The destructive reign of Roy Keane and the hopelessness of Paul Jewell. Season after season of tedium and mid-table finishes, usually safe from relegation from relatively early in the season but only dreaming of the play-off places, and slowly slipping towards to the relegation zone with each passing season. Then Mick McCarthy took over. What followed has been incredible; that, all Ipswich fans will agree.
When McCarthy took over in November 2012, Ipswich were bottom of the league and struggling to pick up points with a far from impressive squad, and struggling with finances. Following his appointment, Mick McCarthy has transformed Ipswich town, rising up the league and finishing in a play-off position last season, all on a paper-thin budget. Having previously been champions with Sunderland and Wolves in the Championship, Mick’s success with Ipswich has, in the main, been due to his knowledge of the Championship and the transfer market.
Ipswich fans had become much too familiar with the numerous failings of the transfers during the reigns of previous managers. Keane was a criminal of this, most noticeably and, for Ipswich fans, still nightmare-inducing, was the signing of striker Tamás Priskin for £1.7 million, the same week as selling a young, promising, and clearly talented Jordan Rhodes for approximately £150,000. Jewell then continued with another woeful transfer policy, determined to sign veterans of the game; Jimmy Bullard, Lee Bowyer, Ívar Ingimarsson, Ibrahima Sonko, Nathan Ellington and Nigel Reo-Coker joined the Tractor Boys and all of whom, unsurprisingly, failed to deliver.
The squad was in a shambolic state, the fans bored and the transfer market a frustration.
Within his first summer transfer market, however, Mick McCarthy signed for Ipswich, Christophe Berra, Cole Skuse, and extended the stays of Daryl Murphy, David McGoldrick, and Jay Tabb at Portman Road beyond their loan spells at the club, the latter two of which he brought to the club. All signed as free transfers, they were to become regular starters in the squad that gained the play-off place. In his first summer at the club, McCarthy had signed what was to become the core of the current Ipswich team, and all without paying a transfer fee.
He has also entrusted youth with positions in the squad. Teddy Bishop, Matthew Clarke and Tyrone Mings, who has recently joined Bournemouth in the Premier League, were all given opportunities to be involved in the match-day squad, with Mings and Bishop becoming essential members to the starting line-up, allowing them to develop and are becoming stars in their own right thanks to McCarthy’s trust and game time experience. This has only furthered the quality and depth of the squad.
However, not only had McCarthy improved the first team and the depth of the squad, but managed to transform the changing room and create an environment and spirit in which all players have managed to thrive and perform to their fullest. McCarthy has signed players that work for the team, not the individual; a key philosophy of the squad. This also required removing players who were destructive to this team spirit, most obviously releasing Paul Taylor and Michael Chopra; necessary sacrifices for the benefit of the club. Prior to McCarthy’s leadership, Daryl Murphy had never been a prolific goal-scorer, David McGoldrick had earned the unfortunate nickname McGoalDrought, and Christophe Berra was seen as a liability and took a good deal of the blame for Wolves’ relegation. But between McCarthy’s coaching, ability to utilise a footballer’s abilities, knowledge of Championship football and the spirit of the squad he has built, Murphy has become top goal-scorer of the Championship, McGoldrick has proved his nickname to be wrongly assigned, and Berra has become one of the most solid central defenders in the league. The signings and atmosphere they have created have improved the squad both as individuals and as a unit, meaning for better performances and results.
This has led to an atmosphere of support and optimism around Portman Road, rarely seen at Ipswich since the days of Joe Royal. Fans have been returning and attendances, which had been dropping in previous years, increasing as a result of the improved performances and the ambition of promotion becoming a realistic possibility with the club fighting for points at the right end of the table. McCarthy and the squad he leads have introduced a sense of real belief and excitement in the stands of Portman Road.
Already in this transfer market, Mick McCarthy has strengthened the squad, introducing Josh Yorwerth, a young central defender signed for free from Cardiff, Ryan Fraser and Brett Pitman, the former on a season long loan, the latter permanently, and both very good Championship players, have both signed from Bournemouth as part of the Mings transfer, and Maitland-Niles, a promising winger on a season-long loan from Arsenal. Definitely a sign of ambition and the club’s aim of promotion, rather than one of stagnation and remaining in the Championship, as was the case for Keane and Jewell. Although it is too early to judge their position in the squad and how they will perform for the team, based on McCarthy’s transfer history for Ipswich, it is unlikely that they will become flops at Portman Road, but instead will become valuable members of the squad as McCarthy continues to improve the club, and aim for promotion.
