The forthcoming season might just be the last chance saloon for some of our current players. Whilst others might make the step up to become important first team players. In the third part of our season review, we look at the chances of those on the edges of the first team squad and what we can expect from them next season.
There has been some disquiet regarding Jim Magiltons use of the clubs young players for some time, but it seems that the clubs new transfer budget holds some fear that this may be exacerbated.
The fringes of the first team are, in the main, taken up by young players on either side of the development curve. The clubs bouyancy towards the 2005 Youth Cup winning team has been extinguished some time back, as only Owen Garvan and Danny Haynes have managed to make a real impression on the first team.
Billy Clarke and Shane Supple seem to have experienced parallel careers at Ipswich, as the initial excitement about their potential threatened to be realised in the first team, only to quickly find themselves usurped by more experienced players. Both players appear to be in something of a first team no-mans land- having played for long periods in the past, only to be deemed "not ready" and sent away to the relative anonymity of Falkirk. Whilst both are young, it does seem as if the club feel they have given them a good opportunity in the first team, found them to be a little short, but decided to keep them around just in case there is some late development.
Clarke appears to be woefully lacking in confidence, whilst Supple, as a reserve goalkeeper, simply cannot get a game. There is always hope that their situations might improve after a loan spell- Danny Haynes at Millwall being one such example- but it seems inevitable they are enduring a long wait before the trapdoor opens. Clarkes subsequent transfer-listing suggests he may have a shorter wait than Supple.
Dean Bowditch knows how they feel. That trapdoor has been creaking for several years now, yet Dean somehow manages to keep himself from falling through. Whilst his contract is up at the club, it seems the club have faith enough to offer him a new deal. It seems unlikely that Bowditch will deliver on his early promise, yet the very fact that the club are still willing to keep the player on after all this time, suggests his talent is just too much to risk losing just yet. That alone probably gives him a better chance than either Supple or Clarke.
Liam Trotter and Jordan Rhodes were the two "breakout" players for season 07/08. Trotters consistency in the reserves finally paid off, with a first team opportunity which he took with much greater composure than many of the players who were elevated to the first team more quickly. With the left-midfield role a problem (one which Clarke was also given the opportunity to fill), he took to the position well and gave himself a genuine chance. However, the woeful decision to send him off against Portsmouth may have done more damage to the player in the long run than it did to the team at the time. A three game suspensions opened the door for alternatives, and it just happened to coincide with the January transfer window. By the time Trotter was able to return, Alan Quinn had arrived and the opportunity was lost. It remains to be seen if Trotter manages to break through again, with the midfield a much-strengthened area of the squad. However, you would not bet against him doing so- he certainly looks to posess the ability which will get him further opportunities.
Jordan Rhodes took a more dramatic route to the first team. A phenomenal record with the reserve team made him almost impossible to ignore. For a club with no instinctive goalscorer and a striking crisis in late April, he was the perfect match. A goal against Cardiff, demonstrating all of those attributes which, as is often said, you just cant teach, earmarks Rhodes as someone who can bring something to the side that we might not be able to buy. The only question that really remains is how much time he needs to fully develop in the first team- the worry is that, with money to spend and forwards likely to be bought, his development becomes stunted by more senior players ahead of him. Yet, unlike any of the other young players on our books, the fact he posesses an inate ability that even those senior players may not be able to provide, suggests he will get plenty of opportunities from the bench at the least. Particularly when we are chasing goals.
One young player who isnt precisely an Ipswich youth product, but who nonetheless also needs to get his career back on track is Jaime Peters. His career has been distinctly up and down since signing for the club. After a great deal of expectation, he failed to deliver in his first season. Just as it looked like his second season would follow the same path, he managed to force his way into the first team and hold down a spot at right wing for the second half of the season. And that, so far, is the summary of his Ipswich career, for it has gone backwards during 07/08. A combination of a drop in performance level by the player, allied to Jon Walters effectively ruling out any other players aspirations towards the right-midfield position, have seen him move to the periphary of the squad.
Yet, there is still expectation- A very promising spell on loan at Yeovil has seen a lift in his performances, albeit as yet not in an Ipswich shirt. Where other players in a similar position have been transfer listed, Peters has not. Indeed, the club have even seen fit to turn down approaches from Yeovil to take the player on permanently. However, it seems hard to see how he will possibly unseat Jon Walters, with David Norris also able to play at right midfield. Peters does offer an alternative when on form; pace and trickery which is not common-place in the squad, but it seems the very best he is going to get out of his Ipswich career is as a squad player performing cameo roles in specific circumstances. In the long run, its unlikely the player, or the club for that matter, will be satisfied with that.
Then there is the oldest youth product on the clubs books- Richard Naylor. It was something of a strange season for Naylor, once again truncated by injury, a phrase which seems likely to become his Ipswich Town epitath.
After spending months on the sidelines regaining his fitness, it seemed as if he was quite some way adrift of the first team. Yet, when he eventually returned to the first team at Crystal Palace, he put in a performance to suggest that all is not lost. For a short period, he held his place in the team on merit, before being unseated and succumbing to injury once more. Its difficult to guage where his career will go from here. The forthcoming signing of new centrebacks is likely to have a profound impact on his chances of regular first team football in the future. Yet, with the departure of Jason DeVos, he becomes the most experienced centreback on the clubs books, something which is likely to ensure he remains around the first team in the near future, although probably not in it.
Of the remaining four transfer listed players, its a case of what might have been for all of them. Whilst Matt Richards has clearly come to the end of the line with his Ipswich career, there remains the possibility that any of Dan Harding, Gary Roberts or Gavin Williams may find themselves still at the club and able to re-energise their careers, should a transfer fail to materialise. But the fact is that the manager does not rate them, something which has been evident in all three cases for some time.
Harding has been a popular left-back, who was very succesful in 06/07, but has seen the errors in his game begin to dominate, to the extent that Magilton clearly feels there is no going back.
Roberts is just unfortunate in that the club hoped he could make it at Championship level, but its proven to be a bit beyond him. Its no-one fault, the player has worked hard and shown some of the attributes that drew attention in the first place, but it seems he isnt going to make a career at Ipswich. He will probably find a career for himself at League One level and it would be no surprise to see him returning to the Championship with another club at some point, albeit one with lower aspirations.
Williams has, on his day, been excellent from midfield. Of all the fringe players, he is the player who, if he played to the peak of his abilities every week, would probably find himself back in the first eleven every week. The problem is that he does not produce every week. In fact, he has not produced for much of the last 18 months and has remained injured for large periods of his Ipswich career. A combination of lack of fitness and lack of performance, coupled with fairly open question marks over his general attitude, have seen the manager run out of patience, something which it seems is unlikely to be re-addressed. Yet, although unlikely, it does remain that if he does not find a new club, he may still be able to find a performance level which forces Magiltons hand.
In the final part of our review of the season, we will assess the development of the club off the pitch during 07/08 which, owing to a takeover, has been fairly swift.
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