Project signings are fine as long as they aren't brought in at the expense of first team improvement. Rothwell, Davenport and Chapman are all pretty negligible as far as fees and presumably wages are concerned so fine, low risk, potentially high reward. Brereton is unfortunately not in that category and it's concerning that the lad isn't even getting time in the u23's, let alone out on loan anywhere. What is being achieved by letting him sit on the bench and get 20 minutes here and there?

The only season we've been truly competitive (outside of last season) is Bowyer's first season where we only missed out on the playoffs by a point or two. We basically choked at the end of the season and that was that. We all remember that draw with Yeovil. The next season we were finished by February, and after that things slowly got worse until the inevitable relegation.

A team pushing for playoff contention doesn't get beaten 5-2 by a team below them in the table, then in the very next match limply lose at home to a rival. Where was the reaction to last week's embarrassment? Where's the ambition or the pride? How many of these players were really stung by last week's result? Judging by today's performance very few if any of them.

I dunno, that was the season we finished 9th wasn't it? We underperformed so badly that season that the cup run just seemed to make a mockery of our inconsistent league form and suggested our players weren't giving their all in the lesser matches. This season I feel like we're overachieving given the lack of talent across the squad and the manager's limitations both tactically and in terms of team selection.

The problem with that mindset is that you end up keeping everybody unhappy. No player in decent form wants to lose their place for no good reason, especially to a player who has been in poor form. That's a strange deduction from whoever that commentator was, as "solid" is not a word that comes to mind when it comes to Williams playing left back (or at all, really).

Was Bell injured/unwell? Hard to fathom the reason behind bringing Williams back into the team otherwise. He's consistently proven himself to be one of our worst players over the campaign.

Based on our GD alone we're basically where we should be now. Once Preston overtake us it'll be a case of where we finish in the bottom half. I think our season is more or less over at this point, so hopefully we move onto trying out some more interesting selections and formations.

I would have preferred seeing Bennett in for Evans and Nyambe at RB, but let's see how it goes.

Well, on the plus side it seems to have started early so maybe it'll end early as well?

Gladwin, obviously. He'll come into the side with the swagger of a superstar and show us all what we've been missing out on. Dack won't be able to get his place back, he'll fall down the pecking order and end up sold to Charlton for £200,000 in the 19/20 summer window. Or Gladwin would get injured after five minutes and we'd never see him again. Risk/reward. Could put Rothwell in there instead I suppose.

Agreed. Dack is a very important player for us, but we at least have players who have shown they can come in and do some of what he does, if not at the same level or with the same consistency. We literally have nobody who can do what Graham does for us. As soon as he goes off we seem to fall apart.

I very much fear for us if Graham, Dack, Lenihan and/or Mulgrew are out of action. That is the spine of our team ripped out and the source of most of our goals.

Yep. Badly advised, perhaps, but 100% complicit and happy to take part in a greedy, money-making scheme at the expense of this club and its fans. The fact it came crashing down around them and ended up instead as a massive albatross around their neck is just karma. Unfortunately we have had to suffer through it as well.

It's caught at least one former employee's attention...

It's interesting because whilst Lambert is saying he'll be there for the long term, even if Ipswich go down, his transfer business suggests a desperation to stay up this season and a short term approach which would normally see a manager given the boot if and when it doesn't work out. His words don't match his actions and for that reason it wouldn't surprise me if he walks at the end of the season, probably citing lack of funds or support from the owner.

Any blame towards the fans was misguided, imo. It didn't take a genius to see the writing was on the wall with Kean in charge. No amount of applause or positive chanting was going to make up for the manager's total lack of tactical awareness or the deficit in quality across the team which got worse and worse as Kean's tenure went on. Also worth remembering we had the ultimate insult of Kean being given a new and improved contract in November 2011 despite his horrific performance as manager, something he brazenly lied about literally days before it was announced. The people blaming the supporters for our position tended to be those who had mistakenly backed Kean to be some kind of managerial mastermind, and who had celebrated his appointment alongside the sacking of Allardyce. Much like with Ipswich fans and Mick McCarthy, they were unable to admit to their error and so deflected blame everywhere else.

I honestly don't think it had any effect at all. We were crap under Kean long before things got really bad, we were crap when things were really bad, and we were crap for some time afterwards too. The club had been mismanaged to a point where the players had become unprofessional and disillusioned. Some of our better players (eg. Salgado) were frozen out, whilst butt kissers had preferential treatment. In reality, if the atmosphere at Ewood was the big problem we would have seen an improvement in performances and results on the road. Instead we won 6 at home and only 2 times away, which suggests it wasn't the atmosphere at Ewood that was the problem.

I always find this one especially funny, as some of our best results under Kean (Arsenal and Swansea come to mind) came on big protest days. Meanwhile when the protests were stopped and a truce was called with the club during early-mid December 2011, and fans banded together to support the club and temporarily halt protesting inside the stadium, we got limp performances and defeats against Sunderland, WBA and Bolton - in fact our performance against Bolton was so bad that it nearly incited a riot. One of the darkest days of that time period.

I don't think they'll have much choice. They aren't going to tear up their contracts and no Championship club is going to come near any of those players after this season. L1 teams meanwhile probably couldn't come close to matching whatever wages those four have been put on after making the step up. In theory those four players should be a cornerstone of Ipswich's L1 team next year. Obviously not good enough for the Championship but they've all proven themselves good enough at L1 level and are likely going to be at the club no matter what.

Yeah I'm not sure what he's doing in that regard. When he arrived at Ipswich literally one of the first things he said was that the squad has too many loans and that has to stop. Then he brings in even more. Now granted maybe there is only a budget for loan deals at this point, but even so are the likes of Quaner, Will Keane, Bree or 35 year old James Collins going to be enough to keep them up? IMV not even close, so why not just work with what you've got until the end of the season and then start fresh in L1 with some idea of who is reliable and who isn't? Also interesting that Judge came to Ipswich because he didn't want to play out wide for Brentford - and what happens? - he's now playing out wide for Ipswich instead. Keeps trying to drift inside though which leaves his side of the pitch totally exposed. Bizarre.

In fairness their transfer strategy under Hurst was mainly bringing in the best of League 1 & 2, so in theory they should be somewhat well equipped to deal with League 1. As we saw when we went down, it doesn't take massive amounts of investment to make a team competitive in that league, so even if Evans only earmarks £2-3m for the transfer budget it should still give Ipswich a very competitive team for that division. Us and Wigan ran away with it last season on the back of pretty moderate investment. That said we did also keep our best players in Raya, Nyambe, Mulgrew, Lenihan, Graham, Bennett, etc, all of whom were realistically better than League 1 standard. Ipswich don't have anywhere near the same resources in terms of quality players. The way they're bombing out of the Championship this year is proof that they're well below the required standard and in urgent need of sensible permanent transfers. We only just slipped out of the Championship in comparison.

I think it's fair to say Lambert did not do anything to improve Stoke. He obviously wasn't there very long but his brief stint was certainly a failure. Thus far his time at Ipswich has generally been a failure too. There was a noticeable improvement in performances when he first arrived - similar to when he turned up here - but unlike here he did not get any early wins. Ipswich had two games at the start of his tenure where they should have won but ended up drawing. From that point onwards it seems to have just gotten worse and worse. Ipswich are a bit more competitive now than they were under Hurst (match stats alone show a significant improvement in terms of shots, possession, etc) but ultimately results remain poor and that's all that matters. That said, much like TM, Lambert can turn it around if he sticks with Ipswich and gets them promoted back to the Championship next season. If he walks out again then that might be him done for a while, or at least until his agent sweet talks another cheapskate/naive/idiot chairman into giving him another chance.

Cairney is an excellent player at Championship level - when used in the right position. I'm not convinced he has the ability to step up to the PL though.

You can't blame him for taking the job at Stoke, I bet he couldn't believe he was even offered it. Very strange appointment. Ipswich was a hopeless job but yeah, no improvement results wise. I expected a bit better from him down here. He'll need to get it right next season at Ipswich or that might be it for him at any decent level. Then again, if Coyle can fail repeatedly and keep getting offered positions...

Keeping Villa up over multiple seasons was a success in my book. He did well at Wycombe too. Not sure Wolves can be considered a failure, would say pretty average before he was ousted by the agent takeover. Seems to have lost steam over the past few years though. Made some odd career moves - keeps jumping into impossible jobs. We were a difficult one at the time, Stoke almost unsalvageable and Ipswich needing a miracle to survive. He'll need to get Ipswich back up next season to restore his reputation.