Yes you're right, they did make one loan signing, so more achieved than us!

https://www.eadt.co.uk/sport/o-neill-on-ipswich-s-quiet-january-transfer-window-1-6502497 There's quite an extensive interview here from their general manager of football operations which goes into detail, but basically very similar excuses to the ones we got from Mowbray and Waggott this time around. Domino effect, valuations not being right, etc.

I think you'd surely be concerned though. They didn't sign anyone during this transfer window either. Even we made a few signings in January during our L1 campaign. Downing and Armstrong, the latter of whom had a significant impact on the second half of our campaign.

5 years actually! You mentioned before that you don't see why Ipswich fans are being negative, but isn't it fair to be negative when they've dropped into 7th and only won 3 out of their last 19 games?

It always confuses me when the lineup is posted with Armstrong and Gallagher in the team and people are saying we must be playing 4-4-2. It's like, come on guys, you know how Tony's mind works by now. If Gallagher and Armstrong are in the team you can practically guarantee SG will be out wide right. Granted today the inclusion of JRC probably made the 4-4-2 assumption seem more feasible, but never doubt Tony's ability to play people completely out of position.

Dynamite was great again this week. They've been much more consistent since the turn of the new year - although apparently that was when Tony Khan began taking more control of creative, so that might be why. I get the feeling he saw the backlash to the horrible Dark Order main event segment before Christmas and realised the inmates couldn't always be in charge of the asylum.

I wouldn't even be happy with Samuel as 4th choice backup in all honesty as I just don't think he's good enough and I'd want even 4th choice to be able to have some kind of impact. With that said I agree that Brereton isn't any better which doesn't help, but as you say at least Brereton theoretically has room to grow. Samuel is basically at his "peak" now. Graham leaving will mean we only really have Armstrong as a decent option up front, which is a bit of a scary thought. Gallagher is really struggling although I have some sympathy for him being repeatedly played out of position. The rest of our so-called strikers are rubbish and usually deployed on the wings anyway. Just more work that needs to be done in what is becoming an increasingly daunting summer transfer window.

Has Dom even played any games for us as a striker? I swear I can only remember him ever playing right wing. Problem is even as backup striker he'd be below Armstrong, Gallagher and Graham in the pecking order. Probably Brereton too, so do we need a 5th choice backup striker who is 26 years old in two months?

I'm not even sure why Samuel is still here. Massively below the standard required and will never be a first team regular unless we get relegated again. Can only assume there's been no interest in his services due to the wage we're paying him, whatever that is.

Is there a reason these posts are in the Lewis Holtby thread rather than the match thread ??

Finishing in the top half at this point would be a serious achievement. I'm not even sure we'll better last season's points total with the current available players.

How is giving him 2 minutes at the end of games better than getting the lad loaned out to play some regular football for six months? I just can't understand the club's mentality on this one.

I think Armstrong will score a few more before the season is out, and we'll get the odd goal from Travis, Graham (if Tony plans to unfreeze him at any point) Downing, Lenihan/Tosin and possibly even Gallagher (£5m... what a waste), but agree that it's looking bleak overall.

Indeed, they are now down to 7th after a third defeat on the spin which continues their appalling record against the top 8 in the division. According to the Town forum they only have 21 points from their last 19 games which is obviously not promotion form. 3 wins in 19 as well which is shocking. @chaddyrovers fair to say Ipswich fans should be a little bit concerned by this? Meanwhile Lambo not the most popular man around these parts right now...

I think we'll always sell around 8000 no matter what. These are the hardcore supporters and will go to matches irrespective of manager, performances, owners or anything else. We will struggle to get any more than that as long as we're floundering in mid-table with no obvious ambition being shown in the transfer windows though. Big summer coming up.

Tbf we were never in the top six once even when these players were available so I think that would be a weak argument.

He's been here before... https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2010/mar/25/tony-mowbray-celtic-manager-sacking

The kind of performance I feared with all of our creative outlets injured. Going to be a long end to the season I think. If Arma's purple patch is over we're going to struggle to score more than one a game which is going to put a heavy burden on our defence.

Probably the best team we could have put out all things considered.

I watched Smackdown for the first time in at least 3 or 4 weeks this week and it feels like I barely missed anything. Miz and Morrison are still doing their nostalgic tour shit and nobody cares. New Day are still antagonising them and the Usos are still around. Also Ziggler and Roode are still a team. OK. Corbin and Reigns are still involved in this never-ending feud - surely the longest feud in history that absolutely nobody gives a shit about? Elias is still doing nothing of importance, Zayn is still managing and Cesaro is still jobbing. Goldberg is advertised to appear and then it's by satellite. Just fucking lol. Way to troll your audience. The only reason I even decided to check out SD this week was because Goldberg was advertised. Fiend Vs Goldberg in Saudi does intrigue me purely on the basis of how they'll give Wyatt the win without making Goldberg look like a chode. Bryan apparently hasn't been around since losing to the Fiend so I literally haven't missed anything there. For some reason he has a match with Heath Slater and that's it, so, nothing creatively for him then? So apparently Strowman beat Nakamura for the IC title, but it's hard to care as I barely remember anything Nakamura did as IC champion anyway. Zayn is still managing him as well, for reasons. Isn't Zayn a pretty good wrestler? Why in the world has he been converted to a permanent manager? Bizarre. The Mandy Rose/Otis thing is still going on, a storyline which basically consists of "ha ha look at this fat guy dating a hot blonde". Will assumedly end with Mandy turning on Otis, quelle surprise. Sheamus/Apollo Crews... who cares. He's still feuding with Shorty G, which is just the shittiest name and gimmick ever. Why bother having Sheamus come back for shit like this? Put him and Cesaro back together already. The women's four way main event was okay, and they worked hard, but Naomi is the only one of the four who is a great wrestler. Bliss is a great character, whilst Carmella and Dana Brooke have been lost in the shuffle since 2016. I won't be watching Smackdown next week.

We had better hope Arma's purple patch continues as there aren't many goals in the team otherwise. Remove Arma from the equation and in terms of league goals you have Travis (2), Downing (2), Lenihan (2), Gallagher (3), Tosin (1), Del (3), Johnson (2), Graham (3), Buckley (1) ... of non-injured personnel Derrick Williams is our joint-second top league scorer and he isn't even a first teamer.

In order to capitalise on the league being wide open we need to gain a level of consistency, which is going to be tough considering our injury list.

Raw has been solid this year so far. In the past it was pretty much a given that the quality of the show would go up between January-April due to the Rumble/Wrestlemania, but it hasn't really been the case in the past few years as WWE has been on auto-pilot. I think the emergence of AEW and declining metrics across the board (TV deals aside) has given WWE a bit of a kick in the arse, and obviously Heyman having significant creative influence on Raw has been a big plus. A shame Heyman can't write Smackdown as well.

Yeah, I think it was clear that there was something stopping Venky's from outright removing Kean from his post. Whether that was contractual or something more sinister we'll probably never know, but the fact they had to bring in Shebby to basically make Kean uncomfortable to the point where he'd rather walk away than continue speaks volumes. I doubt the owners cared much about the legal payoff as long as Kean eventually left. As for Kean himself, he no doubt timed it perfectly to ensure he got as much possible out of the club after he left. The fact he has never had another job in the UK or indeed any remotely decent league since then says a lot. He was a very highly regarded coach before slithering into the manager's seat here so his apparent exile from any reputable footballing league or club is evidence in of itself that something very shady was going on here imo.

I don't know huge amounts about his time at Celtic either but it's generally accepted that it was a bit of a disaster. His career as a manager had been on an upward trajectory up until that point, but it was then that things began going downward for him and obviously the lowest point was being at Coventry. He was fortunate to get the Rovers job but to be fair he's done better than I would have expected overall. I don't think he's done a great job but he hasn't done a bad one either. Just somewhere in the middle, fairly similar to Bowyer. Maybe that's the limit as long as Venky's own the club. As far as his stint at WBA goes I can't place too much stock in it due to it being so long ago - things have changed a lot since then. Even Owen Coyle was able to get a club promoted during that period so I don't think the difficulty was as high as it is at present. They did drop straight back down but again I wouldn't necessarily judge him on that - even the likes of McCarthy and Warnock have struggled to keep teams in the PL and I think most of us would have been delighted if either had turned up here in the past few years. Overall I think Tony has the right general vision and ideas for the club, but not necessarily the abilities to execute those ideas properly. Imo he needs help, particularly in the recruitment department, and until he gets that I doubt we'll get very far.