An immediate disclaimer. The mood among Ipswich Town fans may well have changed by the time you’re reading this; such is the roller-coaster ride their supporters have been on in recent years.
Two weeks ago, after one win in five, a handful of Ipswich supporters were protesting with flares outside the club’s training ground, calling for the dismissal of manager Paul Lambert, who had presided over their lowest league finish in 67 years when they ended the League One campaign 11th last season.
A couple of goalless draws at home followed in late February, and though Ipswich secured wins over top-six duo Hull City and Doncaster Rovers, Lambert left his role on Sunday due to “significant differences of opinion” with owner Marcus Evans.
Now, a midweek win over fellow play-off hopefuls Accrington Stanley has got fans looking up the table, with a wave of optimism greeting the arrival of Paul Cook, who has swapped Wigan Athletic for Ipswich and taken on the managerial role at a time when the club’s ownership could also be changing hands.
A US-led consortium, featuring board members from US club Phoenix Rising, are said to be nearing a £17.5m takeover, and while Ipswich general manager Lee O’Neill claimed on Monday that there “isn’t an offer on the table”, there is a growing belief among supporters that Evans – who would reportedly wipe the club’s £100m debt owed to him – is ready to step aside after more than 13 years with the reins.
“Everything I’m looking at tells me the takeover is happening,” Mark Ramsay, chairman of Ipswich Town Supporters’ Club, tells i. “I would expect this consortium to be successful in this takeover bid.
“I’m excited by change. We’ve gone into a period where everybody seems to have accepted what’s going on, apart from the supporters. It’s time, we want to be a successful club again.
“The football became mediocre, that’s the only word for it, but we want to move back towards the Championship, to make sure we play open and entertaining football. That hasn’t been happening for years. We want to get our reputation back. Supporters in Suffolk are known as ‘Sleepy Suffolk’, we’re not sleepy, we’re just biding our time. Enough is enough, we want to move forward again now.
“If it means a change of ownership as well, I want to thank Marcus Evans for all he has done in the past, but he has either become tired or unable to finance it to the level he needs to anymore. So, we move forward. It would be an exciting time to have American owners coming in.”
Ramsay believes it would be beneficial for all parties to complete the takeover as quickly as possible. In his role he has been a medium between the club and its supporters, sitting down with managers gone by, including Lambert, while also hearing the concerns of fans.
Many of these supporters are still awaiting news of whether the current campaign’s season tickets will be refunded, part-refunded or carried over to 2021-22. As Ramsay points out, this delay is a primary concern, but ongoing negotiations with the club suggest the rebate is entwined with prospective takeover talks.
Any takeover, coupled up with clarification regarding these season tickets, would be likely to boost numbers for the next campaign given Cook’s arrival has been welcomed with enthusiasm.
“I suspect you’re halfway there with the Cook appointment,” Benjamin Bloom, founder of the Blue Monday Podcast, tells i. “If the takeover happened, I would put season ticket sales on sale the next day. The optimism will be great. There’s a well-supported club with an engaged fan base waiting to get engaged.”
Optimism appears to be the current buzzword among Ipswich’s supporters, but an air of caution is being applied given the several false dawns of late.
“Mick McCarthy gave us optimism, then it kind of ebbed away,” Bloom adds. “Then there was optimism when Paul Hurst came, then that didn’t work out. Then when Lambert came too, but that didn’t work out. Maybe we should know better, but something feels different this time, especially with the potential for a new owner as well.”
Under Evans’ watch, Roy Keane spent just shy of two years at the club as manager, likewise Paul Jewell, and then during Mick McCarthy’s six years in charge from 2012 there was only one run into the Championship play-offs to speak of, and then quickly forgotten given they lost their semi-final to rivals Norwich City in 2014-15.
Then after a few months with Hurst as boss, in stepped Lambert in 2018 for a disappointing two-and-a-half year spell which included relegation and has left Ipswich further from a Premier League return than they have been since dropping down from the top tier in 2002.
“The truth is,” Bloom adds, “since the near miss into the Premier League, there has only been one good season. The fans just want a good season, even a League One promotion.
“There’s a well-supported club with an engaged fan base waiting to get engaged. I know there is the sort of will there, I think people have got a bit tired. All those years in the Championship. Mick did a great job but he was up against it. Draws were okay, but it became a bit tiresome.”
This weariness has not been easy to showcase during a pandemic-affected season. Kept away from Portman Road for all-but one league game so far, against Portsmouth in December, the desire to vocalise this discontent prompted some from the Blue Action supporters group to make their feelings about Lambert known at the club’s training ground in February.
What part this played in Lambert’s departure is unclear – perhaps only minor given the now former boss said he was “99 per cent” sure he would not be in charge when new owners came in, a fact deemed a “coincidence” by general manager O’Neill once Lambert actually left last week – but Max Helm, co-founder of Blue Action, outlined these protests were signs that the club’s supporters will never be silenced in their pursuit to make sure the club is run properly.
Describing the recent years as a “soap opera”, Helm was critical of Evans for making “extremely poor decisions at multiple times” at the club, including the appointments of “names” like Keane, Jewell and Lambert, so too cutting back on the youth academy and stopping the community trust in 2013.
The trust was not reinstated until 2019. “Six years without a community trust,” Helm adds, “which is appalling, and as a result of that it created a massive disconnect. It allowed Norwich to start creeping in with soccer schools within the borough lines. We’re only just starting to try and address this.”
The potential takeover would hopefully address such matters as far as Ipswich fans are concerned. “It’s a cautious optimism,” Helm adds, echoing this buzzword. “Town fans are behind this, but they have to make Ipswich a functioning and competitive football club. The fans are happy there are people coming in that won’t be tolerating failure.
“Forgive me for hyperbole, but in English football I don’t think there are clubs performing further below their potential than us. Our pedigree, our infrastructure, we should be a team that yo-yos between the Premier League and Championship, maybe nicking a win off Manchester City, but we’re so far off that. Town fans are hopeful. We love our football, but have been starved of any real glory.
“These new guys seem experienced, and will bring a modern and progressive look to the football club. They’re under no illusions, and ultimately want to sell to make a profit at the end of it, but it’s like buying and selling a house. If you want a doer-upper you’ve got to make it sellable, convert that loft into a bedroom, that front drive into off-road parking to add value to it.
“If that means reinvesting into the youth academy and scouting network, getting us back on our feet, we just need a bit of dignity back.”
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3rfDepd
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