Football: Ipswich Town fan Nick Wells insists it is not time for Blues boss Jim Magilton to leave yet
THE battle lines have been drawn this week, you're either with Jim Magilton or against him. But in truth, at the moment, it is not as simple as that.
Saturday's 1-1 draw with Blackpool, with a little help from certain areas of the local media, really cranked up the pressure on Jim.
It was a drab and heartless performance against inferior opposition, that was barely palatable at the end of Joe Royle's era, when our squad was built on a shoe-string budget, but is definitely not acceptable after a 12m investment in players.
The overwhelming feeling among fans, and even Magilton alluded to it, is that our play-off dream is over for this season.
The natural reaction is that the buck stops with the manager and he must pay the price for the failure.
It is with a heavy heart that I agree with this view but disagree vehemently with the timing.
For all the thousands of words written in newspapers and on websites and uttered in radio phone-ins, I am yet to hear one viable replacement that could take over the Portman Road hot-seat immediately.
Alan Curbishley is a name often lauded but it appears fanciful as there no indication that the former West Ham boss would be willing to take any job below the Premier League.
Even if we could lure top-class candidates like Gary Johnson, David Jones or Roberto Martinez, and I doubt we could, there is no chance they could be lured from, or allowed to leave, our Championship rivals at such a crucial time of the season.
If we can't bring anyone in to replace Jim before the end of the season, I don't see any reason why we should sack him now and have a caretaker take over when there is still the slimmest of hopes of us getting in the top six and beyond.
Our owner Marcus Evans appears to be prepared to give him to the end of the campaign at least and I don't see anything to disagree.
The hysterical response this week from some supporters makes you wonder what they would do if Town were bottom of the division, rather than 11th like they were after the Blackpool game.
Hung, drawn and quartered in the Portman Road centre circle?.
You can criticise Magilton's decision making as a manager but not his passion for the club or his achievements as a player for Town.
For that reason and the fact our season is still mathematically alive, the least Jim deserves is until the end of the season.
And who knows, our season looked dead in the 90th minute of our play-off against Bolton in 2000 and Jim came to our rescue – he could do it again.
Email to a friend
Print this page Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Local pages
Looking for a...
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Diss
Thursday 02 September 2010
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 9 C to 19 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 9 C to 18 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: North east
