Heyyyy.... Remember me? You know the guy who was meant to be doing posts on most if not all games and things related to Ipswich Town? Well I'm back after not posting since like November, and oh would you look at that, the season is over. So yes you all know, we were relegated from the Championship after a 17 year uninterrupted stay in this division, and will be playing League One football for the first time since 1957! It's been the worst season in decades and when you think about it pretty much everything that could have gone wrong - went wrong, badly wrong. So let's take a look back on the entire season and look where everything went to shit... And just as a warning this will be a long ass post so get ready for a long read :)
So we start out in May 2018, when Paul Hurst the former Shewsbury Town man is appointed as our new manager after 6 years of management under Mick McCarthy. For us fans it was what we wanted for a long time - a young upcoming manager that would bring a new style of football. And his CV looked great, with him taking a bang average Shrewsbury side to within a penalty shootout of Championship football the season before, with them playing attractive attacking football along the way. As you know they didn't get promoted and that was probably a big factor into him leaving to come to us, and all of us fans were happy with the appointment. But unfortunately alarm bells started ringing fairly early on...
It's already been brought up a million times before but as you know we had a very busy summer with lots of exits and arrivals in a short space of time. It began with the release of David McGoldrick and sale of Adam Webster to Bristol City in July. Its still not clear who decided that McGoldrick would go as Hurst claims he was never made aware of him while McGoldrick claimed he wanted to stay but Hurst said no so that's a bit messy. Then the sale of Webster was a blow as he was one of our best centre backs in recent seasons, but £3.5 million seemed like good money, so things weren't too suspicious so far but that would change.
In comes Jordan Roberts, Gwion Edwards, Ellis Harrison and Trevoh Chalobah on loan and a running theme is that all have absolutely no Championship experience. They were mainly players that Hurst knew from his days in League One so us fans were really unsure what to expect, we just heard good things about Harrison from his old club Bristol Rovers so we had little to go by. Also Janoi Donacian came in as well as a new RB option, though he seemed to play more CB for most of the season - and strangely it was on loan from Accrington which you don't see so much of nowadays. So us fans were very unsure as to what to make of the transfers, they could be good but the lack of experience at the level we were at did raise some eyebrows.
However, things began to get slightly concerning once the first game came around a 2-2 draw with Blackburn at home. It was an alright point really, Edwards had a great game and the team looked good as a whole. However it was right around this time when we basically killed our season. Our top goalscorer from last season Martyn Waghorn was sold for £5 million to Derby County... Now we knew that it was gonna be a bit hard to hold onto him and according to Hurst he wanted out but the sale of him really hurt us in the long run. Also we sold Joe Garner to Wigan of all teams, another key player from last season. Hurst tried to plug the gap by buying Kayden Jackson from Accrington, for £1 million which is a ridiculous sum looking back in it, but we would never recover from selling Waghorn, Garner or Webster...
What followed was 12 games with no win, and we had such good opportunities to do that. Dominated possession against Rotherham but lost 1-0, couldn't win against 10 man Bolton drawing 0-0 and were 2-0 up at half time to Birmingham and threw it away to draw 2-2. Mix that in with one or two good performances like the Brentford and Norwich games, and ton of awful performances like the 2-0 losses to Hull and Middlesbrough and you have a truly miserable first 12 games. Not even the new loan signings of Matt Pennington and former player Jon Walters could help, with the latter getting injured after just 3 games - by this point people are starting to get really really worried.
And then you had the only Hurst win, the absolutely barmy 3-2 win at Swansea were your 1-0 down after 15, have a hot 5 mins and your suddenly 2-1 up, defend like wildfire, Cellina scores the equalizer and then your up the other end and head in a winner on 84. Ridiculous game but we really thought that the team had turned a corner, but then you follow up with the QPR game and I've already done a review of the game at the time, and it was fucking awful. 2-0 loss and should have been more, follow that up with another 2-0 loss to Leeds and that's when on the 25th October, Hurst was dismissed as manager after just 5 months - this makes him the shortest serving manager in the clubs history.
We will never know what would have happened had Hurst stayed and I'm not gonna lie many fans were shocked Evans actually made the call as early as he did as it was never his way of doing things. But as much I appreciate Hurst for trying to give what the fans wanted and for the bravery of making so much change, he just simply changed way too much in too short a time span with too many departures and arrivals at once. Had he kept Waghorn and Garner then things may have been different but there are so many what if statements you can make when it comes to Hurst's rein, and I hope he does well at his new job at Scunthorpe United, but quite simply Hurst had to go when he did and Evans made the right decision.
So with us 5 points from safety at the bottom of the table, we needed a new manager so in came former Norwich manager, and modern day Norwich legend, Paul Lambert (wow 3 out of our last 4 managers have been called Paul...) Of course some fans were not so happy about our new manager being a former Norwich man, but for me I was not too bothered by it. He achieved back-to-back promotions with Norwich and managed the team that beat up 5-1 at Portman Road in 2011 and while since leaving Norwich he hasn't done great, as long as he got us some results and got us playing better I couldn't care less if he was former Norwich.
And Lambert made a instant impact, while like Hurst it took a while for him to get his first win, which came against Wigan in December, he got us playing some really nice football at times and he was able to get a lot more out of the poor League 1/2 players that Hurst could get little out of. Unfortunately even within the first period, the shortcomings of our squad were shown on full force. The Lack of a key man that could bag us goals like Waghorn and before then Daryl Murphy and the lack of quality finishing was put on full show as while he got into good positions a lot of the time we just can't score goals. Plus defensively we could be all over the shop, and the fact that Jonas Knudsen decided he wanted out so he wasn't playing either didn't help too. The worst showings had to be against both Bristol City and Millwall where we were 1-0 up at half time in both games but we just absolutely collapsed in the second half and lost both games 3-2, and by January we were still cut adrift at the bottom of the table and Millwall was a must not loose game - and we lost it.
The January transfer window was gonna be a key part of the season, and to be fair we brought in a fair few players - some worked out, while others flopped completely. We first loaned in a few players which included Callum Elder from Leicester to fill in if needed at LB, alongside Will Keane from Hull as a new striker option, James Bree from Villa and Colin Quaner from Huddersfield. We mixed that in with some free transfers in James Collins, formerly of West Ham, and this guy called Simon Dawkins. The only signing we made from spending was Alan Judge from Brentford.
So that's 7 players we brought in, but unfortunately only about 1 or 2 really worked out. Alan Judge was by far the best of them, he greatly improved the midfield and I'm really surprised he was even wiling to some here, let alone later sign a new contract. Quaner as well also turned out to be a decent signing as despite his huge inconsistency, got a few goals to his name which is always good. As for the others, Keane and Collins were very good.... when they were fit! Unfortunately both turned out to be very injury prone, which is a massive shame as Keane fitted the team so well and when he did play looked so lively, but he got ruled out with a hamstring and when he came be he injured himself again almost immediately. And Collins when he played was a beast at the back but his fitness was always gonna be called into question considering he was 35. The others unfortunately had little impact. Elder barely played due to him having to go under surgery and when he did he was just kinda average, Bree played quite a lot but again was fairly okay and Dawkins made 2 sub appearances and thats it... no joke. So it wasn't a horrible window and some really worked out, but we all knew that it was gonna be hard to attract top players to the club considering our situation at the time, so it was around what I expected.
So after yet another FA Cup 3rd Round loss, this time to Accrington Stanley (who are they???), we did pick up another win (somehow) against Rotherham and that game definitely gave us fans hope - but hope would be running thin. We wouldn't win another game till April, but that's not to say the 3 months inbetween wasn't a complete shitshow. After getting battered 3-0 by Norwich, a result that we all saw comings sadly :(, we actually went on a really great run perfromance wise. I mean I know we drew like 7/8 games but all of those games we played so well in and many of those teams we played were top teams like West Brom and Bristol City. And to make things even better we could have easily won almost all of the games, but alas it wasn't meant to be.
Despite the better performances, we all knew time was running out on our time in the Championship. We continued to be rooted to the bottom of the table and despite lots of opportunities to close the gap, we just couldn't take them and poor performances and injures to the likes of Collins, Keane, Sears and newcomer Jack Lankester didn't help in the slightest. So jump to 13 April 2019 the home game against Birmingham, D-day for us; if we don't win we are down. After a torrid first half display, we absolutely gave everything in the second half, equalized and came so close a few times to winning - Birmingham really didn't play well in the second half. But as the seconds ticked by, full time became near and nearer and knowing a draw wouldn't be enough, relegation came closer and closer. Then the ref blew his whistle and that's it... Ipswich Town are Relegated. The 4 words that I've been dreading to hear all season. And it's such a shit way to go, coz the lads played so well... But major applause to the fans that stuck around at the end to cheer on and sing their hearts out, the support at that game and at all games this season has been unbelievable and that fact our fans are singing their hearts out as much as they still did despite us getting relegated as the worst team in the division, is amazing. THAT is special support
The last 4 games of the season were essentially complete dead rubber for us, but we had to treat these last games as glorified pre-season games for next season. Those included a 4-0 mauling at Preston, a boring 1-0 loss to Swansea and a 2-0 loss to Sheffield United that saw them get promoted, and we saw McGoldrick again who signed for them and has had a brilliant season for them, scoring 17 goals and being voted player of the year - I guess that just shows how a change of scenery can bring out the best in someone. Good luck to him and United in the PL next season, I hope they prove the doubters wrong.
Then in the last game of the season we played Leeds United... AND WON 3-2! I really didn't see that one coming, has to be our best win of the season, especially since Leeds had a penalty and the taker slipped over and skied it - that was fuckin hilarious XD. It was a great way to end what has been one of the worst seasons in the clubs history - maybe THE worst.
There is sadly not real other way to put the season really, its been catastrophic. Every bad thing that could have happened, happened to us - we are kinda like Cardiff in that respect. Terrible transfers, poor performances, a leaky defence, a toothless attack, tons of injures, an owner that wont get his wallet out, questionable refs and godawful recruitment. And what makes things even more sad is the season could have been so different and the optimism around us fans for this season was so high and we thought that with a new manager we could get the club back on track to targeting the playoffs. But as you can gather from this stupidly long post, it didn't happen.
Many people who aren't fans will continue to tell us that we shouldn't have gotten rid of McCarthy and that we should have been careful what we wished for, but ill tell you now I wouldn't take him back even if it meant we got relegated again. Yes I know he got us better results and whatnot and we didn't get relegated, but his style of football was so defensive that under him we were going nowhere. He was great the first 3 seasons in charge, but after that he played football that was so negative and unambitious we would have been stuck in a groundhog day cycle every season if he had stayed. So it was absolutely the right time for McCarthy to go. I know that may sound crazy to some of you but I generally feel this way, and I think most fans will agree with me.
But despite the heartbreak of relegation, there are positives we can take from this season. First of all it allows us to fully reset and rebuild which really is what this club has needed for a while now. Not moving with the times has been a huge issue for us as a club is recent years so a full rebuild is in order so from that perspective relegation could be seen in the long term to be the best thing for the club. In addition I do think that Lambert is the right man for the job. Many will argue that his record is worse than Hurst, but you have to remember he was up against it massively Lambert and really he did all he could to keep the club up but thanks to Hurst and his shit transfers he was left with a group of average players that he could only take so far. Plus he's got the fans back on his side and next season the atmosphere could be amazing at Portman Road if this season is anything to go by and I for one cannot wait.
League One is a whole new chapter not just for the club but for us fans, and while we may not get promoted straight back up like many fans will believe - I'm more cautious when it comes to that, I think as long as we bring in some quality players, get them playing attractive football and fix the leaky defense and toothless attack then the sky is the limit next season and I for one cannot wait for what next season holds for us.
I'm Ipswich till I die, I'm Ipswich till I die, I know I am, and I'm sure I am. I am Ipswich till I die.
Thank you for reading this season review post, sorry about its extremely long length but eh I had a lot to say about last season. I'll try to post when I can on new players and who we should sign when possible during the off season.
COYB!
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