Mick And Terry Extend Their Contracts

If you love the management team you will be delighted to hear that both manager Mick McCarthy and his assistant Terry Connor have extended their contracts with the club until the summer of 2018!

If you are a fan of Tommy Oar however you will be disappointed to discover that he has terminated his contract at his own request, having failed to settle in Blighty.

I know that I am sometimes a bit critical of Mick and Terry but let’s face it, they have done a wonderful job over the last three years and although some of their decisions they make seem to transcend any football logic, there is no doubting the fact that Town have improved discernibly since they took over the reins.

Back in the dark days, when relegation loomed and a deep depression hung over Portman Road, they turned things around with a series of pragmatic steps to remedy most of our woes.

Not everything they have done has been particularly pretty and our football style has often been tiresome on the eye but this is a results lead business and under their guidance, we have gone from relegation favourites to play-off candidates year on year.

In the rather sad case of Tommy Oar, he asked to leave and for his contract to be abruptly terminated because he could not settle in this country apparently. Strange that for an Australian?

This is a big disappointment and not just to him I guess but also to us! I think if he had been playing regularly it might have been a different story but to train week in week, out only to bench warm is far from ideal and he probably thought ‘ If I can’t make it at Ipswich then there really is no hope!’

When he was interviewed on Ipswich Player the other day he seemed very up-beat in preparation for a rare 90 minutes in the replay against Portsmouth. There was no hint then of anything untoward.

But we lost badly and maybe a few harsh words were spoken in the dressing room afterwards – who knows?

Of course he also knew that with Town now out of the cup, the chances of him getting much game time was in the future would depend largely on injuries or suspensions.

What is even more galling is the fact that he had succeeded in the Netherlands and was young and still had lots of potential!

I guess the blues must look elsewhere now and they still have time to delve into the transfer window and pluck another one for the future I guess.

In the meantime, may I wish both Mick and Terry a long and fruitful relationship with the blues and let us hope that we can get something from the game tomorrow at Birmingham. For the sake of both of them I sincerely hope so!

Mick McCarthy indicated today that he had put more pressure on himself by fielding a reserve team on Tuesday night against Pompey. ‘ “It puts more pressure on me – I don`t know about the players, they`re under less pressure so it`s me who I think gets the pressure for changing the team, not them. They`re ready to go but it`s me that gets the cosh, not them, and I`m delighted because it doesn`t affect me.” Is he already preparing for the verbal onslaught that might follow should we lose?

And this is to be expected of course. It was at the end of the day the manager’s prerogative and providing we are not defeated badly tomorrow, he will probably get away with it.

Frank Weston – editor of Vital Ipswich