Nachrichten

It’s time for another Preview Percy. This week we look at the contents of his wallet and why Forest may be on the wrong end of so many refereeing decisions. There’s also some stuff about Ipswich if you look closely enough...

Next up we play host to Ipswich Town at the Olympic. Kick-off on Saturday is at the correct and proper time of 3pm. No engineering works to speak of but bear in mind that Stratford is likely to be even busier than usual given that the away support will also be using the station.

So Ipswich then. Bit of a surprise arrival on these shores having been in the third tier this time two years ago. Since then back-to-back promotions have seen them return to the top flight for the first time in 22 years.

It was an odd season in a way. They spent most of the season in second place then things got interesting as the top four all suddenly had spells where they seemingly didn’t want to get promoted. Over a six match spell they occupied all of the top four positions, eventually returning to second with two games to go, a pair of wins seeing them finish six points clear of play-off bottlers Leeds.

They have yet to win this season. Defeats at home to Liverpool (0-2) and at Manchester City (4-1) were followed by four draws in a row, at home to Fulham and Villa (1-1 and 2-2 respectively) and away at Brighton and Southampton (0-0 and 1-1 respectively) have left them in 15th position with four points from the five played so far. That’s one point and one place behind us.

As we have remarked on numerous occasions in the past, the newly promoted usually do one of two things. Either they try and make do and if they go down at least they have the parachute payments, or they can make wholesale changes in the hope that they can establish themselves as a top flight side. It would appear that they have brought a load of players in, though the amounts spent won’t have caused their bank manager any sleepless nights, though Daisy is slightly miffed at all the work she’s had to do this week.

They brought in a couple of ex-Hammers. Ben Johnson, who showed some good form when he appeared at the end of last season decided that his first team opportunities weren’t going to improve under the new management and headed up the A12 on a free once his contract had expired.

The other familiar face will be that of the planet’s unluckiest footballer, Kalvin Phillips. Phillips must have thought he had it all when securing a plum move from Leeds to Man City but he never really caught Guardiola’s eye. So he joined us on loan whereupon his luck took a turn for the worse.

Slip-ups, bent refereeing and finally injury were the hallmarks of his ill-fated spell with us and he didn’t even make the end of the season, even had he been fit he wouldn’t have been eligible for the City away game. He’s had a much quieter start to his latest loan spell.

They spent £15m (possibly rising to £20m depending on source) to bring Man City academy graduate Liam Delap in up front. Delap is the son of Rory who was famed for his long-throw prowess back in the day. Delap junior started out at his Dad’s old club Derby before the City conglomerate moved in.

Over his four years at the Etihad he made just the two league appearances, spending time out on loan at Stoke, Preston and Hull, before making the move south and east to Portman Road this summer. He’s currently their top scorer with three from six.

The other big striker arrival was that of Sammy Szmodics who, after one game this season for Blackburn moved down to East Anglia for a reported £9m fee. Szmodics was top scorer in the Championship last season and opened his account when Ipswich took a surprise lead on the opening day up at the Etihad. He recently won his first Cap for Ireland despite apparent interest from the Hungarians on the international front.

The other big money went out on Omari Hutchinson, though the £18m sent to Chelsea for the 20 year-old hardly brought them in a new face, the player having spent last season on loan in Suffolk. Having gained a smattering of caps at U17 and U19 level for England, the Redhill- born winger accepted an invitation from Jamaica to play for the country of his forbears and he gained a couple of caps for them back in 2023.

Arijanet Muric was the choice to strengthen the goalkeeping options. He jumped ship from Burnley when they were relegated last season, with Burnley reportedly picking up a fee of £8m in the process. The Kosovan has started all five league games thus far this season.

And on we go to the wild and wacky world of Association Football. And it is to the oxymoron that is Scottish Football we go where it transpires that Inverness Caledonian Thistle, of the infamous “SuperCaleygoballisticCelticareatrocious” headline are in a spot of bother. It seems that they need £200,000 over the next couple of weeks. Manager Darren Ferguson has agreed to work for free for the time being which will be a departure from the norm for him. His last conviction saw him fined rather than doing community service.

Elsewhere, Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis faces yet another trip to the authorities for acting in an “improper” manner towards the officials after the 1-0 home defeat to Fulham. Marinakis appears not to have learned the lesson from last season, namely that if you complain about PGMOL they will make things even worse for you. Look at how impossible it was for us to get a penalty once we had signed Paolo Di Canio, for example.

And so to us. Odd little match that one. I mean come on, 37 seconds? After that we had a lot of the ball for the rest of the half without looking like doing anything interesting in the final third. Their ‘keeper was the busier of the two but neither was exactly overwhelmed with work.

Second half, Souceck weighed in with what he so often does – a goal from some bits and pieces that come his way in the box. Now I don’t get the stick that Souceck sometimes gets. Maybe not the most gifted of players but even when things aren’t going great for him he doesn’t hide and he just gets on with the job.

He clearly loves the club and the one thing you could never accuse him of would be a lack of effort, and it was nice to hear his name being sung. One thing for sure, you wouldn’t see him sulk his way to the touchline when substituted; yes, I’m looking at you Mr Paqueta.

On a non-footballing aside to the day, I noted a number of supporters having their wallets searched on entry to the ground on pain of being refused entry. In one case I notes someone having his wallet snatched out of his hand as he withdrew it from his pocket. Now I suspect that such searches are probably just on the right side of legal – though cleverer people than I have expressed doubts.

However, there are ways of going about these things and snatching items from what we should not forget are paying customers is certainly not on. Me? Thankfully I was not selected for such scrutiny. (We’ll just add Brentford security to the long list of people who haven’t seen the inside of your wallet then – Ed).

This weekend we have a fully fit squad from which to choose, with the exception of Fulkrug whose calf problem will now have spanned international breaks, conveniently tripping the threshold for FIFA to start paying compensation. Alvarez will return from the suspension that kept him out of the trip across town last weekend. So we will see the latest version of what the boss considers to be his best starting line-up, something that I suspect he is still trying to work out.

So to the prediction. They’ll be no pushovers – they looked quite decent last weekend in the second half and deserved their equaliser against Villa. Having said that the failure to win thus far will be weighing heavily on their shoulders. There again we have yet to open our account at home as well. This should all point to a draw but I’m going to err on the side of optimism. So the £2 that remained untouched in my wallet, which escaped examination from the Brentford jobsworths. Will instead be placed on a win. I’ll go 3-1 to us if it pleases you Mr Winstone.

Enjoy the game!

When Last We Met At Home: Lost 0-1 (Championship September 2011)

They were a bit of a bogey team in our last promotion season, capitalising on what my notes suggest was a very lack-lustre performance by Allardyce’s side who contrived to let in an 89th minute winner from, of all people.

Referee: Anthony Taylor

One of the more depressing aspects of the continued downturn in the standards of refereeing is that Taylor is considered to be one of our better officials.

Danger Man: Liam Delap

Ipswich have scored five goals in the league this season. Delap has scored three of them.

Percy and Daisy’s Ipswich Fact Of The Week

Ipswich are sponsored by the mediocrity that is Ed Sheerhan. Believe it or not this is actually a good thing. Consider this: while he is watching Ipswich he is not actually in a studio.

* Like to share your thoughts on this article? Please visit the KUMB Forum to leave a comment.

* Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the highlighted author/s and do not necessarily represent or reflect the official policy or position of KUMB.com.