Ghost of Clough

Dropped from the entire squad and not named on a bench which had spaces?

People need to get over it. He will have made mistakes, but it's clear to me he also has regrets. Despite that, and still getting abused by fans, he has stuck by the club to make amends. Quantuma felt he was worth keeping around. Clowes has made the decision to keep him as his CEO. Move on.

No, no, no, Pearce is a key cog in a  conspiracy that reaches the very highest level of world governments and is overseen by the Master Overlord that is Mel Morris.

Support in what way, struggling with that one.

People need to get over it. He will have made mistakes, but it's clear to me he also has regrets. Despite that, and still getting abused by fans, he has stuck by the club to make amends. Quantuma felt he was worth keeping around. Clowes has made the decision to keep him as his CEO. Move on.

More likely confirmination of a return to a back 3. Mostly played on the right of a back 3 for Aberdeen last season.
It's most liekly BS anyway

People need to get over it. He will have made mistakes, but it's clear to me he also has regrets. Despite that, and still getting abused by fans, he has stuck by the club to make amends. Quantuma felt he was worth keeping around. Clowes has made the decision to keep him as his CEO. Move on.

People need to get over it. He will have made mistakes, but it's clear to me he also has regrets. Despite that, and still getting abused by fans, he has stuck by the club to make amends. Quantuma felt he was worth keeping around. Clowes has made the decision to keep him as his CEO. Move on.

For the last few games I've tried to guess what lineup Warne would pick. Just in case Warne has been looking at my team to help him with his own selection, this time I'm going with my own team...
Wildsmith
Wilson   Nelson   Cashin   Elder
Bird
Thompson   Sibley
Mendez-Laing      Blackett-Taylor
Collins
Subs: Vickers, Bradley, Ward, Hourihane, DRobinson, Barkhuizen, Weston
 
433 because it gives us the control in midfield we need (and we havent got another senior striker to play alongside Collins). The front 3 ince chosen are our biggest goal threats available.
Wilson starts at RB but gets moved to RW when Mendez-Laing and Blackett-Taylor have tired - Ward on at RB and Barkhuizen LW.
Wildsmith in goal will instill more confidence in the defence and the crowd.
A youthful midfield 3 to provide energy, with Bird at the base to actually link our defence and midfield together. Hourihane to find a new role as super-sub... coming on late to shut games down or to provide something different from set-pieces. Meanwhile, DRobinson is eased into L1 football.

The same Ipswich who made 7 signings in the summer and another 2 so far this month?

The club have stated the aim is to get promoted. No L1 club has a ready made squad for the Championship, but we have a summer transfer window to prepare.
Hull are chasing promotion, so what they're spending is of insignificance to our first season back in the Championship. What are mid-table sides spending? What about those battling relegation? 

Whittaker's advantage was his brain and technical ability. It was his lack of physicality that meant he struggled with the step up, just as he had done stepping up from the U18s to the U21s. The biggest problem he had was having a manager who didn't understand what type of player he was and ddin't have the patience to develop him.
With Brown, it's not a case of him being a stronger/faster playing at youth level and now he's coming up against strogner/faster defenders... He's just not mentally ready to play for our first team. It's sort of a mental block of beliving that he is capable of playing in League 1 at this moment in time. Cashin has talked about similar issues when he was thrown in the first team - he didn't think he deserved to be in the team and was just there becuase we had no one else. Luke Thomas went over to the wrong wing on his debut becasue of nerves.

I think even Phill Brown would struggle to not finish top 2 with this squad. Someone like Warnock would jump at the chance of managing us thhrough to the end of the season, and it's easy to see him gettting a lot more out of us than we've seen

The club have stated the aim is to get promoted. No L1 club has a ready made squad for the Championship, but we have a summer transfer window to prepare.
Hull are chasing promotion, so what they're spending is of insignificance to our first season back in the Championship. What are mid-table sides spending? What about those battling relegation? 

How many of Warne's 12 signings from this season (not including Embleton) are starters in a fully fit squad? Only Nyambe, Nelson and Blackett-Taylor? Maybe Wilson too depending on formation. Only Neson and Wilson have played in more than 50% of the total minutes this league season. The only other signing to be on the pitch more than Sibley is Nyambe.
Maybe if Warne spent what he did more wisely, he would have improved our starting 11 more than we have. How much are we paying Washington, Waghorn and John-Jules? Collectively, they've been on the pitch 400 mins less than our 8th most used player. Wages wasted on Embleton who only featured for 52 minutes. High end wages for the likes of Bradey and Wardcand barely playing.

Wheeldon only just stepped up to U21 football a few games before Christmas. Give him 12 months at that level before judging where to send him on loan. I don't think he's ready for first team game time.
Fapetu also only stepped up to U21 football his season. He's been a regular starter (helped by the occasional absence of DRobinson and Radcliffe being out for several months). He was regular contributor of goals and assists for the U18s last season, but has so far failed to contribute to a goal this season. Just like Wheeldon, he'll need another year or so at U21 level before he's loaned out. I wouldn't expect him to be involved in first team games until next season.

For the last few games I've tried to guess what lineup Warne would pick. Just in case Warne has been looking at my team to help him with his own selection, this time I'm going with my own team...
Wildsmith
Wilson   Nelson   Cashin   Elder
Bird
Thompson   Sibley
Mendez-Laing      Blackett-Taylor
Collins
Subs: Vickers, Bradley, Ward, Hourihane, DRobinson, Barkhuizen, Weston
 
433 because it gives us the control in midfield we need (and we havent got another senior striker to play alongside Collins). The front 3 ince chosen are our biggest goal threats available.
Wilson starts at RB but gets moved to RW when Mendez-Laing and Blackett-Taylor have tired - Ward on at RB and Barkhuizen LW.
Wildsmith in goal will instill more confidence in the defence and the crowd.
A youthful midfield 3 to provide energy, with Bird at the base to actually link our defence and midfield together. Hourihane to find a new role as super-sub... coming on late to shut games down or to provide something different from set-pieces. Meanwhile, DRobinson is eased into L1 football.

Wheeldon only just stepped up to U21 football a few games before Christmas. Give him 12 months at that level before judging where to send him on loan. I don't think he's ready for first team game time.
Fapetu also only stepped up to U21 football his season. He's been a regular starter (helped by the occasional absence of DRobinson and Radcliffe being out for several months). He was regular contributor of goals and assists for the U18s last season, but has so far failed to contribute to a goal this season. Just like Wheeldon, he'll need another year or so at U21 level before he's loaned out. I wouldn't expect him to be involved in first team games until next season.

There's a difference between 10-20 minutes at the end of games or 1/2 starts over a season versus starting every week.
The likes of John O'Shea and Wes Brown were good squad players for Man Utd, but were only good enough to be regular starters in a side battling relegation.
Fabio Carvalho was playing infrequently for Liverpool last season, now he's on loan at Hull to play regularly. Freddie Ladapo from Ipswich to Charlton...Springett from Norwich to Northampton... the list goes on...
Other Cat 1 teams like Reading are using players in their first team who I wouldn't even put in our U21 side. If I were manager, I absolutely would have used Brown and Robinson a lot more than they have been. Weston would have had a few appearances following on from his good form in the U21s and brief appearance in the first team 9when he grabbed a goal and an assist). I would have given Cox a few outings at the end of games as a LCB in a back 3 - he's much better suited to that role than Cashin who would be better in the middle of a back 3 than on the left. However, I wouldn't expect them to be starting a run of games unless their perfomances when given a shot meritted it.
 
The U21 squad is deplated due to a couple of bad years in terms of scholar year groups passing through and not making the grade as well as 4 players who would have been good enough being snapped up by PL clubs. The U18s have stepped up early to fill that void. We also had to recruit lower potential players to help boost the numbers - Ridd, Oduroh, Bartley, Jeffcott, Radcliffe, Lindsay, Gibson-Hammond, Nto, Nunn, Weston, Oseni...
In terms of 1st year scholarship groups following on from Cashin, Sibley, etc in 2018, there is only Delap and Bardell who are at our club or a higher level from 2019, Gordon and Williams from 2020. This 2020 groups would ordinarliy be our senior players in the U21 squad now, however the rest of them have been released. From the 2021 group, Ryan moved to Brighton, Eze to Norwich, Ebiowei to Palace, whilst 4 others were released at the end of their scholarships (after 2nd year at U18 level). This is a big reason behind fewer U21 players being ready to step up than we would have liked.
In summary, there are a lot of youngsters coming through, but it's a bit soon for most of them. A few of them are ready for infrequent game time in our first team, but Warne doesn't like taking risks. If they aren't getting game time here, then loans out to clubs where they will play regularly is important.

DRobinson's the only player who I think is ready for regular football at this level (lower end L1 level). I would trust his ability to play (and start) the odd game for us at this end of the table. He isn't yet ready for several starts. However, infrequent appearances throughtout the rest of the season would be enough to earn him a loan move for next season. He needs to improve his end product, but otherwise he's another safe and reliable player on the ball.
DBrown is next in the pecking order. He too would be good enough for seeing games out and the rare start. His level (in my opinion) is L2. However, the benefit of a National League loan is our ability to recall him in an emergency whilst a L2 loan would be fixed until the season has ended. The exposure to men's football will be a big boost from him, as I think it could be the difference between him mentally beign ready to play regularly for us next season.
Radcliffe and Weston have shown at other clubs that they are capable at handling themselves in men's football. Radcliffe played in the National League North last season, so a step up this season would have been a fair assupmption - he's been injured since October. Weston played infrequiently in the Scottish Championship last season for Partick and Cove Rangers. He's National League North or even National League level.
Oduroh, who spent the first half of this season in and out of a National League side, is a bit behind Weston.

For the last few games I've tried to guess what lineup Warne would pick. Just in case Warne has been looking at my team to help him with his own selection, this time I'm going with my own team...
Wildsmith
Wilson   Nelson   Cashin   Elder
Bird
Thompson   Sibley
Mendez-Laing      Blackett-Taylor
Collins
Subs: Vickers, Bradley, Ward, Hourihane, DRobinson, Barkhuizen, Weston
 
433 because it gives us the control in midfield we need (and we havent got another senior striker to play alongside Collins). The front 3 ince chosen are our biggest goal threats available.
Wilson starts at RB but gets moved to RW when Mendez-Laing and Blackett-Taylor have tired - Ward on at RB and Barkhuizen LW.
Wildsmith in goal will instill more confidence in the defence and the crowd.
A youthful midfield 3 to provide energy, with Bird at the base to actually link our defence and midfield together. Hourihane to find a new role as super-sub... coming on late to shut games down or to provide something different from set-pieces. Meanwhile, DRobinson is eased into L1 football.

For the last few games I've tried to guess what lineup Warne would pick. Just in case Warne has been looking at my team to help him with his own selection, this time I'm going with my own team...
Wildsmith
Wilson   Nelson   Cashin   Elder
Bird
Thompson   Sibley
Mendez-Laing      Blackett-Taylor
Collins
Subs: Vickers, Bradley, Ward, Hourihane, DRobinson, Barkhuizen, Weston
 
433 because it gives us the control in midfield we need (and we havent got another senior striker to play alongside Collins). The front 3 ince chosen are our biggest goal threats available.
Wilson starts at RB but gets moved to RW when Mendez-Laing and Blackett-Taylor have tired - Ward on at RB and Barkhuizen LW.
Wildsmith in goal will instill more confidence in the defence and the crowd.
A youthful midfield 3 to provide energy, with Bird at the base to actually link our defence and midfield together. Hourihane to find a new role as super-sub... coming on late to shut games down or to provide something different from set-pieces. Meanwhile, DRobinson is eased into L1 football.

Saturday 27th January 2024. 3pm kick-off.
Believe this is the first time I have ever started a match day thread…
Will it start with us going on another long unbeaten run or turn out to be very short lived? Let’s hope it’s the former!
UTR! 🐏

So many opportunities to use him here this season and give him real game time but our manager hates to do that 

DRobinson's the only player who I think is ready for regular football at this level (lower end L1 level). I would trust his ability to play (and start) the odd game for us at this end of the table. He isn't yet ready for several starts. However, infrequent appearances throughtout the rest of the season would be enough to earn him a loan move for next season. He needs to improve his end product, but otherwise he's another safe and reliable player on the ball.
DBrown is next in the pecking order. He too would be good enough for seeing games out and the rare start. His level (in my opinion) is L2. However, the benefit of a National League loan is our ability to recall him in an emergency whilst a L2 loan would be fixed until the season has ended. The exposure to men's football will be a big boost from him, as I think it could be the difference between him mentally beign ready to play regularly for us next season.
Radcliffe and Weston have shown at other clubs that they are capable at handling themselves in men's football. Radcliffe played in the National League North last season, so a step up this season would have been a fair assupmption - he's been injured since October. Weston played infrequiently in the Scottish Championship last season for Partick and Cove Rangers. He's National League North or even National League level.
Oduroh, who spent the first half of this season in and out of a National League side, is a bit behind Weston.