Assessment

Quoted from Maringer

Tony Rees, Neil Woods, Steve Livingstone - all good players who never scored many for us at all.

Kevin Donovan wasn't a striker, but his goals got us promoted one season. Groves managed more in a season than any of the three strikers mentioned.

It doesn't matter who scores the goals if you're doing well...

If Lloyd/Orsi/TDP/Taylor play well and we win, I really don't care if they score or not.

Quoted from HertsGTFC

Trevor Whymark scored 16 goals in 93 games, he was a really good player too. What's that 1 in 4?

Quoted from Limerick Mariner

And his contribution apart of goalscoring was outstanding - assists weren’t a thing then but he would have had loads - probably the best all round footballer to play for Town in the last 50 years - edging Drinks, Joe and Clive…

Quoted from Limerick Mariner

And his contribution apart of goalscoring was outstanding - assists weren’t a thing then but he would have had loads - probably the best all round footballer to play for Town in the last 50 years - edging Drinks, Joe and Clive…

Quoted from 123614

Cristiano Ronaldo - 37

Zlatan Ibrahimović - 41

To name just a few!  There are many more.

Quoted from lew chaterleys lover

Yes I would say he is the best player I have ever seen in a Town shirt since I started going in 1963.

That is a lot of players but he was an incredible player, just oozed class that came completely naturally and he never seemed to break sweat although he did so much to create goals besides scoring them.

He was coming to the end of his career then so no wonder Ipswich fans adore him having seen him in his pomp.

Quoted from Limerick Mariner

And his contribution apart of goalscoring was outstanding - assists weren’t a thing then but he would have had loads - probably the best all round footballer to play for Town in the last 50 years - edging Drinks, Joe and Clive…

Quoted from Poojah

Well, I couldn’t post towards the latter end of last night as I apparently hit the Fishy’s arbitrary 50 post per day limit. Who knew? Anyway, I took that as the barman telling me I’d had enough to drink, and went to bed to sleep on matters.

A somewhat sleepless night as it happens, punctuated by psychedelic nightmares starring the ghosts of Andrew Dallas, Toby Mullarkey and Charles Vernam. They left me a message for Hursty, saying he needs to change his ways. A brief vision of poor Tiny Tom Hopper left me feeling very bleak.


A fair bit of emotion on display last night and this morning, it’s fair to say. Some foaming at the mouth at the short-term and seemingly austere nature of our January business, others urging for calm and to see the positives. Honestly, I can see both perspectives.

Of course there are positives. We are, somehow, back in the football league. Solihull might have Dallas, but they don’t have EFL status and probably won’t next season either. We’re still in the FA Cup. And yes, January isn’t really the best time to be making statement signings (though others around us arguably have).

Was yesterday the end of the world? Of course not. But “underwhelming” is a fair description. We are in the best financial position we have been in for nigh on 20 years, with surely one of the healthier organic incomes in the division. This, ultimately, is largely down to the thousands of people who forked out for season tickets in the summer, all in the face of a cost of living crisis. There is an understandable sense of investment.

What happened in May and June may well turn out to be a once in a lifetime event. An utterly incredible sequence of events that we would have to come down from eventually, but for me the squad we have right now simply does not reflect our current financial status. The number 9 shirt, one we so obviously needed to fill, remains vacant. And with that, we reduce the value of what is left of McAtee’s loan.

We have just 9 senior players contracted beyond the summer. The opportunity to make the closed season a period of smooth transition appears to have been lost.

I have no doubt that all concerned have tried incredibly hard, and the signings we have made may well go on to make valuable contributions. Emmanuel in particular could turn out to be a very clever signing (assuming we have an option on his contract), though little is known as to what kind of condition he is in.

All that said, from the outside looking in, we don’t look to have managed the window well. We’ve missed out on key targets, and that happens, but we also appear to have missed out on our third and fourth choices too. We have failed to address the most obvious gap in the squad, and we have let more players leave than have arrived which seems counter-intuitive given the fixture pileup that lays ahead.

All in all, there is little value in spin. I suspect those at the club are just as disappointed with the way things have turned out. Whether that’s anyone’s fault or just an unfortunate symptom of circumstance, questions need to be asked and issues addressed before we get to the summer.

I don’t write that with any anger whatsoever, but rather objective, sober reflection. The club will not evolve if we continue to recruit in this way, and that’s an opportunity we cannot afford to lose.

Onwards and upwards.