If you take away the first 15 games ITs form was play-off level but at the end of the day the side is no further foward than under Magilton. Keane has trashed what remained of the 2005 FA Youth Cup winners (how can it be that none have made the grade) and imported seemingly dozens of loanees - often Sunderland rejects. He doesn't seem to know who should be in his "A" line up from week to week and players regularly go from the "A" side to being loaned out. None of this bodes well for Keane's long term career as a successful manager with a top side - or the immediate future of Ipswich who will be a financial basket-case if owner Evans looses interest and calls in his loans to the club.

This is the most tedious period in the 30 years I've been a Town supporter, even more dreary than John Duncan's reign in the mid to late 80's.

Even as a committed Tractor Boy I've struggled to maintain interest in this season. Red Adder makes a great point about the 2005 Youth Cup winning side, so much was expected of them and, for once, there seemed to be a genuine new dawn of (mostly) home grown talent coming through, but all of that seems to have been squandered.

Connor Wickham seems to be the only bright spot on an otherwise fairly bleak horizon, although how much of this is down to Keane and how much is just football, and especially Ipswich's, general malaise I'm not sure.

Jim never seemed to know his best 11 and it was impossible to know what the next line up might be. Added to that at QPR he bollocked players in public and overdid the post-defeat dressing room lock ins. With Keane it is not much different except that we are further down the table. Once in favour players like Stead and Bruce are out on loan. An expensive signing like Priskin never had a run in the side and was then sent out on loan. There may be an argument that one year is too short a time and he should be given another season. He has stabilised the defence and we are staying up although we have no one who looks like a serious striker. Most painful is watching our former prospect Jordan Rhodes scoring more than 20 goals at Huddersfield after being cast aside by Keane. Some of the blame must go to our owner who gave Keane the power to do that and appointed Simon Clegg as CEO, a man who can talk gobbledegook, answer a question without telling you anything and did not even know there was a transfer window (when he might have been better placed in his office rather than on holiday). We have an owner and a CEO with no previous experience in football and an inexperienced manager. None have any local history or connections. It is all very symptomatic of being a loss leader business held by a faceless businessman based in Bermuda.

Excellent piece, Csaba.

@RedAdder "Keane has trashed what remained of the 2005 FA Youth Cup winners (how can it be that none have made the grade)"

What rubbish - Supple left for non-footballing reasons, Upson was on his way out before Keane arrived, Casement's already been told he's surplus to requirements in Scottish Division one, Haynes hasn't set the world alight at Bristol City, and neither has Garvan (whose attitude has been his undoing this season) - but to put that at the feet of Keane who has used youth, as opposed to Magilton (who went two months without playing a single player who came through the academy last season) is frankly bizarre.

"and imported seemingly dozens of loanees"

Loaning someone for the season, and only paying part of their wages is a much better option than signing them for a fee and then paying Premiership wages - as you say, we're already hugely in hock to our owner

@tratorello "Connor Wickham seems to be the only bright spot on an otherwise fairly bleak horizon, although how much of this is down to Keane and how much is just football, and especially Ipswich's, general malaise I'm not sure."

Keane has treated Wickham brilliantly, and the current crop of youngsters look promising, especially Hyam and Dunbar.

@onedeadbudgie "He has stabilised the defence and we are staying up although we have no one who looks like a serious striker. Most painful is watching our former prospect Jordan Rhodes scoring more than 20 goals at Huddersfield after being cast aside by Keane."

Yeah, that has been painful, but it was made clear to Keane that if he wanted to bring in a forward, he'd have to shift one out permanently, and if Pablo hadn't turned down Swasnea, Rhodes would have stayed. Still, we get to sign Pablo's name for the three goals he's scored in 30 games this season.

Just to clarify I wasn't slating Keane's treatment of Connor Wickham, just saying that Ipswich seem to me (as someone who follows them from afar) to have a "fairly bleak horizon" but I'm not sure how much of that is down to Keane and how much is just down to the general state of football and previous mismanagement.

It is good that Phoebe has mentioned Pablo because he is just about the only class player at the Club who might do the unexpected and one of the few that has any connection with the fans (having been there for more than five minutes). As to his performances, he has not had much of a run in the side and who has one might ask?

Keane does not "do" creativity, the unexpected etc. His football is purely very functional. The players he has signed at great expense are for the most part very dull and it is hard to find anything that mitigates against the steady dislocation of the Club from the fans and the local community.

Before we overstretched ourselves and went into administration we developed our own players and had a limited transfer budget. These seem like pleasurable days in the past to me. It is hard to get excited about our faceless owner, inexperienced CEO and charmless manager producing dull football.