International Break Is An Escape From Reality

Normally I loathe these international breaks. Especially when the are designed only to test the strength of the squads in pre-orchestrated international friendlies of little significance.

Tonight England visit the Netherlands to take on the national Dutch side (or sides) at the Arena stadium here in Amsterdam.

The worst thing about friendlies I guess, is that the mean so little to supporters but much more to national coaches who want to experiment and see what might be the recipe for football success?

Given the sorry state of affairs at Portman Road these days, this international break has possibly come at a good time, as most of us I suspect are bored to the back teeth of the plight of Ipswich Town football club at the moment.

So many years of underachievement and the feeling that we could even be going backwards and not forwards, just adds to this morose sense of hopelessness and despair.

The reason we love football and are completely addicted to it is because often, in just 90 minutes, it encapsulates everything that we experience is life. The passion. The excitement! The disappointment and of course those rare moments of unbridled joy!

Sadly these days, we encompass long periods of sustained frustration. The result of which has caused us to become not only frustrated but also more recently depressed as well. Such is our current football lot in life that apathy is setting in and this addiction to our team is not so fatal as we first thought!

We no longer need that quick fix as much as we used to do and if things continue along this torrid path, then we may just be able to kick the habit altogether.

Having followed Town for more than fifty years, I have never felt so void of enthusiasm for the club I love and this in itself is depressing. I only have to watch the Blues in action and then take in any random Premier game to realise just how far we have fallen and how poor our football is.

These are indeed painful times to be following the Town and our mid-table mediocrity is becoming the norm. As manager MicK McCarthy says, the league table does not lie. The lies come from a boardroom that talks the talk but does not walk the walk.

Frank Weston – Editor of Vital Ipswich