GUY BRANSTON

Our guest columnist says Paul Cook will get it right at Ipswich

PAUL Cook will get it right at Ipswich Town. He always does. But judging by the Tractor Boys’ performance in the 3-0 defeat to AFC Wimbledon in midweek, the former Portsmouth and Wigan boss has got his work cut out.

It’s not that Ipswich were bad. They were OK. But in League One, a club the size of Ipswich should be more than OK, even against a Dons side fighting for their lives.

Unfortunately, football doesn’t care about reputation and history. You don’t get respect just for turning up. You have to deliver, and this is a group of lads who have consistently failed to do that.

They’ve got lads having a good go. People like Gwion Edwards, James Norwood and Dozzell. But too many are powder puff fancy dans instead of people who’ll win you a game of football.

Against Wimbledon, they made silly challenges. They all had headbands on. Lots of little flicks and turns around corners.

Bullied

Where was Luke Chambers of old, going in and smashing people? Where were the likes of Jason De Vos, who was so aggressive and uncompromising at the back?

Wimbledon just overpowered them. Joe Piggott bullied them. Ollie Palmer pressed and harried them. It wasn’t pretty, but I’d rather have six or seven of those battlers plus a couple of flair players than vice versa.

As ever, the players have a lot to answer for. Are they doing enough off the pitch? Are they training hard enough?

More broadly, it shows the perils of relying too heavily on homegrown players, which has been the Ipswich strategy for several years.

When you’re trying to bed a lot of young lads from academy football into a good level - which League One is - then you run the risk of being found out.

Why? Because the transition from academy to first-team is too easy now. I look around these days and I’ve never seen so many pros. It used to be that only the best and most ruthless made the cut. Now everyone is a profesAndre sional footballer.

Modern clubs have got huge academies, they promise opportunities and hand out big contracts before lads have proved themselves.

Mistakes

Then - as we all know - managers are pressured to play them. Either they’ve got a quota to fill, or the club has made a mistake by handing some young lad a three-year deal and the manager is forced to give him a chance. Then that lad makes mistakes and good managers lose jobs.

Did that happen to Paul Lambert, Cook’s predecessor? I can’t say for certain, but it won’t happen to Cook.

With the set-up he’s got, and the people he’s got around him, I very much imagine that he’ll be running the club from now on.

There’s a new owner and wherever Cookie goes, he tends to spend a bit of money. With Covid depressing wages, the market will be very open to them. He has his merry men round him to do his deals. They’ll be able to attract big names for the level.

Then you look at the way they’ve poached Mark Ashton, who had a very good job as CEO at Bristol City in the Championship. That tells you about the attraction.

Whether or not they can salvage promotion, Ipswich will be a very different beast next season. This is a club that isn’t messing around.