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The Office (UK): Ipswich Town edition


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1 hour ago, Red Exile said:

Credit to @Davefevs for his quality post on their forum:

https://www.twtd.co.uk/forum/517142/page:3

Many of their posters didn't deserve that.

 

Not shocked by the responses to it it though. Ranging from "it won't happen here", "we don't believe you", "no fan knows what goes on inside the club", "well it was your fault as a club for not controlling him" and so on and so on.

There are so many counter responses that could be made to their points but I sadly feel it would be a waste of breath. I get the fact that they haven't been where they would hope to be due to their ownership issues over the last decade or so but the drowning man will always grasp at anything that floats by.

Who knows. It may well all work out for them but the odds are they'll be stuck in the same rabbit hole we were. Ah well, time to move on.

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3 minutes ago, Midlands Robin said:

Not shocked by the responses to it it though. Ranging from "it won't happen here", "we don't believe you", "no fan knows what goes on inside the club", "well it was your fault as a club for not controlling him" and so on and so on.

There are so many counter responses that could be made to their points but I sadly feel it would be a waste of breath. I get the fact that they haven't been where they would hope to be due to their ownership issues over the last decade or so but the drowning man will always grasp at anything that floats by.

Who knows. It may well all work out for them but the odds are they'll be stuck in the same rabbit hole we were. Ah well, time to move on.

No one wants to believe it before they have to, do they. Have to say that was an illuminating post to read by Fevs even as a City fan. Didn’t know about the ‘consultancy’ - shocking.

Torn. I quite like Ipswich and I’d rather see them come up than Sunderland/Portsmouth but don’t like Ashton and I want him to fail.
 

Also, that’s a strong League One this season, and Ipswich are already 7 points off the autos. I know there’s a long way to go, but that’s a decent enough gap to close already, across a season. I don’t think they’ll go up automatically, to be honest.

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33 minutes ago, Robin101 said:

No one wants to believe it before they have to, do they. Have to say that was an illuminating post to read by Fevs even as a City fan. Didn’t know about the ‘consultancy’ - shocking.

Torn. I quite like Ipswich and I’d rather see them come up than Sunderland/Portsmouth but don’t like Ashton and I want him to fail.
 

Also, that’s a strong League One this season, and Ipswich are already 7 points off the autos. I know there’s a long way to go, but that’s a decent enough gap to close already, across a season. I don’t think they’ll go up automatically, to be honest.

It’s quite interesting reading other posts on TWTD.  You’d think with the investment they’ve made promotion is the aim.  I’d see anything else as failure.  I kinda get playoffs as sensible objective….but you know fans will ignore it’s a 1 in 4 chance.  So, quite surprised the low expectations of some.  They’ve given up on autos.

Got a few hamstring injuries already according to one thread.

I don’t mind the responses.  We are all a bit touchy about other clubs’ fans coming on OTIB and telling us about our club….I guess in this case they asked, and it was about Ashton, not their club per se.

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10 hours ago, Red Exile said:

Credit to @Davefevs for his quality post on their forum:

https://www.twtd.co.uk/forum/517142/page:3

Many of their posters didn't deserve that.

 

Well, I think you spoke for all of us there Fevs and absolutely nailed it! @Olé is right, a warm welcome awaits you in El Rincon! 

An excellent piece and completely summaries why we despise what he did to our club. I like Ipswich, but I want to see him fail. 

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8 hours ago, Davefevs said:

It’s quite interesting reading other posts on TWTD.  You’d think with the investment they’ve made promotion is the aim.  I’d see anything else as failure.  I kinda get playoffs as sensible objective….but you know fans will ignore it’s a 1 in 4 chance.  So, quite surprised the low expectations of some.  They’ve given up on autos.

Got a few hamstring injuries already according to one thread.

I don’t mind the responses.  We are all a bit touchy about other clubs’ fans coming on OTIB and telling us about our club….I guess in this case they asked, and it was about Ashton, not their club per se.

Leaving Ashton aside (as far away as possible preferably) I reckon the introduction of transfer windows is a factor for many fans.

Those fans (including plenty of our own) have come to crave signings for their own sake regardless of whether they fit a plan. Hence the excitement of Ipswich fans and the love in with Ashton.

I don't recall anything like the same frenzy in the days before transfer windows.

 

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26 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

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F9F166D5-A260-4E53-8387-323206AD925A.jpeg

Nice one Fevs. I just had a read.

One comment that resonated is "perhaps 19 signings was a bit excessive..."

Yes! How many of those signings were recruited because they fit very specific requirements? Is it possible that a load of them will soon become surplus to requirements and have fans scratching their heads wondering why they signed them, even if they were good players on paper? Will it be a squad or a team? We shall see...

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A very good read from Fev's there. A couple of things for me, they say that all fans are on the outside looking in which in some respects are true on the day to day aspects of the club, as Fev's pointed out there are ways of looking into the club such as accounts, obviously its too early for Ipswich but they only need to look into ours to see the devastation that MA left behind to see how he works. 

Also they are insulting us by saying we are jealous and other things (knuckle draggers etc) they took him off of us, I wonder how many of those dismissing our thoughts have actually bothered to research what Watford have had to say or looked into their Head of medical Science Andy Rolls career and the disasters that follow him where ever he has landed. I expect very few if any.

Anyway as someone else has said time to move on, he is gone thank god. 

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How will they keep all 19 signings happy? Lets say there is a match day squad of 18. Some will be from last season in that squad and some positions would have been over recruited for i'm sure, i'm not sure how Paul Cook will be able to keep that squad happy? The current players who were there must be thinking 'the manager must not rate us then?' 

This will be terrible for the morale at Ipswich. 

Our 14/15 squad which won the league was if i recall a small tight knit squad of players who were brought in over a 2/3 year period to rebuild and get us back in the Championship. Rome wasn't built in a day and all that.. A squad isn't built in one transfer window, Paul Cook won't be at Ipswich come Christmas that's for sure.

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12 hours ago, Midlands Robin said:

Not shocked by the responses to it it though. Ranging from "it won't happen here", "we don't believe you", "no fan knows what goes on inside the club", "well it was your fault as a club for not controlling him" and so on and so on.

There are so many counter responses that could be made to their points but I sadly feel it would be a waste of breath. I get the fact that they haven't been where they would hope to be due to their ownership issues over the last decade or so but the drowning man will always grasp at anything that floats by.

Who knows. It may well all work out for them but the odds are they'll be stuck in the same rabbit hole we were. Ah well, time to move on.

I dare say that would’ve been the reaction when Watford fans posted on here, it’s just human nature of football fans i guess 

I hope now we can now move on and look to the future as the regime we’ve got now look like they could be building something 

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Dave, I notice your list of players signed in the promotion season. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

can you tell me if the players highlighted were the twins Aaron and Albie ?

Ayling, Little, Wilbraham, Korey Smith, Kodjia, Wilbraham, Luke Freeman, Ryan Fredericks etc as we romped to the Lg1 title and began life in the Champ.

?

Edited by slartibartfast
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45 minutes ago, cidercity said:

A very good read from Fev's there. A couple of things for me, they say that all fans are on the outside looking in which in some respects are true on the day to day aspects of the club, as Fev's pointed out there are ways of looking into the club such as accounts, obviously its too early for Ipswich but they only need to look into ours to see the devastation that MA left behind to see how he works. 

Also they are insulting us by saying we are jealous and other things (knuckle draggers etc) they took him off of us, I wonder how many of those dismissing our thoughts have actually bothered to research what Watford have had to say or looked into their Head of medical Science Andy Rolls career and the disasters that follow him where ever he has landed. I expect very few if any.

Anyway as someone else has said time to move on, he is gone thank god. 

It's the classic fingers ears the ears, "la la la, I'm not listening" - they're just lashing out because they don't want to hear it.

We all know on here that @Davefevs knows what he's talking about, it's a pity @Harry isn't around to give them a few pearls of wisdom as well.

Anyway, MA isn't our problem any more (TFFT). Happier with the current set up.

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2 hours ago, mozo said:

Nice one Fevs. I just had a read.

One comment that resonated is "perhaps 19 signings was a bit excessive..."

Yes! How many of those signings were recruited because they fit very specific requirements? Is it possible that a load of them will soon become surplus to requirements and have fans scratching their heads wondering why they signed them, even if they were good players on paper? Will it be a squad or a team? We shall see...

Watching MA's post-window interview two things stood out:

When he addressed the suggestion high wages were being paid he replied "Let me be very clear" and then went on to say "A number of players have taken a pay cut". With Covid's impact on finances this is likely to be true, especially for the free agents. 'A number of' could be anything though, and it'll be the minority of the 19 for sure, because if it were the majority he wouldn't have missed the chance to say so.

When asked about Cook wanting a smaller squad he went into a monologue about how competition for places is a good thing and how he has delivered the additional staff to deal with all the additional players. The question was about what the manager thinks...the answer was all about what MA thinks...and what MA has delivered.

So enough clues are there that he's not changed. It will just take some time for their fans to apply the MA interview BS filter...starting by understanding what "let me be very clear" means!

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3 minutes ago, SE23Red said:

Watching MA's post-window interview two things stood out:

When he addressed the suggestion high wages were being paid he replied "Let me be very clear" and then went on to say "A number of players have taken a pay cut". With Covid's impact on finances this is likely to be true, especially for the free agents. 'A number of' could be anything though, and it'll be the minority of the 19 for sure, because if it were the majority he wouldn't have missed the chance to say so.

When asked about Cook wanting a smaller squad he went into a monologue about how competition for places is a good thing and how he has delivered the additional staff to deal with all the additional players. The question was about what the manager thinks...the answer was all about what MA thinks...and what MA has delivered.

So enough clues are there that he's not changed. It will just take some time for their fans to apply the MA interview BS filter...starting by understanding what "let me be very clear" means!

And a couple of their posters have picked up on that.  We can sit through that 9 minute interview and see all the same BS.  They are impressed by it.  It’s David Brent….they will see that in time.

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The two major things that annoyed me about MA.

Firstly, his 'wannabe' attitude. He is clearly a frustrated manager. A CEO should not be the public face of a football team IMHO but his ability to appear when things were good and his self congratulatory stance did grind but more so his ability to disappear into the abyss when things were going badly.

Secondly, the way he hung a clearly underqualified Dean Holden. 'By far the best candidate etc etc and then did his usual vanishing act when Dean clearly needed his support. That was unforgiveable.

I wish ITFC well but, like the vast majority, I'm so glad to see the back of the buzz word ridden, vein, self obsessed car salesman! 

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46 minutes ago, SE23Red said:

When he addressed the suggestion high wages were being paid he replied "Let me be very clear" and then went on to say "A number of players have taken a pay cut".

Yes. Being paid less than you were before does not mean you consciously decided to take a pay cut in order to take part in Mark Ashton's "cause" (his word). On this point in the interview, MA is being either delusional or deceitful. 

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It's possible that it will work out for him. Watford and us could have ironed out a few of his mistakes even if his ego still feels the need to be stoked occasionally.

 

He won't make a "value on the pitch" mistake again, and I'm sure a "Dean Holden... Best candidate" situation won't happen again....

 

He has cut their wage bill, assembled a decent squad... It's now down to can he sit back and let Cook do what he needs.... If he meddles, and makes the same mistakes then I feel sorry for Ipswich, but if he's maybe learned from twice having his actions almost catch up with him, maybe he will more careful this time.

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I do appreciate why many Ipswich fans are rather reluctant to listen to our point of view. Everyone gets excited by new signings, and most of us (myself included) were impressed with some of Ashton's work before the truth of the situation ultimately became apparent.

Having said that, there does seem to be a bit of naivety among some Ipswich fans on their forum....

 

  • If he was a brilliant CEO and we were just bitter about losing him, would there not be more positive wishes to him from our fans? Would the negativity from our end perhaps be a bit less consistent? Would his departure have still won Champagne Moment of the Year?

 

  • Similarly, if Ashton had done so well here, would his next step not be to something slightly grander than Ipswich? No disrespect to Ipswich Town, but MA has of course taken a step down into L1. Perhaps the move is driven by the salary they're offering him - if so, do you think he justifies that salary?

 

  • I've seen some Ipswich supporters claim that we "unfairly blame him for our poor recruitment and injuries". Have they looked into why that is? If you fire the previous recruitment team and say "**** it, I'll do it myself", does the responsibility not then fall on you? Have they looked into the many dubious staff appointments MA has made here and elsewhere?

 

If you apply a little bit of thought to it, the idea that we're simply jealous of MA leaving falls apart pretty quickly. Who knows, it may all work out for him there, but Ipswich fans would be wise to at least listen our warning rather than attempt to drown it out with jibes.

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3 minutes ago, Fiale said:

 

It's possible that it will work out for him. Watford and us could have ironed out a few of his mistakes even if his ego still feels the need to be stoked occasionally.

 

He won't make a "value on the pitch" mistake again, and I'm sure a "Dean Holden... Best candidate" situation won't happen again....

 

He has cut their wage bill, assembled a decent squad... It's now down to can he sit back and let Cook do what he needs.... If he meddles, and makes the same mistakes then I feel sorry for Ipswich, but if he's maybe learned from twice having his actions almost catch up with him, maybe he will more careful this time.

I’ll be amazed if their wage bill is less this season than last.  The players they got rid of in the summer we’re a mix of young, fringe and first teamers….not all first teamers.

AFB62479-D395-4881-847A-C69E95154255.thumb.jpeg.a4a2b83ee0cf8a62eefc30ef94c8a1a5.jpeg

 I suspect Sears, Ward, Judge we’re on a decent wedge though.  They’ve just brought in 19 first teamers.  Very different.  I suspect their wage bill has increased significantly.  I wonder how much the CEO is paying himself.  I did hear an awful rumour of £750k p.a. ???

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5 minutes ago, Fiale said:

 

It's possible that it will work out for him. Watford and us could have ironed out a few of his mistakes even if his ego still feels the need to be stoked occasionally.

 

He won't make a "value on the pitch" mistake again, and I'm sure a "Dean Holden... Best candidate" situation won't happen again....

 

He has cut their wage bill, assembled a decent squad... It's now down to can he sit back and let Cook do what he needs.... If he meddles, and makes the same mistakes then I feel sorry for Ipswich, but if he's maybe learned from twice having his actions almost catch up with him, maybe he will more careful this time.

@Fiale

Leopards are reputed to be unable to change their spots. Therefore it isn't possible to change the name Ashton or to change an Ashton's behaviour.

He will therefore be a shxxhole for the rest of his life!

We had a relative of his at City back in 1977-80 and the likeness between the two is uncanny. Tony Rance managed to achieve what the recently departed one failed to do. Be in charge when City were relegated and quite possibly one of the architects of our financial disaster a couple of years later.

It's a shame that our late Mr Ashton didn't go to Kabul Town after us. They know how to sort out problems.

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I've only skim-read bits of this topic and bits of the Ipswich forum but there are a few points which I think they need to consider. First being that our initial reaction to Ashton's appointment was pretty much the same as theirs. Even posts along the lines of 'well with a name like Ashton he's bound to fit in here!'. Secondly, there was the constant bizarre dynamic of who actually signs players - it was asked constantly by fans and particularly in the Twentyman interviews, whether Lee Johnson actually had any say in who comes in. That will be a huge talking point one day at their club, particularly if Paul Cook is still around when the cogs finally turn. Finally, and ending weirdly on a positive for MA, it's undeniable that he did get extremely good transfer fees for the talent that we did actually have. That could well be a benefit that they will see over at Ipswich.

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5 hours ago, slartibartfast said:

Dave, I notice your list of players signed in the promotion season. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

can you tell me if the players highlighted were the twins Aaron and Albie ?

Ayling, Little, Wilbraham, Korey Smith, Kodjia, Wilbraham, Luke Freeman, Ryan Fredericks etc as we romped to the Lg1 title and began life in the Champ.

?

 

5 hours ago, Davefevs said:

He was like two players!

I also noticed we had Joe Brian, who was presumably quickly moved on to make commentary easier in case he had  been picked to play with Joe Bryan. :)

Edited by Port Said Red
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38 minutes ago, nebristolred said:

.. it's undeniable that he did get extremely good transfer fees for the talent that we did actually have. That could well be a benefit that they will see over at Ipswich.

That was in an inflated and inflationary market, which he gambled would go on forever so he could keep - his favourite word - trading. He was predictably wrong, which has damaged our finances badly.

The market has now collapsed so he isn't likely to have a (short term) profitable streak again.

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