August 1955. They were then an ordinary club, languishing in the third tier of English football, without much of a past and with not a lot of hope for the future. Spending £30,000 on the rebuilding of the team, Ramsey led them from the old third division to England’s champion club in 1962. That was also their first season in the top flight.
Outside the Curve bar on Princes Street at 10.30am, Colin Beer shoots the breeze with his son Rory, his grandson Rhys and Rory’s partner, Laura. “I went to my first game here in 1966,” Colin says. “Coventry, we won 1-0. That was the year Ipswich won the World Cup.” Ramsey, you see, was Ipswich, taken from their club in his prime so that he could lead his country. Around here, people believe Ipswich did as much as any club to win the ’66 World Cup.
Rory has been a season-ticket holder for 29 years. These past two seasons have been the most fun he’s had in that time. By far. Something has happened, he says, that’s hard to explain. “Somehow the club bought into the town, and the town bought into the club.” The American owner, he adds, has been clever. It has helped to improve the club without claiming to have invented Ipswich Town.
If there’s any one person that deserves credit, they say, it’s Kieran McKenna. They admit that when they first heard his name they asked, “Who?” They were then in the third tier and knew not to expect that they would know the name of their next manager. What they’ve learnt about McKenna they love.
“He’s honest, down to earth, calm and level-headed. You never see him losing his head or haranguing referees,” Rory says.
McKenna grew up in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh. His parents, Liam and Mary, run the prestigious Manor House Country Hotel on Lough Erne and, to help celebrate Ipswich’s expected promotion to the Premier League, the hotel gave a free pint of beer to every customer who turned up wearing an Ipswich shirt. Something like that could catch on.
The manager, who will turn 38 this month, spoke last week of the hours his dad worked at the hotel, from early morning to late at night pretty much every day of the week, and then, almost as a quiet aside, said, “A bit like me at this football club.”
It was a strange day because football, especially at this point in the season, is not meant to be joyous. Young men walk past in the replica shirts and suddenly there is a guttural shriek of “Blue Army”, but they’re going to a war that they know will be a picnic, heading off towards a contest that is actually a coronation. The paramedics, there in case of someone getting a heart attack, had the quietest afternoon.
Down at the far end of Sir Alf Ramsey Way, a man had driven a gleaming blue Ford TW-2 tractor, there for the titillation of all Tractor Boys. And sure enough, all around they cheered this impressive piece of agricultural engineering. Though it half-blocked the road, the police weren’t sure what to do. How could they ask the driver to move the tractor on without offending all those reassured by its presence?
Eventually the tractor driver was asked to swing round and head off. He did but the chorus of boos seemed more an expression of joy than disapproval. Matt Payne stood near by with his partner, Janet. Season-ticket holders, it seemed to them like the perfect way to end their campaign. At home to a team they should beat for the prize of rejoining the Premier League
Janet wonders if the destination can be anything like the journey of the past 20 years. “The football in this league has been really entertaining,” she said. “Now we’re going to a league that has VAR, too much money and too many foreign players.”
She has been a regular at Portman Road for 35 years. “I’ve always supported the Town. I used to go with my dad, Ken Kerry, he passed 12 years ago. We went to a lot of away games together, a 526-mile round trip to Middlesbrough. ‘I can do some of the driving,’ my dad said. ‘No,’ I said, ‘it’s OK, I’m fine.’
“On a midweek evening we went to Crewe Alexandra, a 406-mile round trip, and when we arrived at the ground, there was an awful fog. The game went ahead but we never saw a thing. After Dad died, I switched to his seat, block G, row B, seat 28. I am not lying when I say that, in his seat, I feel close to him.”
The game itself was the non-event that every Ipswich fan craved, their team far too good for Huddersfield Town, a side who came to fulfil a fixture in preference to scrapping for the win. After Omari Hutchinson scored Ipswich’s second goal in the 48th minute, the crowd chanted, “Stand up if you’re going up,” and everyone did. People hugged, kissed, shook hands. Job done. The remaining 40 minutes were more endured than enjoyed, the joy at the end was heavenly.
After the party on the pitch, Kevin and Paula Gleed stood by the statue of the great, late Kevin Beattie, who got only nine caps for England. It isn’t disrespectful to say he would have got 90 caps for the present England team. The inscription on the Beattie statue reads: “From the fans, for the fans.”
“I knew Kevin, was friends with his daughter,” Kevin Gleed says.
“I first came to Portman Road when I eight.”
“That’s 50 years,” Paula says.
“This is the best Ipswich team we’ve had since Bobby Robson’s team and I love the attitude that Kieran McKenna has instilled in the team: we’ll score more goals than you. Everyone tells me we’ll get slaughtered in the Premier League and we might get beaten every week. But being in the Premier League means more money into the club and there will be an influx of money into a town that needs it.”
The Gleeds live out by Needham Market but if they need to shop or want to spend a day in town, it is to Bury St Edmunds they go. “Ipswich has been neglected for a long time, the town centre especially. I heard the other day that Brighton getting into the Premier League has brought £600million into their city. This town needs investment and being in the top flight again can only help. What the team offers is hope to the community.
“And whatever happens in the future, no one can take away this day.”
Walking away from Portman Road, a dad sits with his perhaps six-year-old son by a car park. The boy is clad in Ipswich’s all-orange away kit. He is momentarily consumed by the burger he is eating. Dad wants to bring him back to he here and now. “Hey,” he says to the lad, “a good old day, eh?” |
| Forum
Reply | Bookies have us at 1/40 for a top two finish…
at 22:58 1 May 2024
20/1 is good, I only got 18s with Skybet...put £20 on. I’ll never be so happy to lose £20 of course but should the unthinkable happen, it’ll pay for a consoling midweek break for the missus and I |
| Forum
Reply | Southgate on borrowed time?
at 07:22 24 Mar 2024
Very good post Bigal, nails it... your final sentence is a bit ambiguous though and reads like you think Cooper is English which I’m sure you know he isn’t...or did you mean Potter or Howe if they want an Englishman? [Post edited 24 Mar 7:23]
|
| Forum
Reply | Stanley Bowles RIP 75. (n/t)
at 20:18 24 Feb 2024
Oh no, what a character and such a talent. I’m surprised he made it to 75 though, wouldn’t have put money on that back in the 70s |
| Forum
Thread | Leeds or Southampton in the playoffs
at 09:45 19 Feb 2024
If we don’t get automatic, we’ll probably have to go through one of these two. Let’s hope it’s just in the final and not over two games. I’d love to beat Leeds in the final, but my head tells me we’d be better to meet Southampton. I’m arrogantly assuming we make the playoffs and get to Wembley of course... |
| Forum
Reply | Ireland woah!! (n/t)
at 10:01 3 Feb 2024
Not strictly true...Ireland had a man advantage for only 45 minutes which is nearer half the match than 3/4. In the time both sides were at equal strength Ireland still clearly outplayed France... |
| Forum
Reply | So, £3m and £15k pw for a striker….
at 12:04 17 Dec 2023
I don’t follow other teams enough to have any suggestions, but what I would say is that I think Gamechanger will spend. We are in a great position to get promoted and if we think of ourselves as an investment piece in their fund then for a relatively small outlay of at least say £10-£15m they could see a 20 fold return if we go up. It’s got to be worth the risk to them surely? |
| Forum
Reply | I’m seeing a few tweets from MUFC fans
at 07:25 14 Dec 2023
My brief tuppence worth....all this chat is irrelevant until we see what happens with us this season. The next four months will give everyone a better idea of how KM handles pressure. If we blow a 10 point lead and don’t get promoted via playoffs, will his stock still be high? If he gets some money to spend in January, how will he use it? Will it derail us or will it help us breeze to promotion? Will he show he can integrate new players at a crucial time? If we go up, is he the sort of man to prefer the challenge of keeping us up? Will his salary be tripled by us? Plenty of factors which will determine what happens, not least of which is all the stuff we can’t control at all the other clubs. |
| Forum
Reply | Man Utd and Newcastle
at 07:15 11 Dec 2023
I’m sure it probably will...but it won’t be soon, as the OP stated. Howe is loved up there and has done exceptionally well so unless there’s a total implosion this season, he’ll get a few more years with a stronger squad at least. |
| Forum
Reply | Desert Island Whisky?
at 23:03 22 Nov 2023
In no particular order
Bushmills 16 yr old malt
Teeling single malt
Arran 10 yr old malt
Glenmorangie 10
Glenfarclas 15 |
| Forum
Reply | We Are (joint) Top The League...
at 18:02 11 Nov 2023
That wave is taking us closer to the point where Gamechanger will have a decision to make whether to spend in January and go all out for promotion this year…maybe they’ve already decided but we’re certainly giving them plenty of reasons to do so. Might never get a better chance… |
| Forum
Reply | McKenna or Rooney
at 17:46 5 Nov 2023
McKenna isn’t going anywhere near Man U until the dust has settled with the Ineos buy in, how that affects the football side of things and their stadium is sorted, all in my opinion....and that will be 3-4 years. United have another manager in them before Kmac. No way they take on someone who hasn’t had some experience of managing successfully in the PL or one of the top European leagues/CL. A few years showing he can hack it in the PL with us and he’s a top target, if he doesn’t get us up in a few years then he is less attractive for the big boys for sure and more likely to go to a Palace or Brentford (as I think Franks will get a big move at some point) |
| Forum
Reply | That hockey incident
at 23:09 30 Oct 2023
I have watched hockey regularly, mostly NHL, for 40 years...I’ve seen plenty of big hits and checks but never seen anything which caused a players leg to go up like that. No way do I think Petgrave deliberately intended to cut him with his skate but it does look to me like he was targeting him and trying to block him with his trailing leg...hard to tell if there was any contact on Petgrave or if his front skate caught in the ice which may have caused his leg to fly up. I’m giving benefit of the doubt because the alternative is pretty unthinkable... |
| | mikeybloo88
|
Site Scores| Forum Votes: | 182 | | Comment Votes: | 179 | | Prediction League: | 0 | | TOTAL: | 361 |
|
By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions.