September 2 2010

George Burley

After the false dawn of our opening victory against Leicester City, Jamesey wonders when George Burley can start to turn us round.

After a bitterly disappointing World Cup for our national team, one is tempted to wonder whether football deserves such patient, loyal and uncomplaining (most of the time) supporters.

As one whose age puts a limited perspective on the number of World Cups I am likely to see in the future, I thought that the summer tournament in South Africa had all the ingredients of a special occasion regardless of whether England produced one of their frequent flops or not.

And I think for most of us, watching at home on our screens, the atmosphere was quite thrilling and one could always "de-vuvuzela" the sound by activating the volume downwards.

The final, of course, was a disgrace to sport, with two supremely talented teams resorting to cheating and fouling in a match that should have exemplified the finest aspects of (don't laugh) the beautiful game.

But on the plus side, it was wonderful to see the visiting England supporters making themselves welcome everywhere and being popular with the South African public wherever they went - a very far cry from the loathsome rabble that used to make England internationals away dreaded by the local populace.

Anyhow, to return to the nitty-gritty, we find ourselves 19th in the Championship table and without wishing to cast any aspersions on our new manager I desperately hope that the man at the helm is the "Ipswich Burley" and not the "Scotland Burley".

With our national team playing this weekend (Sept 3) in a Euro-qualifier, the top two tiers of English football have a break and the Eagles' next encounter is away to Reading (Sept 11).

There have been major changes with large-scale exits and a string of signings and loans. In the two home league games I have seen so far this season, I have struggled to identify many of our team without the help of squad numbers.

When things are going wrong (like losing four matches in a row), it is always tempting to get angry and start criticising team and tactics.

But one has to assume that a manager of Mr Burley's calibre and experience knows what he is doing, so playing Edgar Davids at left-back must serve some arcane purpose.

Most of us, I think, have agreed that the football style imposed by our manager this season is arguably more entertaining to watch than Neil Warnock's "hoof it high and hope" tactics.

Fingers crossed, then, that George will be able soon to fashion a team that not only plays prettily but can stick a few goals in too (and give Julian Speroni some decent protection until he is inevitably picked off by a Premiership club).

Email Jamesey with your comments to jevans3704@aol.com

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