Evans, Clegg and Jewell: Stick or twist Ipswich?

With the Championship season now finally behind us, discussion among Ipswich fans inevitably moves from our thoughts on Town's results to the reasons behind them.

It all seems to come down to Portman Road's Holy Trinity: Marcus Evans, Simon Clegg and Paul Jewell.

But the last name seems to cause the most soul searching for the Blues faithful. This year I have literally seen the fan base split down the middle by this debate.

Though you may have sympathies for certain arguments from the other camp, it seems that, when it comes down to it, you're either 'Jewell In' or 'Jewell Out'.

This week I want to look at the debate in a little more detail and will be offering my own opinion on the matter (which is less Pro-Jewell than you might think!).

But first I have received this excellent two part blog from Mark (AKA @markypolo1). It investigates his own feelings on the matter and puts forward, what I feel, is a very sensible view of the situation.

As I mentioned before, though, in the case of Ipswich Town's top management - you can't have one without the other. And so Mark begins by discussing the factors that have influenced his opinions on Jewell's reign.

Our 2011\12 season is now officially over at ITFC! Our collective attention can now turn to a summer of promise; there is the Queen's Jubilee, with accompanying street celebrations, Summer Festivals, Wimbledon, Euro2012, and London's Olympics.

In typical ITFC fan style, my mind will start to wander, the pain of the outgoing season will diminish (yes it's been painful), and the hope and expectation will build for a new season. I will look to next season, but beforehand, I would like to address the rollercoaster that was the last 9 months.

Our 2011/12 season has been a season of significant ups and downs to state the obvious. It has been a season in which many inadequacies have been in full view, an embarrassment at times, and one in which social media really took off.

ITFC's season has been, and I know will be, analysed on many levels: Ownership and club strategy; management; coaching; player selection and tactics; player performances and the fans support.

I'm not going to look at all of these in detail, nor create a statistical argument; as when I started this a few weeks back the aim was to voice my opinion and add a little fuel to the on-going debate!

ITFC has long been a club with difficulties in the last years before Marcus Evans took over these were all too prevalent to see, however we are in the here and now. Evans, as majority shareholder, all but owns the club outright and, in my opinion, he has backed the club and recent managers. The view as to the relative good of ME's backing is open to some debate and it depends on which side of the fence you are sitting.

ME is not a traditional football man, but he has been on record expressing commitment to the future of Project ITFC and his more recent communications have demonstrated an increasing awareness that "you can buy players, but you cannot buy a team" (to steal a phrase).

'I like the fact Evans has provided ITFC with a stable financial footing'

No-one can predict the future and I am not enamoured by the fact that ITFC has an increasing debt pile owed to Evans. However, I like the fact that he has provided ITFC with a stable financial footing (albeit subject to a friendly creditor) and he offers the day-to-day running of the club to those that are close to the action.

He has also decided to back this current manager through the worst sequence of results anyone thought possible and probably the worst that anyone reading this will remember.

In such a situation where Evans is not going to micro manage day-to-day events, an even greater emphasis is placed on having the right off-field team to build and run the club. Basically this is what has been required, not tweaks but a total rebuild and some continuity to add to the mix.

I've really very few things to add on Simon Clegg (love or loath him). Our club has been looking for stability top-to-bottom, from an executive management team to team management, and also through the core of the playing team.

If Simon Clegg is considered to be the right man for the job at this moment in time by Evans, then that's his prerogative.

'Clegg took the helm at the moment ITFC was offered a golden ticket via Evan's millions'

In my opinion, Simon Clegg has probably made more wrong decisions than right so far and, arguably, he took the helm at the moment ITFC was offered a golden ticket via Evan's millions. That said, I am all for the forgiving and learning culture at ITFC since this is how our history has been written all the way back to "Mr John".

In Simon Clegg's defence he has probably made the right call on the EPPL: possibly the only call for a club in our position given the financial constraints under which we operate in the Championship.

The fact that ITFC will have to talk-up our commitment to youth to attract good young players has not changed and this should play into the hands of the fans that are rightly calling for youth to be given its chance.

In the years ahead we will probably have to blood more and more youngsters, or attract those that have not made the grade with other clubs; quality could be in question when the best are being sucked-up by Premiership clubs that apparently run "The Peoples Game".

You can probably tell that I fear the repercussions of what the Premiership has done to football past and future, even though teams outside the elite will do what they have always done: develop and sell. Young players will still have to make a big decision as to whether they go to a Premiership (Cat1) for their schooling, or someone like ITFC (Cat2). We will always have the advantage of being positioned to fast-track the best we have into the first team (subject to them actually being good enough), watch this space!

'Fans feel there is no on-going dialogue between them and the club, despite the various forums Cleggs is said to attend'

Back to Simon Clegg, obviously, in some fans opinion he could do more (much, much more) to demonstrate a willingness to listen and act in the interests of our fans. Some feel like there is no on-going dialogue between the club and fans, despite the various forums Clegg is said to attend.
This is all great if you attend or are invited, but many would say he needs to be seen to be talking and listening to more fans in order to build the relationship for the future.

The rise and rise of social media is worth comment at this stage as it has enabled #itfc fans to express often diverse and sometimes un-reconcilable opinions, especially on matters of club strategy at a time when getting things off your chest has not only been helpful it has been essential!

Season 2011/12 has at times divided and at others brought fans closer: including closer to some #itfc players. In social media, I am of course referring to twitter in the main. It offers so much to tweeps able to access the likes of ALB, Cressa, Tommy Smith, JET, and Chops.

Twitter has also provided fans in the outer circle, those that have a passion for ITFC but whom cannot attend matches as regularly as they would like (me included at times), with an opportunity to interact with fans pre and post-match. It's a whole new world and Simon Clegg could learn a thing or two about connecting with the fans from the players that are investing their time in those fans.

What are your thoughts? Do you have anything to say on anything Mark has mentioned? Leave a comment, get in touch with us both on Twitter (@tractorgirlamy8) or write your own piece about ITFC and I'll happily use it on here!

Mark and I have very similar views on this debate, so I'm especially keen to hear from anyone who is less sympathetic of Jewell, Clegg or even Evans.

Part Two of Mark's blog concentrates on his feelings towards Jewell himself: 'despite the deep low at the turn of the year, I was still optimistic that PJ was the right man to get us out of the hole and scale the mountain'.

It's another excellent piece that takes a very sensible approach to a very heated debate. Come back on Friday to see what he has to say!

Transfer window? More like supermarket sweep for Town fans!

Interesting theory on Twitter this week: davegoods reckons there's seven places to fill in the Ipswich Town first team this summer. Quite a task for our PJ.

I think you've got to consider even more than that. Our starting 11 could literally be anything next year: and trying to figure out who it will be is proving to be quite exciting!

Firstly, there's the ongoing saga with Jimmy Bullard. This story has more twists and obstacles than the A14 and it seems unlikely to be resolved any time soon. Word has it he wants to stay, Paul Jewell has said he wants him to stay, and we know already how much the fans want him to stay... yet there's still now word on an actual contract.

For me, it's all a bit too 'been there done that': remember Frannie Jeffers? The man was a legend at Portman Road for a few months and my god we wanted to sign him permanently. But when it came to the crunch he chose Sheffield Wednesday and the bigger wage packet. At the moment I don't see Jimmy playing in Blue and White next year. Sadly.

But what else does the boss say? Jewell's told reporters he's after a proven scorer - Hallelujah! He says the type of player he's after is Watford striker Danny Graham: the Championship's top scorer this year with 27 goal in all competitions. I fear we'd be shooting out of our league with this particular line of enquiry because there's reportedly Premiership interest too. But I like the way Jewell's thinking:

'I want a striker who will do anything to get a goal. We haven't got that devilment, that type of player who will kick his granny to score a goal'.

Isn't that exactly what the Town fans have been wanting all along?! My confidence in Jewell grows a little bit more every day, thanks to comments like this. It does make me wonder how different things might have been had Keane left at the end of last year and given Jewell some time with 2010's summer transfer list.

Speaking of strikers, there is, of course, the rejected bid for Billy Sharp. Here's a striker with a good reputation in the Championship, who has shown signs of that 'anything for a goal' attitude. There's plenty of time for Town to come up with another bid, but again the rumours of Premiership interest may get in the way. Isn't it annoying?!

Then, there's also talk on fan site Those Were The Days that we're targetting belgian midfielder Germinal Beerschott. He's a very tall midfielder who's been capped for his country. Even if it's not true it serves as a reminder that Paul will have his fingers in pies we've not even thought of. So trust the big man I reckon.

With all these rumours flying around I was feeling a bit dizzy, so I turned to twitter and the ITFC Tweeps! 'If you were PJ who would you spend your pocket money on?' The response was a full blown shopping list from dave_harrison, though as he said it was 'more fantasy football than realistic football'.

Bullard, Goodwillie, Sharp, Coppinger, St Ledger, Montgomery, Westwood, George, Boyd .

Now, defender St Ledger's a very interesting idea that I've not seen anywhere else yet. We were linked with him in January but it was decided that the requested £2.5 million was too high. A strong defender with experience in this league and a good reputation could be just what we need with our McAuley heading to pastures new. Perhaps that asking price will have gone down now his club Preston have been relegated?

Join the Town Tweeps and follow me on Twitter @tractorgirlamy

Elsewhere, I've just discovered http://www.lewis-mitchell.com/ which kicked up some more 'realistic' ideas. Blogger Lewis suggests Shaun Derry; a midfielder who came close to a deal with us last summer but financial issues put a stop to it. Lewis also ponders the possibility that, now QPR have been promoted, Derry's 33 year old legs and stamina would be better suited to the Championship than the Premier League. Lewis also comes up with Sheffield United defender Nick Montgomery. Another player with a good reputation... previous to this year anyway! However, I am reliably informed by my boyfriend (a life long Blade), Montgomery's a true United-ike, most likely, would want to see them back up to the league they've just been relegated from.

Of course all of this speculation will come to nothing if Clegg and Evans don't back Jewell with the necessary finances. I do get the impression they understand that is what's needed to get out of this league. But, will they deliver on that? Was the lack of support from the board the reason Keane left? Did he just feel he wasn't given the money? Were McAuley and Norris not simply looking for a move to the Premiership? Could there have been more to it, more going on behind the scenes than we know?

We'll find out soon enough; but I am reminded of what one fan said on Twitter in response to shouts for 'Clegg out'. What is everyone worrying about? The football season still hasn't finished; there's plenty of time.

So, bearing all that in mind, who would I pick? Any of the above and more besides.

For me though, the important thing is not who the players are but how well they gel together next year. Town have to enter August with a confidence and total desire to win every game. In the pit of my tummy I'm getting the same feeling I was getting in the mid nineties - that we were at the start of something good. It may take us a few years to get there. It may take us four attempts to win the Play Offs. But one day we will, once again, be Premier League.