League One

So, it’s happened.

Relegation.

Despite coming to terms with the inevitable months ago, it still feels strange that our great club has fallen so far. The Keane calamity, the Jewell embarrassment, the McCarthy fallout, the Hurst disaster and now this, Lambert’s nightmare. It’s not been easy supporting this club for the past few years. While Norwich sit pretty and look as if they’re heading for the top-flight, we’re sinking lower than ever before.

We can point the fingers, but what’s the point? Marcus Evans won’t shift from his throne, despite that being the next natural step for the club. Hurst won’t come back and apologise for all the wrongs he committed. It’s over. The past is the past, a past that has plagued the club. A past that must be forgotten.

While the pain of relegation and the fear of the unknown clouds our once hopeful minds, let’s look at what the future could hold for our beloved club.

Hope

There is always a bright side. Unlike a Bolton or a Coventry, we aren’t at risk of losing our club. We have to hopeful.

There’s youth coming through this club, youth that isn’t boasted by many others in League One. The promise of players like Andre Dozzell, Flynn Downes, Jack Lankester, Luke Woolfenden, Tristan Nydam all coming through should be the focus of not only the hurting fans, but also the club. It’s down to Lambert, he must find a balance; utilising the impressive youth set-up and mixing it with players who already have the pedigree. 2 or 3 years slumping in the third tier could lead to another dramatic decline.

Our under-23’s have just finished top, our under-18’s have all but won their league, the future of the club appears bright. Hopefully, with more nurturing, each of those players can come big for the club and help revive this sleeping giant.

Emphasis on youth is always dangerous, but with an owner who cares more about covering his own back, rather than investing in the squad, it’s our only choice. Youngsters with high potential don’t just have the capability to take the club back to the Championship, they also have money signs written all over them. Again, with the correct emphasis put on harnessing the potential of the youngsters, the club could find themselves with a wealth of riches hidden within their youth teams.

It’s not all about selling. Selling at the right time, for the right price, is a given when you aren’t a top side. However, we must ensure we squeeze every inch of quality out of each young player, as well as negotiating to the last penny to ensure the best deal. The key is re-investing in the right areas, something Evans and McCarthy never understood. Too many times we sold for a high price and bought very little in terms of replacement. Free transfers and loans won’t excite the fans as replacements for their favourite academy products. We MUST learn from the past, and progress because of it.

Despite the pain we all feel now, it’s important to remember that there’s an exciting crop of talent coming through the ranks. Provided they can perform to a level their potential dictates, we could have a really exciting season full of ‘one of our own’ chants.

A New Kind Of Fight

For the past few seasons, we have been eager to see the club change. Stagnant regimes under men who didn’t care for the club had grown tiresome. But it didn’t work. The fight we all wanted whittled away and has left us here.

Now, as Town’s first season in League One for over 60 years has been confirmed, we must band together for a new kind of fight; the fight to escape a dangerous slope. The club simply can’t afford a bad season and that’s pretty scary. With Lambert not convincing everyone and Marcus Evans hell-bent on spending as little money possible, the club is at a huge risk.

At the end of the day, the fate of the club will be sealed when ticket prices are released. If Evans fails to make significant cuts to the ticket prices, Portman Road will have new record-low crowds. We’ve seen this season just how important the fans are. Hurst talked it up, Lambert talks it up and the players clearly appreciate it. Opposition fans are dumbfounded by our ambition; an ambition that must remain in-tact.

All we can do is look to our owner for answers. Lack of investment and care about the club both on the pitch and off it have led us here, and Evans is the sole man responsible for this. It’s he who must show his hand and let us know where we go from here; with his “5 point plan” turning out to be nothing more than a ploy to keep fans quiet. Surrounding himself with yes men won’t work for much longer. Hurst has already made his feelings known about the Town owner and, if Lambert isn’t given the significant backing he arguably deserves, then things could turn sour.

That’s Life…

On this roller-coaster experience of being a football fan, you learn many things. One is, it hurts. It hurts when you concede in the dying embers of a match, it hurts when you can’t beat your local rivals and it hurts when the club you love slumps so low.

However, we must look to the future with hopeful eyes and believe that it can come good again. Southampton, Sheffield United and Norwich (but let’s not mention them) have all been revitalised by relegation. Even this season, it has brought Sunderland fans together again, at a time when they thought there was no way of escaping their demise.

Maybe, just maybe, it’s what the club needs. A chance for something new. A chance for the young players to bring us back. The chance for this once-great club to return to the place it deserves to be, The Premier League.

Our fans have followed high and low in a season where many other fan-bases would have turned their backs. It’s a sad day, but it won’t last forever. Hopefully, when all this is a distant memory, we can look back and say that this was a day that defined our club, for the better

We are Ipswich Town. Wherever we may be, whatever league we’re in, that much will never change.