At last! Some news this summer!

Sounds like some decent signings. Squad finally coming together, let's hope it doesnt take too long for everyone to get up to speed.

Is Nunez the Morsy replacement? Looks like he has some similar traits in terms of getting the ball off the CBs and breaking the lines.

 

And now it looks like we have signed
Sindre Walle Egeli .

What a window! All that.we could have hoped for and a truly international squad.

 

And Nunez is a done deal. McKenna’s Ipswich v4.0 could be one hell of a side.

 

Are you committing to that view or will you keep the opinion flexible....

Seriously though i think we have done pretty well with signings.....the fella from Norwich could be a concern unless he hits the ground running because i know some 'fans' will be chomping at the bit to have a moan about it.

 

A whirlwind few days on the transfer front! I half-expected all this to drag on until the last few hours of deadline day.

Let's start with Marcelino Nunez - arguably the biggest transfer, certainly in terms of attention. He was widely considered to be one of Norwich's best players over the last few years. Disregard their fanbase's recent coping attempts - they did not want to see Nunez leave and certainly not to us. Yes, he does have injury problems but has consistently started over 32 odd league games a season for Norwich. It's not like he's been side-lined for months at a time. And tellingly, when he hasn't played for them, their results have generally been worse. Nunez brings us composure, technique, and vision in the central midfield. Possibly the new Morsy role, but who is the new first choice central midfield pair? I'm guessing there'll be a bit of rotation to manage Nunez's and Cajuste's minutes to mitigate against injuries. Or do we go 4-3-3 and play all three midfielders with Nunez given licence to push forward? Still, I'm impressed we got him - although £7.5 million (potentially rising to £10m with add ons) for a player in the last year of his contract feels like we've been hit with a bit of an Ipswich-Norwich rivalry tax to make it happen.

Darnell Furlong is a clever, low-risk addition that gives us more depth in defence and allows Ben Johson or Ashley Young to cover Davis at left back should he get injured. Another West Brom lad - that must be five ex Baggies at the club now - so hopefully there won't be issues settling into the team.

I'm less convinced on the Ivan Azon loan move. The move had previously collapsed and that's where my questions start. Was it due to club concerns on fitness or how he'll fit into the squad? Did we then get desperate to bring him in when other centre-forward options fell through? Or was it Azon not initially wanting to move to us, and only agreed to it when other options in Spain failed to materialise? No doubt he'll be professional, but some early concerns for me. I've not seen him play before, but I'll presume he's a good player. Competition for Hirst is key, particularly if we're moving towards a playing style where we need the centre forward to be a composed finisher.

And finally the widely-reported move for Sindre Walle Egeli (aka 'that Norwegian lad', as my mates have been calling him) looks to be on. At £17.3 million (with an additional £4m odd with add-ons), we've broken the Championship record fee spent on a player. He has a strong reputation as an emerging talent in Europe - which kinda begs the question why we haven't faced reported competition for him. Maybe Premier League clubs are scared to spend that fee on an untested player in the PSR landscape? Either way, an exciting young talent who is two-footed and can play across the attacking positions. I think we've got a real player on our hands here and looking forward to seeing him play.

Yes, I'm rambling - but there are a lot of recent transfers to cover! My main concern is whether we're setting ourselves up for another transition-type season. A key factor in our last promotion was stability, set patterns of play, and a squad with strong confidence and morale. I think we can all agree that this squad - on paper - is superior to our promotion-winning squad (and probably any Ipswich squad over the last two decades). But a team of individuals won't necessarily win promotion. In McKenna, we've got a proven promotion-winning manager who knows how to put a team together. The challenge will be doing it this season and winning an instant return to the Premier League. Early indications seem to imply this Championship isn't as strong and competitive as recent seasons. If we can get the team to adapt quickly with the new players, then I think we can go on a really strong run.

 

A splendid ramble Nuggets, quite justified. Key issue is how quickly can KM bed such a talented group of new players into a squad that is still finding its legs.

As I often have said, we.will see the real character of this new Ipswich by end Sept, even October. Only two survivors of our promotion winning team, Hirst and Davis!