Delap out until Christmas. Hutchinson benched. Morsy contact terminated. You can come but you may never leave… Has Mark Ashton been employing some kind of black magic?
Alternatively, the coaching set up and confidence around Portman Road in that double-promotion winning season made the departing players overachieve while they were here. McKenna deliberately played a system and style of play that suited the unique abilities of those players. It's interesting that the only players who earned Premier League moves were Delap, Hutchinson, and Tuanzebe. Delap's injury was genuinely unfortunate, but Hutchinson has been dropped and left out of the 25-man squad Europa League campaign. Burnley can't find room for Tuanzebe on the bench and Hdlaky hasn't even made their registered squad. Morsy's had his contract terminated after getting sent off in just his third match. In the Championship, the jury is out on most of the outgoings. Broadhead, signed for a Wrexham club record fee, has not yet broken into the starting eleven. Woolfenden looks like he's swapped one Championship bench for another. The only ones who are starting these early season games looks to be Burgess, Luongo, and Chaplin - but they're playing for (no disrespect) clubs that would happily take a mid-table finish. It's not that I want to be dismissive of the players that provided me with my happiest memories of being an Ipswich fan. But if I had to predict which of the outgoing players over the last couple of years would actually go on to have solid Premier League careers - with a gun to my head - I'm taking Delap, maybe Hutchinson, and that's it. So I don't think it's a curse, it's just regression to the mean.
Depends on how the team is doing, but he could be a shrewd, low-risk signing in January. He'd have to come back knowing that a) he won't get the captaincy back and b) he will most likely not be a first team regular. This is assuming Matusiwa, Cajuste, and Nunez are all fit and in good form. I can see a scenario where we bring him back and send Jack Taylor out on loan. He could potentially could come back in some type of part-time coaching capacity too, if that's what he wants and McKenna believes he'll do a good job. My main concern is that he didn't fancy staying to help us get promoted. He either saw the writing on the wall with us targeting central midfield for investment and a few additions and decided to leave for first team football. Or he wanted a new challenge and chased the money in Kuwait. I won't be surprised if the club refuses to get sentimental and pushes on without him.
I'm not sure its a curse, I think its the reality of being in quite a unstable environment for over a season in terms of ins and outs and it has certainly rocked the boat. I guess its the grass isn't always greener and I mean that from both a player perspective of wanting to jump ship and also a club perspective of favouring high transfer fees over form. For however much I think the club should've tried to keep Morsy and I wish he'd stayed and I think we would've been better for it, I dont think him coming back would be the right thing. We've made our bed
