It’s impossible to make a fair comparison of players from different decades so I have selected the most interesting signings by every Ipswich Town manager up to and including George Burley. They are not necessarily the best players but those whose arrival changed the fortunes of the club or caused most interest at the time. Home grown players not included.
Scott Duncan: Tommy Parker (long serving and inspirational club captain), John Elsworthy (strange how Wales overlooked him), Tom Garneys (scored 143 goals in 274 matches between 1951 and 1958).
Alf Ramsey: Andy Nelson (transformed a leaky defence), Ray Crawford, Bill Baxter.
Jackie Milburn: Danny Hegan, Gerry Baker (talented forwards who played in front of a woeful defence).
Bill McGarry: Cyril Lea (New manager’s first task was to shore up the defence), John O’Rourke (striker whose 12 goals in 15 matches clinched promotion to First Division in 1968, Mick Mills (brought as a youngster from Portsmouth and went on to captain England), Colin Viljoen (talented South African. Difficult to handle).
Bobby Robson: Allan Hunter (his arrival marked the start of the club’s glory years), Kevin Beattie (missed by Liverpool, his spectacular power made him a firm favourite), Paul Mariner (my choice as Town’s best-ever player).
Bobby Ferguson: Romeo Zondervan (Dutchman who proved solid while top players had to be sold to pay for the Pioneer Stand), Alan Sunderland, Ian Atkins, Kevin Wilson.
John Duncan: Simon Milton (Ferguson brought him into the club but Duncan completed the signing), Sergei Baltacha (first Russian (actually a Ukrainian) to play in England whose late daughter Elena became a tennis star).
John Lyall: Bontcho Guentchev (Bulgarian whose signing was controversial), Steve Whitton (played wide on right to excellent effect), Paul Goddard (striker from West Ham and Millwall).
George Burley: Hermann Hreidarsson (the perfect addition to squad which won promotion to Premiership), Matt Holland (it was either him or striker Kevin Phillips, pity Town could not afford both. At the time Phillips had injury issues.), Tony Mowbray (never a doubt about his leadership qualities).
Best of the Bobby Robson era
Cooper; Burley, Mills, Hunter, Beattie, Wark, Thijssen, Clive Woods, Whymark, Mariner, Brazil.
What a strong bench: Sivell, Butcher, Osman, Talbot, Muhren, David Johnson.
Tales of the Cobbold era at Ipswich Town may have been embellished a little over time – or perhaps some are apocryphal? Can you give us a couple of examples of their relaxed, almost laissez-faire way of running the club?
John Cobbold was a “one off”. He knew precious little about the game but still made excellent decisions for the club such as defending Bobby Robson after the Town fans called for his sacking.
Alf Ramsey used to watch matches from the directors’ box because he preferred a higher vantage point than the dugout. Cobbold would sit next to him making silly jokes and irrelevant comments so that Alf had to say: “Please Mr John, I am trying to concentrate.”
Cobbold once watched a match at Leicester. The home team was in blue. For most of the first-half Cobbold thought they were Ipswich.
A great host on match days he offered Bolton Wanderers chairman, Alderman Entwhistle, a drink. The reply was: “Alcohol has never touched my lips.” Then he offered a cigar. That, too, was turned down. Cobbold’s riposte: “Then we have f… all in common.”
Entwhistle had been Mayor of Bolton.
