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Having been removed from the Portman Road pressure cooker of expectation just over a month ago, Jim Magilton is about to find things a whole lot hotter at Queens Park Rangers.
Magilton, a loyal servant of Ipswich for ten years as player and manager, was hounded out of IP1 by angry fans who demanded more than mid-table mediocrity for their money. Unfortunately for the amiable Irishman, he will be picking up precisely where he left off when his career with the Hoops begins in the next week.
Q.P.R and Ipswich, not unlike each other in many ways, have traditionally flitted between England’s top two leagues complete with a reputation for playing attractive football. That used to be enough to keep the fans happy, but money changes everything. A look back at Magilton’s three years at Ipswich certainly proves as much.
When Magilton, 40, took the reins at Portman Road, expectation was at an all time low. Joe Royle had battled manfully to try and take the cash-strapped club back into the Premiership but ultimately failed and after losing Bent, Kuqi, Miller and Davis in the summer of 2005, Big Joe scarcely managed to keep Town out of the bottom three, securing an eventual finish of 15th. With no money and little hope, no-one blamed Magilton for following up that dismal campaign by improving the side’s final finish by just a single position. He had spent well, bringing in David Wright, Jon Walters and Sylvain Legwinski and securing the inspirational loan signing of Francis Jeffers. After the lows of relegation and administration, things looked bright for 2007/2008.
Town began the next campaign playing some great football, with Jim seemingly getting the best out of the returning Pablo Counago, something Royle never really managed. The Blues went unbeaten at home until February, but bizarrely failed to win an away game until the same month. By this point, mysterious millionaire Marcus Evans had ploughed £12m of transfer funds into the club, and with this new found wealth, Magilton panicked.
The Blues were sat around the Play-Offs at the turn of the year but only won seven of their 23 games after Christmas and finished 8th. Many attributed the poor run-in to Magilton’s failure to spend wisely in the transfer window. Having chased Leicester’s Gareth McAuley for the entire month, Jim failed to snare his man and ended up failing to sign a centre back at all, or an adequate replacement for Rangers-bound keeper Neil Alexander. Instead, Magilton’s desperation was exploited by Plymouth, who pocketed an extortionate £2m for run-around midfielder David Norris.
On missing the Play-Offs, Town fans weren’t too miffed, but they expected a serious promotion effort in the following campaign. The summer transfer dealings were surprisingly low key, with big name targets such as Charisteas, Nugent and Ameobi all turning down the opportunity to work with Magilton. Town fans had to settle for Kevin Lisbie and Jon Stead as the major goalscoring signings and while Stead impressed with his touch and work-rate, Lisbie flopped miserably, only scoring six league goals all year.
With the blues marooned in mid-table for most of the season, dissent on the terraces grew and grew, not aided by the fact that in a dramatic improvement on last season’s away record, Town actually picked up more points on the road than they did at home. By January, home draws were greeted with boos, while heavy defeats to struggling Southampton and Doncaster witnessed loud calls for the manager’s head. It wasn’t pretty, and in the grand scheme of things, wasn’t justified. Ipswich fans had been tainted by money and the idea that Evans’ initial outlay of £12m gave their club a divine right to be challenging for promotion. In reality it simply doesn’t work like that. Magilton had to build a second new team after the wreckage left by Royle, and the jigsaw would take a while to assemble.
Super Jim went out on a high, beating rivals Norwich 3-2 in his final game before Roy Keane took to the Portman Road dugout. Having done generally good work for Ipswich over the three years, Jim was unfortunate to leave with his C.V tarnished by a sacking and the bitter vitriol of hundreds of Town followers. However, Q.P.R, rather surprisingly, have decided to take a punt on the former Northern Irish international.
To my mind there are two major reasons as to why Magilton has been appointed at Loftus Road. Firstly, Magilton’s Town team saved two of their best performances of last season for the Hoops, particularly impressing with their tenacity and quality on the ball at the Loft in a 3-1 win. Secondly, is it the kind of job that no manager wants these days? I think so.
In football we often talk of ‘poison chalices’, and under madcap millionaire owner Flavio Briatore, the Rangers job certainly appears to be one. Under the Italian, Q.P.R have had four full-time managers and two caretakers in less than two years. Such a low level of job security is hardly likely to attract the world’s best coaches, despite the riches that await the incumbent. It may just be that Magilton was the best qualified applicant, having enjoyed three years of relative success at Championship level. Unlikely, but possible.
One thing Magilton will be, is his own man. The former Liverpool trainee will speak his mind, dig his heels in and not be swayed by pressure from the owners or the fans. Some have lamented his perceived stubbornness in the past, but in the highly charged atmosphere that awaits him at Loftus Road, that is a quality he may have to display. Let us not forget that these are the same fans who clearly booed the touches of their own captain, Gavin Mahon, live on Sky TV last season. They, just like Briatore, expect a return on the owner’s investment sooner rather than later after two seasons of questionable signings and treading water in the league.
The Hoops fans won’t be impressed by Jim’s appointment and Magilton may find that unless he wins his opening game, the supporters will turn pretty immediately as they continue to suffer from the same delusions of grandeur that have gripped Ipswich supporters since the Evans takeover.
Magilton is a football man, and was obviously desperate to get straight back into management. My fear is that it could all be over for him at Q.P.R within months, and this poison chalice of a job could prove to be a career destroyer – just look at John Gregory and Iain Dowie.
I hope Magilton gets time, but one thing is for certain - with these fickle modern day fans, Super Jim may continue to find that money certainly can’t buy you love.
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1. SurreyBlue, Surrey
wrote...
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Great article.
I think there was more to the displeasure with Magic than the league position, though.
- Playing people out of position
- Benching or dropping players playing well, when his more favoured (but worse performing) players returned to contention
- Lack of plan a (or b or c) should things not go straight to plan
etc etc
Ultimately, you're probably right that it's expectations that did for him, but other things were in the mix.
I hope, for QPR's sake, he's learnt from experience. |
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2. Trueblue1989, Bury St Eds
wrote...
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Very good article, near enough spot on. However, as mentioned in the 1st comment, Magiltons main downfall was his tactical nieviety, especially away from home; during 07/08 we smashed teams at home, only lost once at PR all season, yet away we only won 3 games...had we won only 1 more game away from home we would have been in the play offs that year. Good luck to him, but can;t see him being there past Xmas |
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3. Aydan, Margate
wrote...
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I don't understand QPR. They have all this financial clout and ambitions. Last season they were being tipped for automatic promotion! Then they appoint Iain Dowie and now Jim Magilton. At least Paulo Sousa was a bit of an unknown and might attract a few big names. |
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4. Nick, Ipswich
wrote...
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I know, they were bookies favourites at the start of last season, purely on the basis of the money they had. Looking at the standard of players they've bought though, you'd think they were skint! |
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