Ipswich Town are on the up

Article by e-Ipswich Town's Daryl Curle

Click here to follow e-Ipswich Town on Twitter!

I am confident in saying that Ipswich currently find themselves in the strongest position they have been in since Marcus Evans took over the club in late 2007. Times really are exciting in Suffolk, and after a long, and at times, difficult duration outside the top flight, the signs really are starting to point towards the promised land.

First of all, we have a manager that has been there and accomplished promotion from this league before not once, but twice. Now, Roy Keane and Paul Jewell, both predecessors of Mick McCarthy, achieved promotion to the Premier League, but the real difference in favour of the latter is his work in the transfer market.

It is commonly quoted that Keane and Jewell between them wasted millions on signings such as Tamas Priskin, with potentially millions more wasted on not getting prised assets to sign contracts, and thus leave the club on a free, with Gareth McAuley and Grant Leadbitter being examples of this.

The truth is that even by selling Jonathan Walters and Connor Wickham for around £11 million between them, that the funding had to go into the running of the club, rather than on incoming talent.

To give Jewell some credit, the signings of Luke Chambers and Aaron Cresswell particularly were shrewd pieces of business. However, Mick McCarthy has turned a lower half Championship squad into that of a promotion contender by bringing in the following players; David McGoldrick, Dean Gerken, Cole Skuse, Stephen Hunt, Paul Anderson and Cameron Stewart. All of these signings were free transfers, and since McCarthy joined the club in November 2012, he has spent less than half a million on transfers.

Even more impressively, the departing Aaron Cresswell has left the club for West Ham and Premiership football, raising a believed £3.75 million initial fee, potentially rising to £7 million. Although some of this fee is due to Tranmere Rovers, the majority of the fee is available for McCarthy to spend this season, with joint-Managing Director, Ian Milne, confirming the funds will go into the transfer kitty.

Considering what McCarthy has done for the club transfer-wise so far, fans should be left salivating over the talent that Town can now appeal to. Former Crystal Palace left-back, Jonathan Parr, has been signed as a replacement for Cresswell, and at 25, and on a free transfer, McCarthy looks as if he has made another steal. Both McCarthy himself and his assistant, Terry Connor, have both signed three year contracts in the past couple of weeks, adding stability, which cannot be a bad thing.

Looking at the squad in closer depth, we have a good balance of players who are more than capable of plying their trade well into the top half of this division.

David McGoldrick, the top scorer for the club in 2013/14 with sixteen goals, looks set to lead the front line this coming season. Those sixteen goals all came before the middle of February 2014, with McGoldrick missing the final few months of the season with knee ligament damage after being injured in the home game against Blackpool.

His partner in crime, Daryl Murphy, scored a career-high thirteen goals, constantly bullying opposition defences whilst doing so, providing a particular threat in the air. Twenty-two year old striker, Frank Nouble, another of McCarthy’s signings, finished the previous term in great form, looking as if he may kick on his footballing progress in the early fixtures of the new season.

Centre midfielders, Cole Skuse and Luke Hyam, featured almost ninety times between them in 2013/14, creating a strong partnership. One criticism of the pair is that they do not chip in with many goals, but you will not find many midfielders in the division with a better engine, as this pair run for ninety minutes rarely breaking into sweat. The latter, Hyam, at twenty-two, is a product of the Ipswich Town academy and is generally seen as a fan favourite.

It is the defence however which is the pride of McCarthy. The three centre-backs, Tommy Smith, Christophe Berra and Luke Chambers, provide opposition strikers with a headache, and normally a few bruises too. Luke Chambers, current club captain, played the majority of the season at right-back, a role he also adopted at his former club, Nottingham Forest. Although susceptible to pace, not many players show as much passion as he does in a Town shirt, with a fist pump from the player greeting the crowd after every victory, resulting in an almost deafening roar.

Smith, another product of the Town academy, has captained his country, New Zealand, on a number of occasions, and has represented his nation in the 2010 World Cup. Berra, a current Scotland international and a player for McCarthy at Wolves, achieved promotion to the Premier League, and played over ninety games whilst in the top division. Berra won the Fans’ Player of the Year award in 2013/14, wrapping up a fantastic first season with the club. Dean Gerken in goal can get his timing all wrong when coming off the line is concerned, but the ex-Bristol City and Colchester United man has won the club points in his better performances.

In 2013/14, Ipswich finished only four points away from the Play-Offs. When considering the following facts, it is easy to see where Town need to improve next season in order to take their next step.

Ipswich only lost three games against sides in the bottom half of the table, however, they only won four of the sixteen matches against the eight teams they finished below. Looking at this more closely, it is unfortunate that Ipswich played all three of the relegated teams from the Premiership away in the opening eight weeks of the campaign, seeing themselves as incredibly unlucky to lose all three matches.

Ipswich also only lost five games at home all campaign, four of which came against sides that finished higher than them; Leicester, Burnley, QPR and Wigan. The other loss came against Leeds United, when the Yorkshire outfit were going strong in the opening month of the season. In three of these five defeats, Town took the lead. Ipswich had a knack for throwing away points last season to, losing a somewhat astonishing thirty-three points from winning positions. If Town are to push for the top six places then, they need to be far more competitive against the top teams and not throw away points as easily when in the lead.

Ipswich face a tough start to the season, with relegated teams, Fulham, and bitter rivals, Norwich, being the first to visit Portman Road, with both games aired live on Sky Sports.

Away visits to Reading and Derby also occur in the opening weeks, as well as a visit to St Andrews and Birmingham, but there is much reason for optimism. Playing these sides so early can be an advantage especially those that have fallen from the highest tier, as they have to find their feet, and many of their players may not want to play in the division, or for the shirt, wanting away to a different club.

Reading also find themselves in a weakened position, having had to release Jobi McAnuff, Mikele Leigertwood, Wayne Bridge and Kaspars Gorkss at the end of the 2013/14 season. Should Town start well, then the pre-season promotion odds of 7/1 look very generous, considering the money McCarthy now has at his disposal. This is not a bad time to be a Town fan.

© e-Football 2014 All rights reserved no part of this document or this website may be reproduced without consent of e-Football