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Woah. Woah. Woah. I know. I know. You're incredulous and probably pissed off. How could anyone could question what is undoubtedly a world class facility, one that is going to play a huge role in the future of the club and allow us to push on to cement our place in the Premier League, and then see Town back in Europe and competing for silverware?! And you're right. Remember the Evans years of crumbling infrastructure? Dyer having to lend the club medical equipment which we didn't have in order to try and in order to try and keep Didzy (Mick's one player with creativity quota) fit? Tree growing out of Churchman's roof? And so on and on and on...Dai Cornell dangling a shirt outside a shabby looking Dome it isn't.
It's exciting. The club is transformed. It's mad to think what has happened under Gamechanger and it is brilliant to see us moving back to where we belong - the top table of British and European football. The ambition we craved for nearly twenty years has returned.
So why the slight unease alongside the excitement?
I dunno. Maybe because the club's promotion of it happened to coincide with the City story which is the story of present day football in this country. The common denominator? Money, its power and its increasing insistence on itself as the real game, the real spectacle - not the actual football played on the ('world class, stitched, elite') pitches.
First transfers, now real estate, have become part of the entertainment complex for fans, a 'loadsa money' type braggadocio encouraged by those at the top who see how it sells. Spreadsheet versus spreadsheet.
Even the decor was somehow a bit depressing. A sort of corporate version of luxury. Kitchen islands eat your heart out...At what point did all this stuff become venerated above all else?
Digital screens of the players. Nice touch. Although sorry Cedric, you know you're gonna be deleted pretty soon with the way things are going. No hard feelings eh? I suddenly found myself longing for the long corridor at Portman road with the framed newspaper clippings and team photos before Ashton had them tidied away. Hopefully for the museum (family ticket just £45!) but...
I'll put aside my own personal grievance with Ashton. Undoubtedly a canny operator, but an ego on legs and a true convert to the Linkedin corporate bullshit that masquerades as values and philosophy these days. A man continually giddy with what he's got who at the moment is the zeitgeist. The Farage stuff no accident really. A petit bourgeois take over. It's an Ashton world now.
It's of course utterly perverse of me to sound any doubts after literally decades of desperately hoping for something, anything to happen. Praying that each false dawn was actually the beginning of a new era. Surely we're going to be unstoppable now we've got over the hill versions of David Healy/Duke Ellington/Nigel Reo-Coker in the door... Surely?! A quiet day at Portman Road on deadline day but next season, next season...
But the other news this week, of KM's first interview post departure, was somehow more meaningful than the training ground reveal. The detail that he was still living in the town, his affection for the area, the special double promotion team... It's ironic to invoke his name of course as he helped to design this spaceship and would have approved of the sports science wonderland. But KM has something else alongside the cutting edge modern approach - a soul. And that was arguably more important than anything else in his success with us.
His point that the training ground and the spend this summer meant that the club was moving on to another era rang true. This is a different ITFC now to the one KM found and restored. And it's going to be exciting. Town are firmly back in the big time.
Maybe we have to learn to live with this dual feeling of excitement and unease. Maybe it's just me. Who knows where we're headed.
But in the year 2065, when they knock down the training ground ('piss analysis?! How backward!') to make way for the next imagined future, it'll be KM and his ilk that are remembered and not the bricks.
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Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 08:34 - Oct 9 with 1159 views
Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 20:28 - Oct 8 by BanksterDebtSlave
Fair to say it crossed my mind that we're not running that facility should we end up back in League 1 or back in the Championship for more than a season or two. Is it a case of Emperor's new clothes or is that just elite level football full stop?
Got to admit, once the awe subsided, my first thoughts were "how much does that cost to run" and "can we afford it after a few years out of the premier"
I feel as though you are worrying about it too much, going forwards, worry less and embrace the key performance indicators we have in place for a sustainable football club.
1
Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 08:39 - Oct 9 with 1133 views
Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 08:34 - Oct 9 by GeoffSentence
Got to admit, once the awe subsided, my first thoughts were "how much does that cost to run" and "can we afford it after a few years out of the premier"
Going down is now not an option on any level ever.
1
Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 08:58 - Oct 9 with 1082 views
Wowsers, you're normally one of the most positive posters on the football side jd, it's like you saved up all your negativity for this!
I won't up or down arrow you though. It's a well written piece and I do get where you're coming from. I just think it amounts to "we're old and we're a bit scared of change". I'm hoping you're old anyway!
Yeah it's a shame you have to throw so much money at it to compete these days, but it is what it is. Keep moving or get left behind. On balance I think I prefer this to the Evans era.
Kind of agree with the OP. Wouldn't want to sound ungrateful as it's clearly a brilliant setup, but it is a bit soulless. The black cladding looks sharp around the edge of Portman Rd and really helps the place look more up-to-date. Here it's just so generic and could belong to anyone. Not much style or fun in there . Bit like Ashton - incredible achievements but a bit of a corporate cliché.
1
Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 10:25 - Oct 9 with 976 views
Lot's of valid points. However it's the way the game and indeed the world has gone. To stay at the top you have to compete like those at the top. So we have no choice to build as we have to be right up they're. That is not to say you lose certain aspects but to be annoyed about that would be due to nostalgia bias.
1
Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 11:14 - Oct 9 with 919 views
Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 07:45 - Oct 9 by NthQldITFC
The OP (as I read it anyway) is not about Ipswich Town at all, it's about the game being all about money now, the game losing a bit of its soul, the increased 'slope' of a playing field which was once more or less level but which now is far too steep to climb by sporting prowess alone. Something is lost.
It's about a freshness and nobility lost to cynical lucre, and I get that. Some don't.
I'm not virtuous enough myself to not be really excited by us competing at the top level again and by the bling of Playford Road, but I do totally get the OP.
So when you say 'seem almost uncomfortable about the idea of being successful and striving to keep growing' I think you've got it totally wrong - we want Town to sweep the board and win everything going, it's just that we - vainly and romantically - wish that the board was level again.
It's Coldness -v- Romance, and it's looking very much like a home win.
(but I compromised and turned that around to presage a home win tomorrow!)
Apart from the bit about our former manager, current chairman, some players and the direction of our club?
It’s the weirdest load of ramblings you could read from a great behind the scenes look at a world class facility. If people hate modern football and anything to do with money so much they should just turn it off.
Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 09:51 - Oct 9 by Ruby
Kind of agree with the OP. Wouldn't want to sound ungrateful as it's clearly a brilliant setup, but it is a bit soulless. The black cladding looks sharp around the edge of Portman Rd and really helps the place look more up-to-date. Here it's just so generic and could belong to anyone. Not much style or fun in there . Bit like Ashton - incredible achievements but a bit of a corporate cliché.
"Here it's just so generic and could belong to anyone. Not much style or fun in there ."
It's a place of work, did you not watch the video?
3
Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 17:03 - Oct 9 with 706 views
Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 08:34 - Oct 9 by GeoffSentence
Got to admit, once the awe subsided, my first thoughts were "how much does that cost to run" and "can we afford it after a few years out of the premier"
Not sure the day to day would be more expensive as a lot of the extra upfront costs probably save a bit on the day to day e.g:
- fully stitched pitches require less maintenance and last a lot longer then regular pitches which churn up and need replacing more often or leaving to rest for periods of time. (Will we rent some of the non first team pitches out as a revenue stream does anyone know?)
- building will likely be extremely efficienct compared to an old facility and need less regular fixes
-newer equipment with warranties etc and less likely to break shirt term/last longer.
I think the next decade+ would be fine even if we were in the champ but if course our ambitions are high.
Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 14:46 - Oct 9 by Joey_Joe_Joe_Junior
Apart from the bit about our former manager, current chairman, some players and the direction of our club?
It’s the weirdest load of ramblings you could read from a great behind the scenes look at a world class facility. If people hate modern football and anything to do with money so much they should just turn it off.
Big, bad, businessman...
"They break our legs and tell us to be grateful when they offer us crutches."
The OP comes across to me as not really putting aside grievances towards the CEO and a bit of nostalgia for the past. Yes, it is a new era, but not one KM found and restored alone. If you want to assign the revival of the club to anyone, it has to be to the investors who bought it, Ashton and many others who has changed it to what it is now and of course KM for building two teams.
As has been said many times, the change in five years has been extraordinary and beyond what I hoped for when Evans’ claw like grip was prized from the club. I do not yearn for the days of Cheltenham away or getting the runaround at Wimbledon or Northampton.
There were plenty of times before Evans arrived to make a quick buck then let the club rot that were not great either. I’m thinking particularly of the post Robson decline, Duncan, the bankrupting of the club in 2002 and the periods of sheer hopelessness.
This is a mid sized club. In 2021 it was heading to L2 and worse maybe, with a tree in the roof and dirty seats on rusting runners. It was a disgrace and what made it worse was that we deserved to be there. Fleetwood and Accrington was our level.
That’s past into history now and nothing signifies that more to me than the new Training Ground. It is smart and what’s required for a club operating where we are now or in the Championship. It looks functional and right for what it is - a place of work. Ok, there’s a touch of the Canary Wharf’s about it, but it looks to my untutored eye professional. With time it’ll ‘wear in’ as all new buildings do.
It is not an ‘Ashton world’. This club will be here hopefully long after he, anyone there now, you and me are long gone. That was in doubt in 2020 and the club’s security and future was the one thing I hoped for. Not particularly for me as I’d been lucky to witness something supporters of many clubs can only dream of. My hope was for there to be something for future generations.
The only unease I feel is whether or not we will be good enough this season. Time will tell on that but there’s no unease from me regarding the path the club is taking. I do not like the way football in this country is going/has gone, but it is what it is. You can as in real life only strive to be the best you can be.
1
Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 10:22 - Oct 10 with 501 views
Mixed feelings about the new training ground on 09:05 - Oct 10 by Churchman
The OP comes across to me as not really putting aside grievances towards the CEO and a bit of nostalgia for the past. Yes, it is a new era, but not one KM found and restored alone. If you want to assign the revival of the club to anyone, it has to be to the investors who bought it, Ashton and many others who has changed it to what it is now and of course KM for building two teams.
As has been said many times, the change in five years has been extraordinary and beyond what I hoped for when Evans’ claw like grip was prized from the club. I do not yearn for the days of Cheltenham away or getting the runaround at Wimbledon or Northampton.
There were plenty of times before Evans arrived to make a quick buck then let the club rot that were not great either. I’m thinking particularly of the post Robson decline, Duncan, the bankrupting of the club in 2002 and the periods of sheer hopelessness.
This is a mid sized club. In 2021 it was heading to L2 and worse maybe, with a tree in the roof and dirty seats on rusting runners. It was a disgrace and what made it worse was that we deserved to be there. Fleetwood and Accrington was our level.
That’s past into history now and nothing signifies that more to me than the new Training Ground. It is smart and what’s required for a club operating where we are now or in the Championship. It looks functional and right for what it is - a place of work. Ok, there’s a touch of the Canary Wharf’s about it, but it looks to my untutored eye professional. With time it’ll ‘wear in’ as all new buildings do.
It is not an ‘Ashton world’. This club will be here hopefully long after he, anyone there now, you and me are long gone. That was in doubt in 2020 and the club’s security and future was the one thing I hoped for. Not particularly for me as I’d been lucky to witness something supporters of many clubs can only dream of. My hope was for there to be something for future generations.
The only unease I feel is whether or not we will be good enough this season. Time will tell on that but there’s no unease from me regarding the path the club is taking. I do not like the way football in this country is going/has gone, but it is what it is. You can as in real life only strive to be the best you can be.
Yeah, very fair points. It's clearly a huge moment in terms of cementing the long term future of the club and as you say we don't ever want to end up back in the horrorshow of the Evans end times. You are right.
I suppose I just feel that money has damaged football like it's damaged everything else.
Even players are jaded. You have a bit of success and you're instantly richer than God. It must change things. It's why the double promotion team was so special I think - they were bigger than the sum of their parts and they probably know that weren't ever going to play at the top individually. But together they could achieve it. And that meant it was a bit of a throwback to a purer time in football.
As for it not being Ashton's world. I'm not so sure about that. I think he's modern Britain in person.
Anyway, we are going to beat Fulham today and start looking further up the table!
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