What the future holds for Ipswich Town
LO and behold a rare spare few minutes to keep you informed of the progress of Her Majesty’s Press (Ipswich branch).
The wheels will be turning again this week with trips to Wolverhampton and Reading, which are two of the easier journeys negotiated from Suffolk in the Championship this campaign.
Although circumstances dictate that in print Ipswich Town must still be given a chance to gain promotion in reality the odds are stacked around 50-1.
Norwich City manager Bryan Gunn - a very decent man – has as much chance of leading the Canaries to a respectable position by the end of the campaign.
It will need a purple patch, a 22-point gain from ten games to give a chance of a top six finish. And when you have accrued just 50 points from 36 matches this ain’t likely to happen.
So where does this leave us all?
Jim Magilton: Described by some as ‘dead man walking’ he needs to at least lift his side up to within striking distance of the top six by the beginning of May to have a good chance of leading the Blues next season.
Town’s out of contract players: Tommy Miller and Alex Bruce are good bets to stay but the other 10 whose current deals end on June 30 must be having sleepless nights. In a strange quirk of fate staying down will help – and not hinder – the hopes of most.
Town’s loyal supporters: They won’t really miss out. Okay, okay, Hull City and Stoke City have done better than expected after their rise to the Promised Land last summer, but who wants to be in line to be another Derby County? Much better to be a big fish in a small pond many might say – a division where you can win something and not one where you sole objective is to avoid the bottom three places.
Marcus Evans: He came onboard at Portman Road to get Ipswich Town into the Premier League. As a successful business man he could see that his initial outlay and his taking responsibility of Town’s £40million-odd debt would be small beer to the £60million revenue the club would accrue on just one year in the top flight.
He is wise enough to know that Rome was not built in a day, but he would expect to see promotion in 2009/10 and may well make his summer decisions accordingly.
One thing is for certain – Town have a much better chance of going up with him than without him.
Having never witnessed a Town win at Molineux I am not optimistic about a result at Wolves, and Reading is another ground where Ipswich do not have a good record.
But don’t rule out anything in this division.
And two defeats – or even two draws – this week, and the spotlight turns to 2009/10.