By Aston
May 7 2007

The dust is just about settling on another somewhat disappointing campaign for Town, lets look back at the past season.

Well this time last year we had just finished our worse season for 40 years, 15^th in the second tier of English football, fast forward 12 months and we finished just one place higher so it would seem very little had changed.

 

But in those 12 months a lot has changed at our little club. Joe Royle left during the summer and was replaced by Jim Magilton, 9 players have been signed permanent deals, 6 had been signed on-loan and 3 players have been sold and it’s the players we will be looking at in this part of the season review.

 

Lets start with the 9 players Jim brought in (in no real order):

Alex Bruce – Jim noticed something that the fans and previous manager had noticed too, our defence has been a weak link so he went out and signed a 22-year-old defender from Birmingham City on a free transfer. Bruce’s versatile nature proved important during the season as he played at both right and centre back.

 

Daniel Harding – Another defender, this time a left back finally meaning Matt Richards was taken out of the left back roll and played more often as a left sided midfielder. Harding came to Town as part of a swap deal that saw Ian Westlake go to Leeds United and I think Town got the better end of that deal.

 

Martin Brittain – Midfielder, only made the one appearance for Town, that coming in the Carling Cup game against Peterborough back in August. He’s spent most of the season on-loan at Yeovil but yet again didn’t cost us a penny.

 

Sylvain Legwinski – Another midfielder, the supporters’ player of the season which I think says a lot in its self, who needs Westlake (no disrespect) when you have Legwinski?

 

David Wright – A right back and finally the defence looks stable it was less leaky he only cost us £200,000 from Wigan and best of all he scored against Norwich.

 

George O’Callaghan – Attack minded midfielder who must have had the longest trial spell at a club anywhere in the world, starting it in September before finally making the permanent move from Cork City in January. Only made a few appearances so far for Town and only seems to be a squad player at present but a good one to keep.

 

Jon Walters – I thought Jim had gone a bit off the rails with the signing of Walters but he is actually rather good, four goals to his name since joining Town from Chester looks like a well spent £150,000.

 

Gary Roberts – Joined Town from Accrington Stanley (Who are they? Exactly) on-loan in October before signing permanently in January for a fee believed to be around £200,000. He has taken a lot of flack recently from the crowd after some sub par performances but all round this season he has been worth it.

 

Ian Miller – Signed from non-league Bury Town for what might as well have been a free transfer, only one substitute appearance so far but he looked good.     

 

So no real complaints so far about Jim Magilton’s signings, but we still have 6 loanee players to cast our eye over.

 

Francis Jeffers, Mike Pollitt, Matt Bates, Simon Walton, Mark Noble and Jon Macken. Well I will keep this short, there is only one of the those players I would not like to see back at Portman Road and that is Jon Macken he in my opinion just was not good enough for Town. The remaining 5 all proved to be worth while signings and it’s just a shame that only one of them looks to have any chance at all of being here next season but I really hope Jeffers is here next season he has given the entire stadium a lift, he has scored goals with him and Alan Lee up front next season we could easily make the top six, please Mr Sheepshanks an the rest of the board sign Jeffers sell your kidneys if need be because we need this man.

 

Well those are the players in, now lets have a look at the players that have gone out.

 

Sam Parkin – Never cut the mustard at Portman Road following his transfer from Swindon in the summer of 2005, his 5 goals in 2005/2006 was not enough to impress Jim Magilton who sold him to Luton for £340,000 where he has scored just one goal this season.

Nicky Forster – Town’s leading scorer in 2005/2006 with 7 goals but was sold to Hull City in the summer for £250,000. There was times when I doubted that move, normally when Jim was moaning about the lack of experience up front but getting the sort of money for an ageing striker with a long list of injury problems and only got 5 goals this season that Jim got us is a very good deal.

 

Ian Westlake – Joined Leeds United as part of the deal that saw Daniel Harding come to Town and like I said further up we got the better side of that deal. Ian made 19 starts for Leeds in the past season and came off the bench 8 times and missed the final part of the season because of a groin injury. Some Leeds fans rate him others do not but with Legwinski coming in and Walton and Noble here earlier in the season we have not missed him (and I really did not want to say that).   

 

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