Captain Fantastic

I was trying to think today of all the Ipswich Town Captain's I have seen in my lifetime.

Of course there's Mattie Holland...

Our very own Jim Magilton...

Legwinski, Wilnis and Naylor in recent years...


And now Jason De Vos.

On the pitch he seems to have such a presence, and it's no different when you meet him face to face.

He is absolutely HUGE - and I was in heels!

He's very knowledgable of the game, the club and how to handle the media. But at the same time he came across as relaxed which helped me to do the same.

Reminded me alot of Jim in that way!

Whilst I was setting up he told me how wierd it was for him sitting at home watching the football on Saturday when he would normally have been playing.

It was like me telling my friends how wierd I felt staying in on Wednesday night when I'd normally be out with them.

Except this was Jase...

And he obviously wanted to be playing football as much as I wanted to be in the SU bar last Wednesday!


As for the game, well I think they are looking forward to it.

The captain feels confident that the boys have made the most of their time off over the weekend.

He told me that the schedule is so jam packed they don't really have the time to practice whats going wrong and iron out the creases.

This week gave them an opportunity to do that.

Also, of course, it gave them a chance to rest their bodies a little.


I had been dying to ask him about David Norris playing at Portman Road and how he thought he'd cope with it.

Its the thing I've most been looking forward to about tomorrow night.

I figured it would be our chance, as fans, to make him feel welcome and encourage him to pick us as a future team.

But their boss, Paul 'I'm too scared of loosing my best player to a better team' Sturrock, has decided to leave him out.

He feels that Norris would be under too much pressure and cannot risk him being distracted.

Thing is, I said this to Jason and he said that that wouldn't happen.

(Just want to point out he said this before we heard the news on the Plymouth team so he wasn't being rude or anything!)

He said that as a player, once you are on the pitch you forget about everything else. All that matters is the game and getting a win.

I think Sturrock should have given Norris the chance to prove his worth, personally.

Listen to the De Vos interview:




Quick note on those transfers - Jim seems to think it'll get busy again on Wednesday and Thursday with regards to our plans so hopefully by the end of the week we'll have some newbies on board.




Finally, the Sturrock article also included accusations that Ipswich have not handled the transfer very well.

Jim actually alluded to something along these lines in his interview. Saying that he felt we had been patient and fair.



But Mr Sturrock seems to think we have created a bit of a media circus.

Thing is I don't think the club have ever said any more than 'We have offered a million for him'.

As my very knowledgable Daddy pointed out: The biggest point for gossip was a Derek Davis article saying Norris had not been to training - which of course led us to think he might be on the way out.

But where did he get that information from? I don't think he decided to spend the day on the south coast watching a mid-table Championship team go through training, do you?

Maybe the Plymouth camp isn't as inaccessible as we seem to be finding it when it concerns transfers, eh?


Favourite line of the day:

Jim Magilton: "I couldn't care less who's playing for them to be honest... I just want to win".

Well said!