Dan11

He's one of the best players in the league at the moment. His journey this season has been incredible to watch - first few games you could see he had so much ability but he didn't have the tactical discipline, decision making or end product. He's developed so much under McKenna though and he's almost unplayable at times now. Superb attitude too. A player destined for the very top.

Great game for the neutral but not good for my heart! Hopefully we have too much for Coventry on Tuesday. We will be far fresher than them and I am very hopeful we go into the last day with it in our own hands.

There's been no out of control spending here (at Ipswich). 5 points is enough for us to be promoted. Beyond all of our wildest dreams!

It's pretty crap if your team are constantly having games moved to satisfy Sky. Only 4 of our last 13 home games have been Saturday 3pm kick offs. Only going to get worse for clubs next season though with the new EFL TV deal. I personally also think you lose a bit of integrity when teams at the bottom or the top play before/after rivals.

Welcome to the club

That must be a joke? Suggest you look at the 18 man squad they had last night! Also, for all the talk of us (Ipswich) being fortunate with injuries, Leeds have barely had a big injury all season. All of their best players/spine (Meslier/Rodon/Ampadu/Gray/Kamara/Rutter/Summerville/James/Piroe) have featured in 35+ games out of 42 to date.

What is the punishment though? Everton got 6 points in the end. Forest got 4 points which they are appealing. Both will probably stay up this season. It's all toothless nonsense really, before you even get to Leicester seeming to fall between the cracks of the PL/EFL. If any breach regardless of size was a 30 point deduction then perhaps clubs might think about it.

We've only lost 9 times in the league in our last two seasons (86 games). I actually think that several of our 'parts' are of a higher quality than people give credit, but the intangibles in this team are what makes it so great. Sometimes football goes beyond stats, analysis and quality and is about heart, determination, resilience and sheer will. This team has that in abundance. It also helps having the best manager in the division as well. If Southampton had McKenna they would be out of sight. Martin is an absolute fraud.

As a fan base we really aren't entitled at all. We've been crap for years and I think most of our fan base are just enjoying finally having our club back and being able to watch a team that we feel a huge connection with, playing top quality football. I'm fortunate enough to have (just about) seen the George Burley team that finished 5th in the Premier League but anyone under the age of about 27 has seen complete dross almost non-stop. I think most Ipswich fans expected us to be knocking about around the play off positions this season but we really have surpassed all expectations. This really is a special team managed by one of the best managers in the country right now.

Thanks for beating Leicester for us

I think the football league distributions/TV deal is £5/6m higher in the Championship isn't it? Beyond that we invested in our hospitality facilities this season and have further plans for this. Ashton has talked about being able use the stadium 365 days a year rather than just every other Saturday. They want to be in a position to have a couple of concerts on the pitch every summer. There is a longer term plan to rebuild the Cobbold stand with an increased capacity and new hospitality facilities too. But shortish term I suspect revenues are probably going to struggle to go much beyond £30m in this division. Like any team that doesn't get parachute payments, player trading is going to be important for us. Recruitment has been excellent since McKenna came in and we've managed to build value in the squad. If we don't go up, I see much of the same this summer - signings in the £1m-£2m bracket.

Yeah that is fair. The truth is that he bought us at a time when we were hovering around the play-offs and there wasn't an abundance of cash knocking about in the Championship. He came in with no plan and thought he could simply spend cash on players quickly, get us promoted and make a nice profit. Then he appointed Roy Keane - big mistake. From there onwards it was a complete car crash. Within a few years, the whole landscape of the division had changed and he was suddenly a relative pauper with no plan, his fingers burned and little appetite to invest in the club. The game became too rich for him. Hard to really criticise him for that but we were just in a period of stasis for several years where he deludedly hoped he could fluke a PL promotion with minimal investment (and McCarthy nearly managed it which was a hinderance in the end as it gave him further false hope) The state of the whole club was a disgrace by the end to be honest and we were pretty much on life support.

Yeah, I imagine you are right. There must be some contingencies in the deal. I could certainly think of less risky ways to spend £105m but hopefully for us it pays off for them!

GC2020 have been very aggressive and willing to spend money since coming in. Costs falling outside FFP have risen from £3.3m in 2020/21 to £6.8m in 2022/23. They've really put money into every area of the club - youth development, community engagement, women's team and the playing squad. But it's all paid off because they've really mobilised and re-engaged the fan base - not many clubs could generate £21.7m revenue in L1, but they've squeezed every penny out of us. Every facet of the club has improved and you can visibly see it. They have big plans for the training ground this summer too. I think the £105m valuation for 40% of the club shows you how their investment has paid off! (even if I do think it is nuts at this stage). The FFP reconciliation is the most interesting part for me. £20.6m loss over the last 3 seasons with a measly £1.9m of it (thanks Marcus Evans) being for 2020/21. So on a rolling 3 year basis, that means we can lose up to £20.3m this season and be within the £39m limit. I'd expect revenue to well in excess of £30m this year and we've spent fairly sensibly with £4m on assets like Taylor (3 year deal), Al-Hamadi (4 year deal) and Hirst (4 year deal). Of course other playing costs will also have gone up but I'd expect us to be well within £20.3m and therefore in no desperate need to flog anyone before 30th June 2024. If we don't go up, I think we are all resigned to losing Davis, but we should be able to negotiate a better deal post 1st July. *Edit* - and your mid table Champ club in L1 is spot on. As we discussed before, we've really used the SCMP rules in L1 to our advantage to build a squad at that level that we felt could compete at this level too.

Appreciate that I have skin in the game being an Ipswich fan, but it'll be a total joke if they get away without a deduction this season. And they say cheats never prosper...!

To be honest our 1 win in 9 is down to two factors (and we still only lost twice in that run): 1. Hirst getting injured and having to play Jackson through the middle 2. Playing Leeds, WBA and Leicester twice in that run We will be thereabouts right until the end. I just hope we get over the line. If we don't it will be with a Championship record high points total not to get promoted, and you can't ask for anymore!

Literally none of your players would start for us though. And I am not even trying to be provocative!

A miles better squad than yours though! For what it is worth, Manning did a proper job on us tonight up until we made the quadruple change which totally changed the game. You contained us as well as anyone has at PR this season.

Broadhead isn't fit for tonight.

You'll have to score at least twice to get a result against us. We give chances away at home but we are relentless going forwards and generally seem to find a way. McKenna and Manning obviously know each other pretty well so it'll be an interesting tactical battle.

The incident happened in 2020 so that would be a long time to suspend someone! Seems odd this has taken so long to get to court...?

It's quite funny because we sort of stumbled on this by virtue of Walton being injured at the start of the season. Walton is a superior goalkeeper to Hladky in every facet other than with his feet and played all 46 league games in L1 last season. Ipswich fans would have laughed in August if you suggested Walton wouldn't come straight back in. But Hladky has become so important to us now with how most Championship teams look to press us high, and we kind of accept the odd soft goal against or flap from a cross that Walton would have dealt with better. In L1 you couldn't get away with having a keeper that couldn't deal with aerial bombardment.

We've played Leicester, Leeds, West Brom twice. All of our next 9 are against bottom half teams (as it stands). Southampton still have to go away from home to all of the top 5. A lot is being made of 1 win in 9, but we've only lost twice in what has been a fairly tough run of games in which we've played Leicester twice, Leeds and West Brom. The QPR draw at home over Christmas (when we had half our starting line up out) could come back to haunt us. I think we will hit 90 points but that likely won't be enough in what is looking like being a freak season in terms of points needed for the top 2.

To be honest though, for clubs like us that don't have parachute payments, what is the alternative strategy? The key is obviously your scouting/recruitment being absolutely on point but inevitably not every player you sign is going to be an Adam Webster. I think it is actually easier in some ways to play this strategy out at the lower end of the market (<£2m) than it is when you suddenly have £5m to spend on a player. The risk is far higher and your margin for error is a lot lower. I know they've picked up now, but I look at some of the business Coventry did in the summer and I guarantee they've made a couple of mistakes. Haji Wright £8m prime example.

I think Leif Davis would inevitably go. He's a Premier League full back in style and quality and will command a big fee. How we got him in L1 I have no idea. The biggest worry of course would be a PL club wanting McKenna which is inevitable at some point. Financially we've really not invested that heavily at all. We built a squad in L1 under SCMP rules that could compete pretty well in the Championship. Highest fee we've paid under our new owners is £1.5m (Broadhead, Hirst, Taylor) - on 3/4 year contracts for FFP and players that have future resale value. I don't expect Moore is coming cheap in terms of loan fee/wages but that's a signing we had to make in our position. If he makes the kind of impact he did on Saturday then he will be worth every penny!