Do you think the interviewer was good? I thought he lacked knowledge and once he had asked a question, he moved on and never probed further for clarity. The crap about having a tight squad is a necessity because the budget isn't competitive enough to have an average sized squad.

The guy interviewing him is clearly an idiot, maybe Broughton has purposely chosen someone to do the interview that lacks the knowledge and the ability to press and probe to give him an easy time. He repeatedly said that he "recommends" to do this and that. Seems like he is not being listened to. He recommends that we spend money on fees and wages from the Wharton money, as well as some into infrastructure and for a rainy day. Not that any of that WILL happen. We know it won't. He implies that the board knows what he thinks should be done post McGuire debacle, and that the recruitment team can't do all the work and then be let down. Clear he wants someone to be sacked, perhaps further shedding light that our staff are not all working from the same hymn sheet yet the owners clearly aren't bothered enough to do anything about it. The board of directors are between Broughton and the owners. He clearly doesn't hold much power. Broughton has been told that the owners issues wont impact the summer. Yeah right. He also said that the owners remain 100% committed so that alone renders the rest of the interview to be meaningless.

Equally, he clearly isn't on gardening leave as @Mercer cryptically insinuated before ignoring any questions to clarify that suggestion.

Learnt his lessons based on that satisfying loss.

Obviously dont want him injured but wouldnt be much of a loss.

Is he a generational talent? Bit early to be saying stuff like that. Im sure Henderson will be ahead of him anyway.

I wonder how he is seen by the Swedish public. I think he is their first foreign manager and being a Dane might not sit well, but then again he did manage Malmo.

My point was that we were in far healthier positions that we could have pushed on from at the two times mentioned compared to having come up with a squad in League 1 that was too good for that level but many of whom were not playere that you could build a promotion push around. But as ever, the way we are run by the owners prevents us from pushing on.

What Ipswich have done since promotion is pretty remarkable to be fair, our League 1 season followed a season of typical Venkys budget slashing and whilst some of the players were a class above in League 1, they were miles off being top 6 players in the Championship. Finishing 15th and then 11th wasn't a failure considering we had the likes of Bennett, Evans, Smallwood, an aging Graham, Mulgrew, Williams etc that needed phasing out and it was just before we had an influx of good young players coming through. The two points of the last decade or so in which we should have pushed on were with the side under Bowyer, we had a really core but needed a proper manager and more quality on top, instead we went down the selling everyone off and keeping Bowyer for too long route. We also should have pushed on after Mowbray had laid good foundations establishing the likes of Travis, Buckley, Wharton, Lenihan and a few of his own signings, before Tomasson then came to take that on further. In those 2 seasons where we just fell short, we needed to sell the players running down their deals and reinvest and create a deeper and better squad. Instead Venkys went down the route of not spending when in good positions, ensuring that we rejected any opportunity to get some money in to reinvest and threw in getting themselves into a legal issue causing total turmoil and a slide down the table. Thats the Venkys project, some good work is done in spite of them and then they ensure that it all collapses and sets us back years before it can start to happen again, hence why a top 6 finish is above our ceiling.

Back to focusing upon the deckchairs on the Venkys titanic and only blaming them for not sacking people. The pertintent issue is that for a number of years they havent been investing in the team, culminating in uncompetitive cutbacks due to financial irregularities. Who would benefit mostly from us not spending the owners money? Probably the owners. Doesnt mean that others dont warrant criticism and they get it too. Incompetence should have been rewarded with a P45. But if there is purposeful sabotage of deals, it wouldnt make any sense for it to be anyone but the owners to save money. We shouldnt be run either where we need to get deals authorised by owners who have history not getting back promptly when we dont have much time left.

Come on. Hes in a job of a better prestige and pay packet than he likely will ever get again. You would throw that away because you arent happy that other staff members were trying to organise transfers?

The owners shouldnt be refusing to authorise deals full stop, thats the issue. And they shouldnt be refusing to spend a money when a club record fee comes in. Having all of these incompetent staff underneath only compounds our issues. Had we signed him on a loan with an option we wouldnt have utilised, that would have been the best possible solution under terrible conditions. As it was, we fucked up even that.

Butterfly effect, but totally unfair to pin that on Sven. Criticise the selection issues but what unfolded after is a seperate issue to that.

Why would he leave? He is hardly going to walk into a similar job at a similar or bigger club, and why would he give up a job which benefits him and his family over a transfer issue.

Did we used to struggle against teams like North Macedonia? Even during the spell between the "golden generation" under Sven, aside from McLaren straight after, we used to always stroll to qualification and between that side and the current side, the quality of our squad was definitely reduced. The Iceland defeat was a shambles well below any sort of standard a manager should be aiming for but since Southgate has taken over, he has been fortunate in the quality of players at his disposal has massively increased year on year. The squad we had in 2018 was nothing special and a semi final was well above expectations albeit he was fortunate with the run with Colombia (via penalties) and Sweden being very favourable draws, before losing to a Croatia side who were obviously good but not an elite team. In the 2 tournaments since, the players he has had made us one of the favourites. You go back to Sven, he undoubtedly did not get the best from that set of players but he came unstuck to Portgual twice on penalties and to Brazil in the quarter finals. To beat the teams Southgate has in knockout games still warrants respect but none of those games would have been with us as anything but favourites, maybe the Germany game was the closest to an exception. He can be proud of his record but equally there is more than enough to suggest that he could waste a very good squad of players.

It is difficult to judge an international manager in the same way as a club one because a league is obviously not subject to the draws you get. Southgate has been fortunate in his major tournaments to have draws that have been incredibly favourable. His knockout wins have come against Colombia, Sweden, Germany, Ukraine, Denmark and Senegal. Good teams but not the very top teams, ones you would expect us to beat, Germany is the stand out one and even they were very much not the Germany side of old.

Im not sure you are particularly positive yourself hence celebrating draws at home v fellow strugglers!

That statement isn't worth the time it took to be cobbled together. To say we have always been supported by the owners in any way is laughable.

If we would lose 99 times out of 100 to any teams in the league in your opinion, whats the difference to being in the Prem, bar that we are getting beat by average players instead of world class? Surely you would prefer us to get relegated so we wont be playing against anyone who we wont be competitive with? I get why anyone would be pessimistic about our prospects, we havent won a game yet under Eustace, our record over the last few months is embarassing. So talk of people needing to lose a defeatist mentality and believe in them blindly is naive in the extreme. But I cannot fathom why anyonrle would say they would be happy to lose as long as we dont get tonked. Nor can I understand your reluctance for us to be a Premier League team.

Its a very specific theory you have conjured up. More likely, there isnt (even prior to restrictions) an open chequebook to spend as much as is possible.

Havent you always been disturbed by a potential season in the Prem due to a potential lack of competitiveness? Yet in the Championship you are happy to lose to Southampton and Ipswich at home (2 of only 8 games left and of only 4 at home) as long as we dont get hammered.

Them being committed to investing the maximum they can under FFP is an absolute myth. Example, their repeated refusal to relay the pitch fully and to adequately maintain the ground, neither of which falls under FFP.

Tomasson now being criticised for poor results against lower teams? The king is dead, long live the king.

Those seasons sometimes included teams with points deductions.

They do deserve and they do get plenty of criticism. But they are not THE problem nor are any of the incompetent staff hired in the last 13 years. Its bizarre that anyone would continiously want to specifically focus away from the owners.