I think Ipswich will do well this year...

[LeJuge 0]

Can''t deny that they have made some good signings. I''d have had Chopra or Bowyer here to be honest. Not so sure about Ellington.They''re not really building for the future though are they? A 34 year old, a 33 year old, and a 30 year old. Still, reckon they will make it to the top 6 next year with a big new player in each part of the pitch.Surprised they didn''t sign Dyer though.

[nutty nigel 7,506]

Good luck with this!!

 

I think bottom six is more likely but we shall see. They appear to be doing the exact opposite to us in their signings so will be interesting. They got hungry players though, I mean, fat people are usually hungry!

 

 

 

[birchfest 397]

buying up has beens, if i was a town fan I think I would be even more concerned!

[LeJuge 0]

[quote user="birchfest"]buying up has beens, if i was a town fan I think I would be even more concerned![/quote]I think it would be pushing it to describe a 27 year old Chopra a has been, same with that young centre back, to be honest. And I''ve seen people on here say that they would take Bowyer for a year, I probably would too. Ingermarsson is definitely past it though, and Ellington has been crud for a while.

[Duncan Edwards 0]

I think their chief scout must work for either Age UK or Weight Watchers.

I''m surprised that they are signing up all this experience with the managers penchant for youth development...

[hogesar 9,611]

I would ask, why even start a thread on here about how you think Ipswich will do well?Bar Chopra the rest of their players are has been''s who probably couldn''t give two fucks what happens in the following season, and are probably being paid a nice handsomely sum whatever!

[Tangible Fixed Assets anyone? 0]

[quote user="nutty nigel"]

Good luck with this!!

 

I think bottom six is more likely but we shall see. They appear to be doing the exact opposite to us in their signings so will be interesting.

[/quote]

Nutty,

Given Ipswich''s finances (despite the Wickham sale) I think you will be right in seeing Ipswich nearer the lower end of the Championship than the top.

[First Wizard 0]

I have them down for the drop, so far, I''ve seen nothing to change that opinion.

[Rolf Harris 31]

hopefully fold, or portaloo road to burn down.

[Jonzey 0]

[quote user="LeJuge"]Can''t deny that they have made some good signings. I''d have had Chopra or Bowyer here to be honest. Not so sure about Ellington.

They''re not really building for the future though are they? A 34 year old, a 33 year old, and a 30 year old. Still, reckon they will make it to the top 6 next year with a big new player in each part of the pitch.

Surprised they didn''t sign Dyer though.
[/quote]

 

Objectively speaking Chopra is an excellent signing. He''s a quality forward in his prime at 27, who''s already made the PFA Championship team of the year twice. Proven quality.

And Bowyer was immense last season for Birmingham in the Premier League.

Ellington though I agree is rubbish. In the last 5 seasons he''s scored 17 goals from 113 games. And 7 of them were in the Greek league. lol.

I predict lower mid table.

[Power Hamster 0]

[quote] user="Che''s right hand man "]hopefully fold, or portaloo road to burn down. [/quote]No, I hope not. We need a local rival, and as we found two seasons ago, Colchester United just dont fit the bill.I am ready to don the tin helmet here, but I would be quite happy for Ipswich to be successful so long as they are less successful than we are, and finish below us in the league. I would also like to see the derby match as a Premier League fixture again, then the London based media wouldn''t be able to ignore us any more.

[Webbo118 0]

[quote user="Power Hamster"][quote] user="Che''s right hand man "]hopefully fold, or portaloo road to burn down.
[/quote]

No, I hope not. We need a local rival, and as we found two seasons ago, Colchester United just dont fit the bill.

I am ready to don the tin helmet here, but I would be quite happy for Ipswich to be successful so long as they are less successful than we are, and finish below us in the league. I would also like to see the derby match as a Premier League fixture again, then the London based media wouldn''t be able to ignore us any more.
[/quote]

The wheel is turning but the hamster .............. ????

[BroadstairsR 0]

Chopra might not seem as good a buy as at first appears. His last season at Cardiff, in particular, saw the trend of a player in decline reach its'' climax, according to many Cardiff fans. 

 

Apparently drinking, gambling and other issues, which included weight gain, marred the final season of his spell at the Welsh club.

 

Many fans were, indeed, glad  to see the back of him. Why else would Cardiff release one of their, hitherto star players, to a rival club so cheaply?

 

The Town supporters have pinned a lot of hope on this player and for their sakes, I hope he has changed his ways. We, of course, requiesce in any misfortune that they may have. For our pleasure, I hope he has not.  

 

It will be interesting to see how things unfold at Portman Road next season, what with the Bowyer factor et al. I know some fans on here take no interest whatsoever in this rivalry.  I enjoy it hugely, as long as we are the top team. that is.  As we now are.

[Bill 1,788]

"I have them down for the drop, so far, I''ve seen nothing to change that opinion"

Blimey, I''m in full agreement with wiz

The OP has put up some odd stuff about our club so I suppose this is in line with that view.

As put by others the paupers are pretty much bumping along the bottom money wise so it should be no suprise that they have little option but to trawl the bins of other clubs.

Some will point to us and say that we weren''t predicted to do much last summer but we almost ended up as champions. However that is where the comparison ends. City had in place a deternined and some might say a ruthless chief executive, a manager fixed on winning and installing that mentality into the squad. The squad had been assembled in the same vein by finding winners and I suspect players who would buy into that winning ethos. No ''stars'' or ''big time charlies''.

You only have to look how McNally gave the NOTW a ''slap'' over a false story ... long before other bigger folk took them on. Money was made available despityer what some on here have bleated. The whole place has been buzzing and there has been an air of determnied professionalism about the set up.

Contrast this with the shambolic state of affairs at poorman road. Steadily falling gates. season tickets and income ... year on year. Players walking out as the cost cutting starts to bite. The boy blunder having to be sold to balance the books. Even a number of youngsters were only offered six month contracts. A desperate measure in the context of the amounts involved.

Perhaps they will suprise us all, but the concern must be that a paper thin squad made up of a fair number of over 30''s will not only be vunerable to the effects of likely injuries - but does highlight a deeper problem within the club.

In that light as a betting man I would put money on a bottom six rather than a top six place.

[Europe_93 11]

Seen Chopra a few times.  His best days are behind him.  He has/had ability, and may have a decent spell in the season when he is operating at 100%, but over the long haul he won''t cut.  Nearly every game he puts in some wild lunging tackle that the Cardiff fans use to love him for, but look at the Reading game, he was out of condition, overweight and ineffective.  When he gets injuries it will take him longer to recover and his form will dip. 

[yellow blood 0]

Top six??????????

There are a lot of teams in that league that are far more likely to finish higher in the league.

[Harry Hunt 0]

Last season was the best opportunity to get promoted, the three teams relagated where all short on quality and money. That does not seem to be the case this year and Brighton and Southampton will be strong, possibly playoff contenders.

I also think Hull and Middlesborough have settled squads and will be stronger than last year. As for Leicester money could buy them the title.

If that lot down the road are mid table they will have done well, I see a lot of comparisons with this club Pre Lambert and McNally and we all know the outcome from that!!

[Syteanric 1]

my Gf''s family are all ipswich fans and they are completely underwhelmed by the signings to the point they are plotting their route to league 1 grounds.Bowyer is a nutter with a bad reputation, he can be a decent player on his day but has been released by a club who would be every ones tip to finish in the top 6, that''s a playoff/promotion chasing side like Birmingham city who have deemed a player not suitable for a promotion push. I''ll be suprised if he makes it to January for them.Chopra always starts a season well but then fails miserably. He has had a few clubs now hasn''t he? including a few cracks at the premiership and has never stayed long wherever he has been.Ipswich are a club in decline, where as we sign young and hungry players with a point to prove (they may not be good enough, we don''t know yet... but at least they are young enough to still have a go and prove they are) the Binners are signing yesterdays men, hoping the fat pay cheque will be enough to get them to relive those past "glorys" they never had.all i will say to any Ippo fans reading this is remember Fowler and Hasslebaink at Cardiff? enjoy league 1.

[Arthur Whittle 0]

Paul Jewell has a track record of doing well initially than fading and it seems by these signings hes still on track. Chopra still has something about him but the others......?

[canary_bird 0]

I think Ipswich will do well this year ... to stay in the Championship.

[Graham Paddons Beard 2,421]

I believe that the gulf between ITFC and us is as great now as it ever has been. In terms of finance, ability, fan base, manager, govenance; I can''t in fact think of any area where they exceed us, except the fact that they won the FA cup in 1930. Would I take Bowyer? Not in a million years, and were ITFC not so desperate niether would they. Chopra last had a good season in 2006-7, so no to him as well.

I actually hope they make a reasonable start, similar to last year. Then fade into oblivion, and take their £50 million debt, underwritten by a ticket tout, with them.

[John 0]

If i wanted to dismantle that club and oust them out of all of their assets of actual value, Paul Jewell is making as good a fist of it as i could ever hope to. A mixture of counter-productive moves and failure, accompanied with a slight dose of hope, has been enough to prolong what will become a wholly sorry affair.In Bowyer they are paying an extortionate wage for a player incapable of helping the club to a position where it is in any way remotely progressive, with no sell on value, at an almost decrepit age within the game, yet with high enough profile to sustain both the position of any manager pursuing a mission of total and utter sabotage. Such a thing would be a blessing.Achieving a minor burst of form in a season whereby there is nothing left to achieve was another fantastic move by Paul Jewell. That hope will pay dividends in the great number of times his jobs will be put into question in the following season. Ridden with old haggards like Mark Kennedy (35), Ivar Ignimarsson (33), Jason Scotland (32), Carlos Edwards (32) and now Lee Bowyer (34), and some of the most laughably untalented players plying their trade in the football league, like Nathan Ellington and Arran Lee-Barrett, comprised otherwise by a remarkably unremarkable batch of youngsters  (bar Josh Carson), their imminent decline seems all too obvious for anyone willing to see the situation for what it is.In my opinion, the worst Ipswich side for half a century is about to coincide with the strongest second tier there may ever have been, finally capable of condemning them to the drop they fear ever so.Is there as much hope after a relegation for them as there was for us? I personally don''t think so.City1st made some telling points on the role of the chief executive, and if that position has ever been held with real value, Simon Clegg is certainly not the man to fulfill that responsibility. This man''s thin veil of professionalism is seen through all too easily (could one imagine McNally arriving at a new club with a petty appeal to the vitriol of fans that Clegg did? That "small club up north"), and has admitted without lack of emphasis his naivety in football (and has even used his ignorance to excuse his mistakes... I''m sure the people responsible for appointing him are loving that). Accompanied with both a peculiarly heavily restricted budget, and a harsh debt owed to an owner for whom his only main priority seems to be anonymity, with a more than ''questionable'' business history, i''d have serious questions were i an Ipswich fan over the functions of the club at boardroom level.As for the flaws they are ridden with on the field, for a future beyond so much as next year, things seem bizarrely perilous (and i use the word ''bizarrely'' given how it all seems to have been walked into volutarily - i assumed decrepitness is something we often look to avoid, not purchase).

[Harry 0]

[quote user="canary_bird"]I think Ipswich will do well this year ... to stay in the Championship.[/quote][IMG]http://i530.photobucket.com/albums/dd347/barclayendchoir/n83855235548_4708.jpg[/IMG]

[Northamptonncfc 0]

They have made some great singings...

The scum were a tad excited by the Chopra signing. To me he appears nothing more then a Jamie Cureton style striker, as in he has three clear cut chances on goal he''ll only put one of them away. Cardiff had a fairly decent midfield over the past few seasons to provide him with chances, this is the only club he has experienced some form of success with in my opinion.

[Bill 1,788]

The real danger for our impoverished neighbours will come next summer once the Olympics are over.

If Evans wants to cut and run he will undoubtely shift the training ground, the lease on poorman road and any worthy contracts (a few younger players)into another company leaving all the crud and debts with the present owners, Ipswich Town Football Club Company Ltd which could simply be wound up as it is insolvent. Which would conveniently wipe out the 12% owned by the ITFC Plc (Sheepshanks, the original shatreholdeers and all the other gullible farmhands who stumped up their coppers believing they could trust the red faced buffoon. A much clearer deck for a new consortium to come in.

The transfer of those aforementioned valuable assets would be justified by dint of the paupers owing hin so much. Mostly through charging ITFCCLtd interest on a debt of £25m or so, that he bought for £8m or so. There is also the interest being charged on the original £8.1m loan (preference shares).

Whether this will happen or it is merely idle speculation on my part we will have to wait to see(I would suggest idle speculation). What is not speculation is that Evans certainly has little interest in putting any money into getting the paupers promoted - which should beg the question of what is his true intent /

Worrying times for the rustics, it would seem

[Harry 0]

They had a good result tonight against Cambridge United, 2-2 draw after being 2-0 down after 3 minutes.  [IMG]http://i530.photobucket.com/albums/dd347/barclayendchoir/laughitupsmilie.gif[/IMG]

[LeJuge 0]

[quote user="City1st"]"I have them down for the drop, so far, I''ve seen nothing to change that opinion"

Blimey, I''m in full agreement with wiz

The OP has put up some odd stuff about our club so I suppose this is in line with that view.

As put by others the paupers are pretty much bumping along the bottom money wise so it should be no suprise that they have little option but to trawl the bins of other clubs.

Some will point to us and say that we weren''t predicted to do much last summer but we almost ended up as champions. However that is where the comparison ends. City had in place a deternined and some might say a ruthless chief executive, a manager fixed on winning and installing that mentality into the squad. The squad had been assembled in the same vein by finding winners and I suspect players who would buy into that winning ethos. No ''stars'' or ''big time charlies''.

You only have to look how McNally gave the NOTW a ''slap'' over a false story ... long before other bigger folk took them on. Money was made available despityer what some on here have bleated. The whole place has been buzzing and there has been an air of determnied professionalism about the set up.

Contrast this with the shambolic state of affairs at poorman road. Steadily falling gates. season tickets and income ... year on year. Players walking out as the cost cutting starts to bite. The boy blunder having to be sold to balance the books. Even a number of youngsters were only offered six month contracts. A desperate measure in the context of the amounts involved.

Perhaps they will suprise us all, but the concern must be that a paper thin squad made up of a fair number of over 30''s will not only be vunerable to the effects of likely injuries - but does highlight a deeper problem within the club.

In that light as a betting man I would put money on a bottom six rather than a top six place.[/quote]"The OP has put up some odd stuff about our club so I suppose this is in line with that view."Whilst the overwhelming majority disagree with me in respect of Town''s prospects, and I am sitting here thinking "I''m probably wrong then", I''d be interested in hearing just what it is that I''ve "put up" about City which can be seen as "odd". I hardly ever make threads, the last one asks how big people think Carrow Road needs to be. I''ve said that I rate Cody McDonald. I''ve said that people need to lay off Chris Martin and John Ruddy. Other than that, I doubt that I have really taken any stance on anything of real substance, be interested to hear what it is exactly that I have said which can be described as "odd", unless you are merely referring to opinions that you don''t agree with. In which case, we are all a bunch of fruitcakes, because every thread is centred around differing opinions matey!On reflection, looking at that league table full of zeros, I realise that top 6 will probably be pushing it (this paragraph is a response to the whole thread, not the person quoted). But I still rate Jewell, he got them moving again at the end of last season, and think he will bring the best out of what he is given. I''m still going to say top 10. I know its fashionable to hate them all, and wish them bad, but I still think they are far too good for a relegation battle. Would take any manager a bit of time to clear out Keanes messy mistakes.Chopra had a poor year last year, but he still reached double figures, but I don''t think 63 goals in 152 Championship appearances is to be sniffed at, in fact I don''t think the 8 in 39 he scored in the Prem for Sunderland can be sniffed at either, I''d take that from any of our strikers next year to be honest. They have only given Bowyer 1 year, but I think he would get in any Champs team. I''m surprised at the criticising of Lee-Barrett based upon the fact that he has played non-league football. He played for Hartlepool before Ipswich. Some would be best served to see where some of our players have come from! That said, he is their backup keeper anyway, they have Fulop. I just think they have a squad which is far superior to the level that they showed when playing us both times last year. They had the worst man manager in the country, somebody like Jewell who doesn''t scare the sh*t out of players is probably what they need.

[Bill 1,788]

Oh dear, methinks the laddie doth protest too much.

Protests that seem to be based on the tried and tested formula of making up something and replying to that rather than addressing what was posted up.

In his wacky world Lee-Branett is criticised for being non league where it was actually because he is crap, even the binners state that. He was not the back upo keeper, he often played when Fulop was available ie sat on the bench.

The rest of the reasoned debate is dismissed, as it''s based on "its fashionable to hate them all, and wish them bad". So their impoverished state is down to our hatred of them, theirhaving to dramatically cut their waghe budget is down to our hatred as is the falling gates, income and season ticket sales.

The OP might do better to address those points rather than putting up absurd notions that both Bowyer and Chopra would be up to playing for City next season.

The club down the A140 is going down the plug hole at a fairly steady rate, nothing we do or say will have any affect on that. It is set against that parlous state that City fans have posted up why they think the team will struggle.

RIPswich (or based on their recent signings OAPswich)

[norfolkchance1 0]

I read in paper on Sunday they were after 35 year old George Boateng, It made me wonder what exactly they are trying to do.

At the end of the season they''ll have a ready made team for the Masters series.

[LeJuge 0]

[quote user="City1st"]Oh dear, methinks the laddie doth protest too much.

Protests that seem to be based on the tried and tested formula of making up something and replying to that rather than addressing what was posted up.

In his wacky world Lee-Branett is criticised for being non league where it was actually because he is crap, even the binners state that. He was not the back upo keeper, he often played when Fulop was available ie sat on the bench.

The rest of the reasoned debate is dismissed, as it''s based on "its fashionable to hate them all, and wish them bad". So their impoverished state is down to our hatred of them, theirhaving to dramatically cut their waghe budget is down to our hatred as is the falling gates, income and season ticket sales.

The OP might do better to address those points rather than putting up absurd notions that both Bowyer and Chopra would be up to playing for City next season.

The club down the A140 is going down the plug hole at a fairly steady rate, nothing we do or say will have any affect on that. It is set against that parlous state that City fans have posted up why they think the team will struggle.

RIPswich (or based on their recent signings OAPswich)[/quote]You might have had a point before you ruined it with "absurd notions that both Bowyer and Chopra would be up to playing for City next season", which is rather hypocritical, after you had said "making up something". In no part of this thread, or anywhere on this forum, or anywhere online, or anywhere offline, have I said that Chopra would have made our XI this season. I bet he would have got some minutes last season though, because he would clearly have offered more than Wilbraham. As for Lee Bowyer, sorry but he was class last year and I suspect that there will be worse midfielders in the six or seven weakest teams in the Premier League next year, of which we could well be one but could well be not. At 34 he won''t offer much past this season, but there is no way that I can sit here and say that Bowyer on a one year deal would be a bad signing for any Championship club. The cretin that he is. Whilst I can appreciate that the Football League show was the most important source of footy highlights for us last year, many of us saw enough of Bowyer last year to see that he still has something in the tank.