Once again the lack of investment in the last transfer window may cost us dear, and once again the finger of blame must be pointed towards the owner Marcus Evans. Now, I know that in a post-match interview with Brenner Woolley on Radio Suffolk, manager Paul Lambert defended Evens to the hilt, as have so many other managers before him. I guess with a new five-year contract in place it would be mad to bite the hand that feeds you but Lambert is blameless in this regard.
The money from the sale of Bartosz Bialkowski Town will not get immediately and then perhaps only in instalments but there is no real excuse for Evans not to put his hand in his pocket again. Does he really want to be reminded of what happened in 2015 when we were top of the Championship – only for Evans to refrain from further investment, and which cost us so very dear? Has he not learned the lessons of the past? Seemingly not.
Lambert says in his defence that there is no money in the kitty so what can he do about it and anyway, Evans has ploughed tens of millions in already and to no avail. That is true of course but Evans is one of the richest men in Britain, and although it is not a bottomless pit, he certainly has the financial clout to release more cash if he so wished. Peterborough is not a mega-rich club but they were still able to recruit in the January transfer window and to very good effect. So the next question we must ask I suppose is whether Evans’s heart is really in this club? He says it is but he has a very strange way of showing it.
Now some of you might argue that we have arguably the strongest squad in this division so why should we spend more anyway? Surely our last two dire performances against automatic promotion chasers Rotherham United and Peterborough convince us otherwise. We need to freshen things up, and this became blatantly apparent on Saturday when we largely failed to test the visitor’s keeper and in front of a big crowd, we lost at home again. That late penalty from Norwood was hardly saving grace.
Injuries too are starting to bite into the squad once more, and far too many players appear to be off colour at the same time. There is a tired look about the side these days and a disturbing lack of inventiveness going forward. They are the hallmarks of a side going backwards not forwards, and we have to stop the rot before it is too late.
F.W. – editor of Vital Ipswich
