If any Ipswich fans were not already aware of how much talent the club has let go recently, Liam Trotter sent them a painful reminder on Saturday by setting up Millwall’s first goal and scoring the second.
To top that off Ipswich fans have had to see Jordan Rhodes score for fun and smash an astounding tally of 37 goals in for Huddersfield Town this season. It is really hard to watch both those players do so well, especially with Ipswich struggling to perform. A well rounded central midfielder with real commitment and a natural goal scorer, who both have a real desire to make a name for themselves is something Ipswich could really do with right now.
It is plain to see that Trotter has been performing well above the likes of Leadbitter, Bowyer and Bullard this season and Rhodes would probably get a place in any Championship side. As a fan, I am left asking myself how a manager could miss such huge potential in two young players.
There isn’t really anyone else to blame for this oversight than former Ipswich manager Roy Keane. It is strange to think that Ipswich fans resent Keane more for the good players he let go rather than the poor players he signed. Let’s be fair though, in football you can never be sure a young player is going to reach their potential even if they are promising and on top of that both Trotter and Rhodes still had a lot of developing to do after they departed. Both of their moves probably helped them mature as footballers and they might not have been as good if they stayed at Ipswich, probably sitting on the bench. Additionally, It is easy for me to sit here and call Roy Keane a fool now I can see how both players have developed, so you have to look back to the decision’s he was faced with at the time both players left.
Trotter only got a consistent place in the side on a couple of occasions when other midfielders were injured and performed well without setting the world on fire. He went on to make a total of 22 appearances for the club and once his contract was up Keane offered him a new deal but couldn’t promise him the game time that Millwall could. It is fair to say that everyone rated Trotter highly and thought at worst he would develop into an average player in the division. Rhodes was given only 10 games to impress and although he didn’t show his goal scoring capabilities as such, he certainly showed his strength, determination and eye for goal.
There was a lot more mystery to the future of Jordan Rhodes as he didn’t get much playing time but even before he proved himself at Huddersfield many fans were left bemused by his departure, especially for the small transfer fee. If the rumours are true the young striker left for the same reasons Trotter did, to get first team football on a consistent basis.
To summarise, Roy Keane had two young players with some good potential and a real hunger to play first team football but let them go. Surely, such a legendary central midfielder at the top level for Manchester United would have been able to sense the potential in Trotter? I believe that Keane knew both players would develop into decent players, at least at Championship level. The problem was he could only keep them if he could promise them a large amount of game time and that is something he didn’t think he could afford to do. The former Ipswich manager was under a huge amount of pressure to achieve promotion and he couldn’t afford to give youngsters a chance unless they were already good enough to dominate a role within the team.
Of course, in reality he would have been better off keeping them as they would have both been better than the options he had in his final squad. Keane wasn’t to know this though and he ended up making two catastrophic errors by letting them go.
However, it was the pressure to achieve promotion in a short amount of time that forced Keane into making those mistakes. I believe that if Ipswich had not invested heavily in the squad and were not expecting anything more than a mid table finish, then those young players might have been given more of a chance. I’m not making excuses for his errors of course; but I think it is likely explanation of the reasoning behind his decisions. I feel like Marcus Evans always gives any manager a decent chance and certainly gives them more time than other owners would. The one positive is that losing those players will be a tough reminder to Ipswich and the same mistakes shouldn’t be made again.
[ad_pod id=’writer-1′ align=’right’]
