The first two weeks of a season often lends to large-scale panic and a swarth of knee-jerk reactions. Whilst I’m remiss to comment on Town’s start to the season, (refer to the latest edition of ‘Pitch Inspection’ for my thoughts), I do want to talk about a compelling theory that has arisen due to Town’s spluttering start to the new campaign… ‘The Ipswich Curse’.
So, can a club truly be cursed? Well, no, because in this non-Tolkein world we inhabit the closest thing to a curse is a jury summons, but there can spells of poor fortune that can be closely attributed to total mis-management. Whilst this new regime are doing everything in their power to reverse close to 15 years of neglect, those effects simply won’t rub off in five minutes. A total change of personnel, culture, and overall identity will take time to develop, but in order to understand why a 2-1 defeat to Cheltenham is met with large-scale apathy, we first have to look at how we all got so low.
‘The Ipswich Curse’ doesn’t have a definitive inception, instead, there are many stepping stones that indicate the curse’s predominant existence. Whether it’s Roy Keane, Paul Hurst, or even Paul Cook, every moment of potential excitement is greeted with a large thud as we crash back down to reality. Michael Chopra was a prolific striker before he moved to Ipswich, the play-off semi-final at Carrow Road may have ended in victorious fashion if Christophe Berra hadn’t decided to become a goalkeeper, and who remembers that game against Reading where we inexplicably lost 3-2, conceding two goals in the 90th minute for good measure.
Brenner Wooley defined Town as ‘Britain’s most depressing football club’ and it’s hard to argue the contrary. Whilst we are fortunate that our club remains afloat, just look at Bury for a more depressing example, but what is existence if you’re just hanging in some perpetual state of apathy? We’ve been so used to misfortune that we’ve resorted to an irrational way of defining it. ‘The Ipswich Curse’ is as real as the Earth is flat, but it exists in our minds because we simply lack the ability to understand why these moments of madness keep happening to us! How can it be that local hero Macauley Bonne misses a goal that an armchair could have buried? How can it be that our hotshot goalkeeper has only made one save? How can it be that our summer of excitement has been met with immediate deflation?
Ipswich Town Football Club hasn’t achieved any semblance of success for twenty years. Since the play-off victory against Barnsley in 2000 – barring brief moments of joy against Arsenal and Norwich – we’ve experienced nothing but regression. The limp relegation under Paul Lambert was a total farce, and not only is it a crime that excuses were made for the Scot, but it has proven to be the catalyst for the lowest point in Town’s existence.
I’m told – by Google – that a good way to break a curse is to offer lemon balm as forgiveness. Therefore, in order to change our fortunes, we just need Kyle Edwards to pop to the shops and deliver said balm, but to whom? Do we deliver it to all the referees that made costly mistakes last season? Do we deliver it to Luciano Civelli, a man who felt the full weight of the curse after just 17 appearances? Or do we deliver it to every player that joined the club and let their standards drop?
What I admire about this new group of players – something I truly hope I’m not wrong about – is that they seem a different breed to past acquisitions. Ipswich has been a far too forgiving place for the past ten years (+), hence why I cared very little for the notion that we have somehow let down Michael Jacobs as a human. Some hang on to the family culture and sensitive actions that are deployed, but where has that taken us? Whilst we should never shun the values that make our club so great, maybe this ‘curse’ is intrinsically linked to our passive response to every failure we’ve experienced.
For the past two years, there has been an overwhelming sense of dread that has lingered over the club. I woke up on the morning of the Cheltenham game with no doubt in my mind that we would win, only to find myself with my hands firmly over my face at 21:45. The worst part about it wasn’t the fact we’d lost, it was the fact that as soon as Cheltenham equalised, I expected no less than defeat.
Whilst fans can have very little impact in a broad sense, maybe we all need to change that mindset. The amount of prophetical “can’t wait for Burton to score” Tweets I saw on Saturday was almost funny, but it’s become a bemusing truth that we can’t seem to shake. The players on the pitch will have the final say on whether this attitude changes, but maybe we all have a duty to drop the past and see this new era as a totally fresh start.
Of course, it’s incredibly difficult not to refer to past misfortunes and feel bitter about it all – just look at this column for proof of that – but the future of this club hopefully lies in a much better place. Whilst fine margins have certainly been a major factor in Town’s unfortunate start, I truly believe we are experiencing the tail-end of our bad luck.
Football has a nasty way of playing with our emotions, and the overwhelming sense of apathy is even more understandable when you consider the heights of optimism in the summer. Whilst it may be challenging, keep the faith in this new regime. Our club is no longer neglected, fans are no longer seen as commodities, and there are no more bad eggs stinking up the training ground (just look at Flynn Downes’ inexplicable comments recently for proof that poor mindsets were still festering at the start of this campaign).
‘The Ipswich Curse’ is a mindset that has remained for far too long. I have full faith that this new regime will do away with the hoodoo and create a team that we can be proud of, and if they don’t, we move on, because that’s football… and despite the pain it may cause us on a weekly basis, we know no other way.
Thank you for taking the time to read my column. If you enjoyed, feel free to share it around. I’ll see you soon!
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