DE.

Yeah I don't think the Norwich connection has ever been much of an issue. I rarely hear it mentioned or referenced. Much like with Coyle the primary concern is that what's happening on the pitch isn't very good.

I already know what the answer would be. "The owners were willing to back us but there wasn't any value in the market and we have to sign the right characters and agents and crazy wages and excuse excuse excuse..."

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/17930673.where-aiming-year--mowbray-outlines-rovers-target/ I guess that didn't work out then.

I have to listen to Ipswich fans gripe every day so I'm unfortunately well versed in their issues. Whenever they've asked me about Lambert I've simply said he wasn't here long enough to form a solid opinion, but overall he talks a lot without producing much. I think last season they were just glad to have anybody other than Paul Hurst, and there's no doubt Lambert is very good at PR spin and getting the fans on his side - especially when he's happy to take veiled digs at previous incumbants in the manager's seat and even the owners. I was kind of stunned Marcus Evans gave him a five year contract when previously Lambert had been low-key blaming Evans for Ipswich being in the position they're in (and passive-aggressively mentioning walking out on them) but it feels like Lambert has a way of talking out of both sides of his mouth and never saying anything specific enough to get him into serious trouble. It's always "read between the lines" type comments which can be dismissed as a misunderstanding if he's put on the spot. He's a sneaky character imo and not a particularly good football manager. He might have been a decade ago but then so were a lot of people. The simple fact is he wouldn't be managing in League 1 if he was as good as he tells everybody he is, so you just have to take much of what he says with a pinch of salt and instead analyse what he's serving up results-wise. Personally if I was an Ipswich fan I'd be unhappy with the way things are going. Being 4th isn't the end of the world but they owe that almost entirely to their early season form which was very good - up until November. Since then they've began falling away and losing ground rapidly. It's kind of the opposite to us where we started the season poorly but improved as time went on. Ipswich are going in the other direction which is obviously not a good thing and should be setting alarm bells ringing.

The reaction to the five year extension was understandably largely negative, as it came at the beginning of January when they were well into the two month winless run. Even Lambert's more vocal fans amongst the Ipswich support are starting to see that he's largely smoke and mirrors. He may get Ipswich up on the basis of squad quality alone, much like Mowbray did with us, but Ipswich have nowhere near the same level of quality we did so I'm not convinced. They don't have a Raya, Lenihan, Mulgrew, Dack, Graham - even a Bennett or Smallwood. Very average team with an average at best manager, but still should be good enough to go up automatically. If they don't then I think they will be down there for a while. For what it's worth I thought Lambert did a decent job during the brief period he was here, but it wasn't really long enough to judge how it would have panned out long term. I don't think he would have relegated us like Coyle did, but I don't think he would have gotten us close to the promised land either. Mostly mid-table finishes watching crap football. So pretty close to what we already have.

Lambert talks a good game at times but there's no way Ipswich should be going two months without a win in League 1, nor should they be conceding 5 goals against Lincoln or 4 at home to Peterborough. They can still go up automatically but they desperately need to find some consistency in the next few months. Apparently Lambert is worse than Mowbray when it comes to unnecessary rotation which is causing a lot of their problems.

Things can always be worse, but it's perfectly understandable why Ipswich fans would be concerned by what they are seeing currently. I don't have much sympathy for them after they hounded McCarthy out, mind. Many of them are getting exactly what they deserve.

Not winning for two months (November 9th - January 11th) will give most fans cause for complaint - particularly when the manager is rewarded with a five year contract during that run, having relegated them the season before with a record that showed no improvement on Paul Hurst. They've also failed to beat anybody in the top eight this season (D6 L4), and have been beaten 5-3 by Lincoln as well as 4-1 at home today by Peterborough, who are local rivals. The performance in the 1-0 loss to Rotherham midweek was terrible as well. A lot of the teams below Ipswich have games in hand, so feasibly they could be out of the playoff positions fairly soon. If I was a Town supporter I'd certainly be worried.

Unfortunately he's also made of glass.

I'd rather we weren't relying on youngsters to make an instant impact, but unfortunately we are where we are. Rothwell has had a number of games this season where he's struggled to have an impact and has much more experience than JRC, so I'd be okay with giving the lad some more time to show what he can do. Chapman seems lost in no man's land at the moment and I get the feeling the manager doesn't rate him, so I'd expect JRC to be ahead of him in the pecking order at present. Of course, we'll most likely see Gallagher shoved ineffectively out wide anyway - most likely with Downing out on the left and Arma playing behind Graham in the middle.

Especially considering the wages he handed out to the likes of Mulgrew and Smallwood in the last round of contract renewals, essentially making them unsellable.

I'd give JRC a few games to try and find his feet, especially at home where we typically get better results. I'm not convinced Chapman is going to be here long-term and like many of our squad he's so injury prone I wouldn't want to rely on him to start regularly. Put him on the bench and bring him on if we need an impact sub.

I don't think we can put Holtby down to bad luck as he's a known crock. Dack and Rothwell however I'd say it's fair to put down to bad luck as neither are known for having long injury spells, particularly Dack who has missed very few games since joining us.

The bottom three have been largely shocking this season tbf, although Wigan are beginning to come back to life with 9 points from their last 15. Stoke and Huddersfield definitely not out of it yet - and neither are Boro.

As with most of our Championship seasons, this type of result is good in isolation but due to poor form during other periods ultimately does nothing other than keep us in mid-table. If that's the goal then it's a solid enough result, if it's not then we've already dropped too many points to accept drawing a match we were winning. I didn't catch the game today so can't pass comment on the performance, but the injury situation is becoming problematic. It's like a re-run of last season where we failed to strengthen in January, started losing players we couldn't afford to lose and our season collapsed. I get the feeling the current gap to the top six will be even wider by the end of the month, unfortunately, and we'll be fondly reminiscing of the days where we were only 2/3/4 points off the top six.

Lambert won't be too popular either tonight after Ipswich were trounced 4-1 at home by Peterborough. They are now down to 4th after going 1st and proceeding to lose two on the spin.

That's why he's here in fairness. Much like Mulgrew in 2016 wouldn't have been anywhere near us otherwise.

This, pretty much. It's obviously possible but would need a significant change in mentality from the players and coaching staff which I just don't think is realistic. I think we'll do our usual of having good and bad periods of form culminating in another mid-table finish.

Smallwood - Sunderland obviously feel they have better options, and if they get promoted will probably be looking for better than Smallwood long-term. Probably figure they can wait until the summer when he's on a free to decide whether he's still worth a punt. Chapman - the fact even League 1 teams only want him as backup is obviously not a good sign. Although if he had confidence in his abilities you'd think he'd take the chance and believe he could force his way into the first team for some regular playing time. Brereton - should have been loaned out, can't understand why he's still here. Mulgrew - if we're planning to use him then fair enough, if not then surely any of his significant wages off the books would have been worthwhile. Can only assume we think we can do a better deal in the summer when he'll be available to play for anyone, but his wages will be a stumbling block no matter what - plus six months older and likely having barely played during that time.

Problem is mate we really needed some signings with Dack, Rothwell and Evans all being out for a while, not to mention the rebuilding job that's unquestionably going to be needed in the summer. I don't really care what other clubs are doing, I just know that we needed reinforcements and for the second January in a row we didn't get it. We're a Lenihan injury away from huge problems at the back alone, never mind how thin on the ground we are across the rest of the pitch. We really have to hope some of the youngsters can step up, as I think we're going to need them now.

All we know for sure is that we're on the threshold, as per the last fans forum. It's obvious Venky's had no grip on the FFP situation a few years ago as they let us walk right into an embargo and then instigated a fire-sale of our squad to get back out, which we're really only just recovering from. My guess is that one of Waggott's tasks is handling FFP regulations in relation to transfers so that Venky's don't have to concern themselves with it. SG being bought for £5m seems to have used up any wiggle room we had in regards to budget/FFP, as since then it's been essentially one in one out with Raya's sale seeming to go mostly towards Tosin's loan fee/wages and Mulgrew's temporary departure allowing Cunningham to come in. No sales or loans out this window evidently means nobody can come in either. I imagine the Atsu nonsense was us trying to do a deal on the super cheap hoping Newcastle were desperate for him to get game time and were prepared to let us pay little to none of his wages to make it happen. Not too dissimilar to the derisory offer we put in for Reed when we tried to bring him back.

Official word from Vince is that there was a difference in opinion in the direction the company should go, but that seems unlikely to me. Not saying it wasn't a problem but there's no way that alone would cause immediate termination. To risk wiping a billion off the company's price just because of a disagreement over direction seems ridiculous to me, even for Vince. Something serious must have gone down - need big Dave on the case pronto to get this investigated.

Considering the manager is their choice and they already watched him throw £7m down the toilet a year and a half ago I'm pretty sure they have to take some of the blame...

Some interesting goings on at WWE right now to say the list. They've fired both the CFO and CRO, who were effectively co-Presidents and the highest ranking people in the company besides Vince himself. Both sacked with immediate effect, no transition period, no gardening leave, just straight up gone. Goes without saying that's highly unusual. Their accounts forecast investors call is on 6th Feb which suggests it's going to be bad news to say the least. https://finance.yahoo.com/amphtml/news/wwe-executive-exits-spook-analysts-143700718.html 1 billion knocked off the company's price in the immediate aftermath of the news breaking. They've got their Saudi deal and the monster TV deals as a financial cushion, but all other metrics are trending negatively and have been for some time. Attendence, gate receipts, merch, ratings, WWE Network subscriber count... pretty much everything is trending downwards and has been for a while. If not for their lucrative TV/Saudi deals this company would be in some major trouble. Meanwhile the XFL starts in a couple of weeks, meaning Vince will be juggling his time between two huge projects... fair to say investors are spooked and rightfully so!