If Ipswich Town was a film, it would clearly be ‘Groundhog Day’.
Well, ‘Groundhog Season’, but you take my point.
Now in our 16th successive season of Championship football, the term ‘mid-table mediocrity’ seemed to originate from Portman Road.
This season has given us a tantalising glimpse of an escape — and not via the exit marked League One as some of us might have feared.
We remain on the coattails of the top six, despite Saturday’s 2-0 reverse at Middlesbrough.
A mere 48 hours after the defeat on Teesside, we were told that Ipswich Town’s debt — and therefore the one owed to owner Marcus Evans — has risen again, to £89 million.
One could point to the fact that Evans doesn’t meddle with team affairs and seems happy to carry this debt on year-on-year.
But it remains a slightly depressing reality.
Where some other clubs look enviously on at Ipswich’s supposed stability, on and off the pitch, too many fans simply find it tedious.
Is mid-table mediocrity really the most we can hope for? Just a few years ago, we made the play-offs and we can of course dream — it’s Christmas after all.
But the sensible part of me suggests a slight improvement on last season’s 16th place.
And then what? A new manager, but the same limitations? Or the same manager with the same limitations?
Evans wasted a lot of money under Roy Keane and Paul Jewell and his loans.
I understand his reticence to spend even more money and he deserves some credit for loosening the purse-strings. But even the most optimistic of Town fans know it probably won’t be enough.
Dear Ipswich. Saturday’s match against Reading would be a good chance to start proving me wrong.