Time to return to our roots…before it's too late!

There’s currently an ice rink erected outside Portman Road but it’s Royle and his team that are on thin ice after two successive defeats at the hands of Crystal Palace and Hull City that leave the Blues in a precarious position at the half-way mark of the season.

What I have noticed, after listening intently to the packed after-match phone-ins and more notably, perhaps, at the Crystal Palace game, is the division that has cut through us Ipswich fans.

We can literally be split into two opposing camps at present, well…nearly all of us. I’m one of the odd ones out; try as I might I keep switching sides, again and again and again….. ISPD (Ipswich Split Personality Disorder) isn’t pleasant but my GP claims not to have come across this before, so I presented him with two brief diary entries that perfectly illustrate the case…

Boxing Day: What a terrible result. Royle must go now! As if Preston and Reading were not enough, he yet again plays one up front and it again fails; “We’re supposed to be at home”. He then claims that he was ‘forced’ into this fruitless formation as Forster is our ‘only’ fit striker…um; Bowditch? Haynes? McDonald? They’re all far, far to young to start any games and will only get hurt, says the boss but Theo Walcott is only 16 and plays game after game at the Saints?? Bowditch has been around for a while now, Haynes looks physically strong and McDonald’s had a good loan spell and must be sharp. Royle has lost it. Naylor’s up front one minute and in defence the next and at Hillsborough Sito and Wilnis forgot what side they were on, they were being told to switch so often. Sheepshanks has to go too, he sacked Burley for his own lack of financial sense and continues to hold us back. Everyone keeps banging on about what a great team we were last year but we were living a lie at the time; the defence was shocking! And I remember how we kept winning games we should of lost; the manager promised to sort that defence out and now he’s on borrowed time. What kind of message is Royle giving to these youngsters when he puts them on when we’re losing with 10 minutes to go; surely he’s mentally breaking them rather than helping them!? What can they get out of such a situation!? We’re sliding the way of Forest now but everyone keeps saying ‘we’re too good to go down’, rubbish, that’s what Forest said…

Day After Boxing Day: Everyone keeps slating Mr Royle, it’s so unfair! He came into a club in crisis and was told he didn’t have to sell; they lied! A mass exodus of everyone who was any good at all and for ridiculously silly low prices and what’s he supposed to do? What he did last season and the season before was miracle work and with his hands tied behind his back too. The guys getting lots of stick off a big section now but he’s lost a team of players for every year he’s been in charge. I’d ask these ‘fans’ who would come in tomorrow and do a better job? Who would want to, more to the point? And what about the injuries, are we forgetting those?? I can’t remember a time we’ve been so badly affected! How many games have Fozzie and Parkin actually played TOGETHER? We’re talking a very small amount. We’re still playing some good football but because we’re not scoring everyone keeps forgetting it. Long ball rubbish they’re saying; what games have they been watching? The clubs problems lie in money's fastly increasing link with success in football and I’d even suggest that success without money won’t happen in today’s game anymore. Adminstration is always terrible but the point at which we plunged into it was an unbelievable case of bad timing. The Sheepshanks-Burley era put nails into the coffin for a Bradford City-esq slump and Royle’s now the favourite scapegoat, unfortunately, but hasn’t he been the saviour thus far? There’s plenty of talent at this club still and once the injuries subside a bit we’ll be fine. In two or three years, when the FA youth squad are beginning to mature we’ll be the force we once were in this division. I don’t know why people are getting in such a panic, I really don’t….

Apparently, at the moment, there is no quick-fire cure for ISPD and I’m still finding myself switching from side to side of the argument quicker than the Ipswich treatment room is filling up.

I'll have to live with it for now but the seriousness of the situation at this club at the moment though must not be undermined. I believe we are at a pivotal turning point, from which their might not be a return.

Although the fans opinions are divided, they both want the same thing and it is in that respect that we ‘stand divided’.

The solution is not an easy one but I would suggest that we must get back to doing all the things that this club is renowned for to stop the slide; put the young players in, play to our strengths i.e. keep the ball on the floor and play it, whilst the supporters must start ‘supporting’ and for god’s sake Mr Royle, don’t be scared of playing attacking, entertaining football; it’ll win you games and even the fans!