Unlucky Number Seven

Ipswich have announced several players who are finding their Ipswich careers at a perhaps premature end. Frank Weston assesses Roy Keanes decision to release seven players, whilst trying to fathom why one of them hasnt been granted a stay of execution.

I used to think it was but I am not so sure anymore. I might even stop requesting it in raffles. Yes, I know all about the fact that it supposed to be a lucky number and the Seven Wonders of the World and all that but let us not forget the seven deadly sins and the fact that there are apparently seven basic kinds of catastrophe. One of them has sent seven Town players to future football damnation or redemption - depending on your point of view. Now I am not trying to suggest that some of them did not have to leave. In truth, when a new man comes in it is inevitable and Roy Keane has been sweeping clean from the moment he set foot in Suffolk.

My only real bone of contention concerns Billy Clarke and this one I just cannot seem to get my head around. More about him later but firstly let us look more closely at the other bag packers and try to work out why it didn't work out for them.

Jai Reason and Kurt Robinson have never even threatened to get close to the first team picture this term and although both players have undoubted promise sadly that has all its been and their exit was to be expected.

Chris Casement still gets regular call-ups to the Northern Irish B squad but this is hardly surprising. It tells you more about the dearth of talent available to their National team coach more than anything else. The odd game Casement has played in Town's first team has hardly filled anyone with too much confidence. He is error prone and his passing and his lapses in concentration leave a lot to be desired.

Ivan Campo showed us glimpses of his former self. He wanted to stay another year but was this because he realised that he was on the rapid decline and it would be down hill from here or because he still had the hunger every player needs? Personally I suspect the former and although he helped the younger players to imagine a future in the game his future had already passed him by and the end was nigh, as Roy Keane walked through the saloon door with all guns blazing.

Tommy Miller must have looked for cover but there was no escape. He had been shot down before when he was a Sunderland player so he must have known what was about to happen. Some people will argue that he did not deserve this. He had re-kindled some form of late and kept Velice Sumulikoski; an international player with over fifty caps for Macedonia, out of the team for months on end. Others might look to his goal scoring feats in his second incarnation in a Town shirt and say he was no longer a serious goal threat unless it was from the penalty spot this time around. He also had a tendency to disappear in some matches. When Roy walked in he was destined to disappear for good.

Dean Bowditch started out as the wonder kid and at fifteen, on the advice of his father he signed for Town and rejected overtures from smaller clubs like Manchester United.

This was a real coup for Town at the time and he soon was soon scoring goals for fun at all levels of football. Who could forget his first Championship game at Portman Road when he became the clubs youngest ever hat-trick hero in a 4-1 trouncing of Watford!

No wonder United wanted him so badly we thought... But that was way back in March 2004 fully five years ago and like a shooting star he raced into the record books like the speed of light, only to burn out almost as suddenly as he had arrived. I still believe he will come again and maybe sooner than people think. There is no doubting his ability and maybe when he is finally detached from the umbilical cord called Ipswich Town he may find his footballing feet once more. He is only 22 so he can still have a bright future in the game somewhere I feel. Town have too many promising strikers now with Jordan Rhodes, Ronan Murray and Connor Wickham all knocking loudly on the first team door. His contract was up so it was perhaps the easiest of all decisions for Roy to make.

Which leaves us with Billy Clarke. Now this really is a bit of an enigma. He was sent out on loan initially by Jim Magilton to gain more experience and play games. It soon became apparent however that magic had a hidden agenda. Once out of the building he bolted down the hatches and sent poor Billy to English footballs equivalent of Siberia.

He was finally transfer listed on the 8th August 2008. This did not deter the young man though and he went from strength to strength, scoring freely for three different teams that gleefully used his services. For his first loan club Darlington he scored 9 goals in 20 appearances and he followed this up with 3 goals in 5 for Northampton Town and 6 in 9 for Brentford! The fact that Clarke has scored close to twenty goals for three different clubs this season did not deter Mr. Keane from his ultimate quest and although I think Roy probably thought long and hard about it, once he made his mind up, we knew it would be final.

I have a theory about it too, which goes some way to explaining why Billy had to leave. It has nothing to do with his attempts as a 15-year-old to impress his idol by knocking on his door in Ireland and telling him that he would be a professional player too! (He had just signed for Ipswich that day apparently and was over the moon.) It also has nothing to do with his attitude or time keeping either which was good. It was simply a case of Billy being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Jim Magilton was often accused of favouring his Irish buddies. Almost ever player Jim seemed to be interested in seemed to be of Irish extraction and although this was not always the case, the mud stuck. Roy is probably aware of this and if not, he will remember suffering similarly at the hands of the press and supporters at Sunderland. He was not going to exercise these vulnerabilities again and run the risk of recruiting another Irish player who had been shown the door by Jim before.

Unfortunately for Billy he was also from Roy's home Town, Cork. If you put yourself in Roy's shoes for a moment you can quickly see his predicament. If Clarke was to fail then everyone would say Keane only employed him again because he was from his home Town and Irish! He also had to make a decision on Shane Supple the reserve keeper and whilst Roy has an abundance of promising young strikers, good young keepers are a bit of a rarity. Shane is also Irish and was sent packing too by Jim. Saving the careers of two Irishmen in one fell swoop would be too much to bear so to some extent his hands were tied. Shame Shane was not Australian then Billy may have survived.

Keane also relied on the backroom staff to fill him in on Billy's potential, having not seen much of the kid in action. Perhaps he had ruffled a few feathers. He was an intense lad and not afraid to speak his mind.

Only the future will tell us whether this was shrewd judgement or Roy Keane's first big mistake?