In news that has nothing to do with Fulham, the Guardian says that Ipswich’s Jim Magilton would take Titus Bramble back to Portman Road. This is interesting from a number of angles:
One, Bramble left Ipswich as a rough diamond who was expected to eventually follow the sort of career path that Rio Ferdinand has done. As a young player he was a good footballer and physically able, but was prone to making ridiculous mistakes that proved costly to his team. These were a pity because he had a few games where he looked like an England player in waiting. I think he was meant to grow out of these mistakes but it didn’t happen. Newcastle have been unable to turn Bramble’s promise into anything worthwhile.
Which brings us onto point two, that Newcastle have been completely unable to put a solid defence together for as long as I can remember. They’ve had forwards galore in the last few years, but at no point have they stopped and said ‘right, we’ve spent all this money up front but the lads at the back are still messing everything up. Let’s get a defender.’ That’s not true, they spent heavily on France and Juventus’s Alain Boumsong, and also on Bramble, but the point remains that this team has been terrible at the back for ages.
Third, what was once an Ipswich golden generation has petered out quite disappointingly. Consider Bramble, Kieron Dyer, Darren Ambrose, Richard Wright, Matt Holland, Herman Hreidarsson, Kelvin Davis, Marcus Stewart, Tommy Miller and the exception to all this, Darren Bent. Most of that list were very fine footballers at Ipswich, but few have really enjoyed a successful career out of Anglia, or at least the career that might have been expected of them. Dyer was an amazing talent whose career has to rank as being one of the biggest disappointments of his generation. The injuries did for him, of course, but in the cold light of day staying healthy is as important as a good right foot. Ambrose looked like a really good young player, Richard Wright played for England and only lost his way when he left for Arsenal. He had been fantastic at Ipswich, much as Scott Carson is at Charlton now. The rest are slightly different, being at a different stage of their career when they left the club, but each would probably look back at their Ipswich years as being the time when they put together their best work as footballers. Maybe it works in reverse? Maybe Titus would be fine back in Ipswich.
None of this has anything to do with Fulham, but it’s another slow news week and this caught my attention.
