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.
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!
That first McKenna team has certainly been ripped up and mostly moved on elsewhere. Davis and Hirst deserve their first team spots, but will have to up their performance levels with the competition coming in. I still believe that players like Burgess, Morsy, and Hutchinson (had he stayed) would've been good enough to challenge or start in the new team. Now, players like Woolfenden, Harry Clarke, Jack Taylor, Burns, Chaplin, and Al-Hamadi will be forgiven for pausing and wondering if they're going to be first team regulars or even trusted enough to make the bench this season. I won't be surprised if we see a few of them depart by the end of the window. McKenna's Ipswich 2.0 looks brilliant on paper, packed with depth and with players that have been recruited continentally (something most of us have been wanting to see for years). But the real litmus test will be whether we can achieve promotion this season and make a better attempt to stay up in the Premier League, should we return. Anything less than promotion this season will rightly be considered a failure and a disappointment.
I will always keep my opinions flexible. Perhaps O’Shea will turn out to be a decent captain. The young fella from Norway looks like some player. The signings from other Championship clubs perhaps not so exciting prospects but we are signing first team starters now. Just a couple of years ago we had to make the best of players who couldn’t get a regular game at this level for other clubs.
Well I'm happy with nearly all the signings, especially Nuñez and the Norwegian lad, I think they will turn out to be fantastic signings. Not sure about the Mcateer signing tho, hope I'm wrong but time will tell. I'm actually not overly fussed about going back up this season as it will take time for these players to all get used to playing together, obviously if we do then great but as long as the signs are great in the second half of the season....then I will be happy and looking forward to a steamroller season 26/27
A week that changes the dial on the transfer window. It blows my starting theory that we did our recruitment for this season last summer out, but what I find impressive is that, from certain viewpoints, it's another window of upgrading. Everyone still to prove themselves but: Young - much more pedigree than either H Clarke or Johnson Nunez - better than Taylor, more seasons left than Morsy. Egli - arrives with more fanfare than Delap did. Azon - unknown quantity but, looking at it emotionlessly is, an on paper, upgrade on Broad head. Akpom - I'm stretching to call it an upgrade but, has scored more championship goals than Hutchinson. Matisuwa - has more development potential than Luongo My biggest concern is the late influx, and how long it may take to see a team emergency from 11 talented individuals. McKenna has the tools, it'd be difficult to defend not getting top 6 at a minimum.
