Evening Star - Mellon on Bowditch

the-mole · Post by **the-mole** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 11:15 am

Did anyone read the evening star article by Steve Mellon last night (i think). He talked about the pro's and con's of selling him last night - but I thought he made a valid few points about the club and the academy as a whole.

What is the point of having an academy if it is doing is paying off the debt a little at a time. Without us having the chance of actually seeing these players develop and getting a far better fee in the long run? Who will be next when bowditch is sold? Garven, Price?

People have gone on about what a great job JR has done but what about the academy set-up - this more than anything is making the club more money than anything else. Considering how successful our academy is at producing talent, surely we should be looking at these guys as potentially running THIS CLUB in the future? This part of the club has worked to a tight budget, producing good teams for the past 4+ years. Some of the players we have since sold on and made good money.

The only other club I know like it from our division are crewe. However comparing the size of crewe to Ipswich you might understand why on earth we are not getting the chance to see these young guys develop.

It seems certain that Bowditch will now be leaving, which I think is very sad. I also think the money he will go for will be sad. Ã‚Â£1m is not alot of money to a premiership club, yet we will bite off WHams arm!!

If this club want to continue seeing good season ticket sales I doubt this will be done on the back of clearing out our most saleable. Looks like some sort of gamble will have to be made - however selling our young players for short term methods is a gamble I wouldn't want to risk!!

Mork · Post by **Mork** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 11:49 am

But there is nothing you can do about young players leaving - you can sign them on as long a contract as you want, but the moment they get a name, and draw attention, whilst we're down in the lower divisons, they are gonna fly - hence we are what we are - a selling club - if it wasn't for the Academy, we'd be in an even worse state financially, so I wouldn't complain too much - seems selling the young talent off is what's keeping our heads above water.

That said, the board do a terrible job of getting value for our players - timing and wheeler-dealing should have got a lot more for Ambrose & Bent at the minimum.

hallamblue · Post by **hallamblue** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 12:51 pm

But if the bailiffs come knocking at your door ...and all you have left to ward them off with is "aunties heirlooms" - you sell at whatever price you can get dont you - and that is exactly what ITFC have been doing since the Administration days.

I asked the question two seasons ago ..."what will Town have left to sell, once all the experinced quality players are given away" ? - answer is the Bent's Garvan's, Price's, Supples', Bowditch's of this world - and many more that we the fans will only see play in the first team one season or two - IF we are lucky.

Get used to it !

the-mole · Post by **the-mole** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 3:56 am

hallamblue wrote:But if the bailiffs come knocking at your door ...and all you have left to ward them off with is "aunties heirlooms" - you sell at whatever price you can get dont you - and that is exactly what ITFC have been doing since the Administration days.

I asked the question two seasons ago ..."what will Town have left to sell, once all the experinced quality players are given away" ? - answer is the Bent's Garvan's, Price's, Supples', Bowditch's of this world - and many more that we the fans will only see play in the first team one season or two - IF we are lucky.

Get used to it !

Why should we have to get used to it chap!!!

Football is hardly a cheap game to watch anymore and if we cannot keep hold of our own young guns why the f**k are we having to pay out the money we do. If Ipswich are to survive in the same mould as Crewe then why are we not paying the same price as crewe??

The likes of Sheepshanks and ROyle have spoke about how bright the future is and how big this club is - bollox - if we have no ambition to keep this young talent then we will end up turning into a crewe, a club which hovers between this division and the one below, surviving on the sales of the crown jewels whilst others BENEFIT from the work the academy puts in.

If that is all I have to look forward to by supporting town then I am seriously questioning what the hell the point of it all is Mork!!

AddictGirl · Post by **AddictGirl** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 6:50 am

Realistically Ipswich have to sell some of their younger talent, however they seem to be selling more of the talent rather than keeping it, i'm surprised Westlake hasn't been pinched off you yet. But if you are to have a future (which i'm sure you have) and you don't have money to bring players in and your selling your talent off....what are you left with? I Think JR has done well to bring in the players he has (apart from an obvious few loan signings here and there) with the obvious little amoutn fo money he has been given...or is there something the club isn't telling you.

toby · Post by **toby** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 8:11 am

The crazy thing is that in order to increase the value of some of these youngsters we have to play them in the first team, so why don't we?

Why are we persisting with the failed has-beens and neverweres when we supposedly have loads of great young players?

Garvan, McDonald, Peters, Haynes, etc need to be playing regularly both to improve our current team AND to increase thier value should we need to sell them.

hallamblue · Post by **hallamblue** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 8:50 am

the-mole wrote:
hallamblue wrote:But if the bailiffs come knocking at your door ...and all you have left to ward them off with is "aunties heirlooms" - you sell at whatever price you can get dont you - and that is exactly what ITFC have been doing since the Administration days.

I asked the question two seasons ago ..."what will Town have left to sell, once all the experinced quality players are given away" ? - answer is the Bent's Garvan's, Price's, Supples', Bowditch's of this world - and many more that we the fans will only see play in the first team one season or two - IF we are lucky.

Get used to it !
Why should we have to get used to it chap!!!

Football is hardly a cheap game to watch anymore and if we cannot keep hold of our own young guns why the f**k are we having to pay out the money we do. If Ipswich are to survive in the same mould as Crewe then why are we not paying the same price as crewe??

The likes of Sheepshanks and ROyle have spoke about how bright the future is and how big this club is - bollox - if we have no ambition to keep this young talent then we will end up turning into a crewe, a club which hovers between this division and the one below, surviving on the sales of the crown jewels whilst others BENEFIT from the work the academy puts in.

If that is all I have to look forward to by supporting town then I am seriously questioning what the hell the point of it all is Mork!!

The reason I say "get used to it"....is because simply - it keeps on happening !

and in some ways you almost appear to answer your own initial question here with your reference to Sheepy an Co's repeated comments about "the future is bright being - bollox "- it is spot on ! and the reson it is spot on is because they say one thing but do entirely the opposite.

Even in todays press Joe is now saying ..."if the price is right we have no option"....a bit different from the ."we dont need to sell ...."I want to keep Bowditch", approach only one week ago !

We will sell him Im sure of that - but at what price ?....what price is "the right price" for Town ? Financially Town appear, indeed to have , little option but to take any decent offers for their young talent. The problem is compared to other Clubs, Town repeatedly appear to get short changed when it comes to negotiating a decent deal for the Club's Crown Jewels Which is why I said - get used to it !

I just wish the Board would be more up front with thier fans about the way things really are at ITFC - instead of all this bloody spin we keep getting dished up.