Fuller Flavour: No other owner would accept this level of mediocrity, so why is Marcus?

What another wretched week to be an Ipswich Town fan. Just when you thought it could not get any worse, there was not a single day without some kind of hullabaloo.

The only saving grace for me is that whilst the majority of us inside the ITFC ‘bubble’ feel indignant at just about everything, our woes were placed under the microscope of the national football media. It can only be a bad look for Marcus Evans.

In summary of the week, we had Blue Action’s protest at the training ground last Monday. No matter what your opinion is of whether it was right or wrong, it had the media outside of Suffolk looking in wondering what all the fuss was about.

One national radio station on Tuesday started to question what was wrong at our club with former player Darren Bent quite right in stating that if Ipswich fans are unhappy, something must be wrong.

Marcus Evans is keeping faith with Paul Lambert (Image: Pagepix Ltd 07976 935738)

The Northampton game will be remembered for refereegate, then we had more coverage than I care to remember ever before on the same national radio station again on Wednesday with Paul Lambert blaming everyone and a lack of structure for our current malaise.

And, by the end of the week, he was ostracising both Jon Nolan and Kayden Jackson from the squad, and both players were said to be fuming after having their professionalism questioned.

It all made another 90 minutes on the pitch against Oxford seem trivial. But given that Lambert thinks we are still in the mix (who knows what mix) and James Wilson had a dig at the protest that disrupted 10 minutes of training and gave the idea that fans should remain quiet, I am feeling totally perplexed at what our club even exists for at present.

It’s not the one I grew up to love that’s for sure.

At least Lambert bothered to turn up for some interviews over the last seven days. His demeanour, however, continues to be as poor as his win rate and just when you thought the cold snap was over, he remains as frosty as ever.

Why there is the need to use every opportunity to tell us that he has played for big clubs and at the top level, and on multiple occasions too in one interview, is beyond belief and plain boring now.

You may have played for some big clubs Paul, but you forget that for me and so many other Ipswich fans, every fibre of feeling that we have within our bodies suggests that there is no bigger club than Town.

You would do well to remember this. I will repeat again, the statistics that I frequently churn out and I make no apology for sharing these updated figures. Evans needs someone to remind him that these alone show why Lambert is simply not good enough.

31 games have now been played against the top 10 sides that finished above us last season and the sides in the current top 10, and we have mustered just four wins in those games.

Out of the 31, 16 have been played at Portman Road and we've witnessed one - I repeat, one win - and scored just four goals in those games. How can that be enough to keep any manager in a job? There is not another club in the country whose owner would accept this level of mediocrity.

I fear as to what the next three games at least will bring us, given that they are all games against top-ten opposition.

If there is a meeting between Evans and Lambert this week, it really should be to confirm their parting of ways. I’m not confident that it will happen and neither have I any confidence in anything getter better should it happen.

It kills me to say it, but the club is an embarrassment right now. Not just to us fans, but to itself and those that can do something about it, seem in no hurry to do so.

With all the 'Madness' currently, I'll finish by quoting a line from a song by a group of the same name titled 'It must be love'. '

'How can we say so much without words' perfectly defines the silence from Evans for me.

It’s time to act Marcus.