The Sound of Silence

Summer 2024 was frenetic. The first newspaper article linking Kieran McKenna with Brighton dropped on May 1st, three days before we confirmed promotion at Huddersfield, and continued for another 29 days. That left the club just over a month to get in any players they hoped to have for pre-season and only three months to rattle through the dozen or so new players we felt necessary to give us a chance of staying up.

Things had to happen at breakneck speed. Our first fee transfer (Omari Hutchinson) was completed in June, our first (and only) free transfer on the first day of July. Within 16 days they had been joined by Jacob Greaves, Liam Delap and Aro Muric. Things then calmed down somewhat.

This Summer is definitively less whizz-bang-wallop. Despite some bullish noises from Ashton and McKenna in the Late Spring, Ipswich returned for pre-season training with no new faces bar a training goalkeeper. In the meantime a fair few lockers had been emptied. Five departures had been set in stone for months. Julio Enciso staying was an impossibility, Kalvin Phillips and Ben Godfrey did nothing to merit further interest on our part, Massimo Luongo’s time came to a natural end and Liam Delap’s sale was inevitable. We harboured illusions that Cameron Burgess, Axel Tuanzebe and Jens Cajuste might be staying on, but have gradually found ourselves crossing names from our squad planning list.

The exact nature of what we have been up to in terms of strengthening the squad remains a bit, well… mysterious?  It is obvious we need at least two midfielders. Kieran McKenna has always had five in his group and we are down to three, each with a degree of uncertainty around them. Cameron Humphreys excelled on loan at Wycombe in League One but was generally used further forward. Jack Taylor has never had a run in our first team and has only one year remaining on his contract. We’d be crackers to let Sam Morsy go at this point but rumours abound of possible moves to the Middle East.

Ipswich CEO Mark Ashton has talked about trying to leave the squad stronger at the end of August than it was 12 months prior, specifically talking about the need to recruit a different physical profile after failing to cope with Premier League athleticism last season. However, whilst you don’t hear much about who our targets might be, the links that do seem to come through don’t seem to be for big ole units.

There’s Cajuste of course, who McKenna declared our interest in retaining in May, a lovely player in lots of ways but more technician than bruiser. We were credited in some quarters with interest in the currently unattached Josh Brownhill, a box crasher and a goal threat, but again not a physically dominant player and probably not a realistic transfer target anyway. Hayden Hackney was apparently on our list and again, is a lovely footballer with fabulous attributes, but is more playmaker and probing-passer than duel-devouring beast (and again, will have suitors higher up). Meanwhile, one big ball-winning midfielder we were supposedly tracking last season, Wouter Burger, might be Sheffield United bound, apparently without a peep from us.

If this gossip is reflective of the kind of players we are actually looking at, it seems the common sense that we would spend the Summer looking for physically-imposing midfielders is at least partially wide of the mark. At least one of our two (or more) bits of recruitment in the centre of the park might be prioritising ball-progression over power.

We need another striker too and all know the profile we are looking for, the same thing we look for every season – more George Hirsts. Most of the noise has been about “project players” stepping up from weaker divisions or Premier League reserve teams. Charlotte FC’s Patrick Agyemang was mentioned but seems to be heading to Derby County, Wycombe Wanderers’ Richard Kone was supposedly a long-standing favourite last season but nothing further has been heard on that front. There were whispers about Manchester City’s Divin Mubama, but he’s now pitched up on loan at Stoke City. Chelsea’s Marc Guiu may or may not be a realistic target and is currently away at FIFA’s ludicrous American boondoggle anyway.

I already declared this a “bad vibes” Summer and the quick digest of our business so far won’t fill anyone with enthusiasm. As it stands we are 0 for 3 on retaining uncontracted players and 0 for 3 on filling significant first team gaps. The things you hear on the grapevine leave a bit of confusion about what we’re trying to do. You imagine the club wanted more stuff done by this point and they certainly wanted to retain Tuanzebe, Cajuste and Burgess.

Yet, I think on balance I am actually feeling a little calmer than I was back in the middle of June. Maybe my sunny nature has returned a little as I escape the relegation pit of despair. Perhaps I’ve come to terms with next season lacking the emotional tenor of the previous three. This season will not be about doing bits in the transfer market, nor fighting against the odds. It should be steadier than that.

What do you need for a bit of stability as a relegated club? Retaining as much of your Premier League squad as you can. New deals for George Hirst and Dara O’Shea help there, as do the new contracts signed by Leif Davis and Luke Woolfenden last season. You would guess at least 9 of our starting eleven for day one are currently drilling at Playford Road, including the entire back line and forward line. For all their ambitious early transfer activity, if our opening encounter with Birmingham City rolled around tomorrow, you would not swap many of their players for ours, bar perhaps Tommy Doyle for Jack Taylor. 

If the lesson of Cameron Burgess’ stint at the club was that McKenna’s Ipswich Town is a place for footballers to grow and develop across their career, perhaps we also need to be a little more optimistic about the group as a whole kicking on over the Summer, even if one particular department (midfield) looks very thin. 2023-24 went so well in part because we had relatively little turnover and were able to hone the group collectively.

There are parts of the team that potentially overpowered for the division already. Dara O’Shea and Jacob Greaves have the kind of physicality that would have absolutely suffocated us the last time we were at this level. Ben Johnson might not have been a perfect fit for right back last season, but I think we will be surprised at how dominant he’ll be in the second tier. Leif Davis’ Championship record speaks for itself, as does that of our 2024 attacking recruits – Jack Clarke, Sam Szmodics, Jaden Philogene and Chieo Ogbene.

After so much noise, a bit of quiet might do us some good. Perhaps the silence should be comforting. There might still be work to do, but rivals have much to do to bridge the gap to us and with every possibility still that the rest of our summer business sees us accelerate further away.