Not really about that, though that's part of it, for me

More about the decision making throughout the club, the right structures and governance - they've literally only just "announced" with great fanfare they might look at some player stats before signing people up going forward(!!!) - and so on.

Their model isn't a self-sustaining one, so I don't know how closely they'll focus on the youth but if I had the job of turning round that club then, after overhauling the overall structure and maybe adding a bit of sports science to the mix, that would be my primary focus. Their academy is s**t and the local talent - even in Ipswich itself - is trained by Norwich coaches and wears Norwich kit. It's a lot to get to Cat 1 from where they are but they could make some fairly big improvements quite fast without worrying too much about playing with the big boys just yet. Their problem is their local competition is Premier League with a Cat 1 academy and has a track record of developing youth and playing youth products in the first team and helping youth get big moves - a young player isn't going to have a hard decision to take between the two.

What they'll probably do instead is we're all f**king loaded, splash the cash, "show some ambition" by buying "out of luck" high cost journeymen - I mean that probably would get them out of League One but it's a house of cards after that and just one bad season let alone two would leave them serially f**ked.

So I reckon the smart move is to look at a four or five year plan building infrastructure and driving sustainable growth on the pitch. Instead I think they'll try to buy their way up. Plenty - I mean loads - of examples as to why that might not be their best bet for a fuller flavour.

Oh and for pity's sake, a lick of paint at Portman Road, already.

Posted By: Old Man, Apr 8, 08:51:09