Ipswich Town concerns have been raised about the large turnover of players at Portman Road following their return to the Championship.
The Tractor Boys have managed just three points from their opening four games after bringing in 11 new faces during the summer window.
Kieran McKenna’s side drew with both Birmingham City and Southampton before losing to Preston North End. This was all before it took a 90+16 Jack Clarke penalty at home to Derby County before the international break to salvage a point against the Rams.
Ipswich Town’s “biggest concern” raised
Speaking about his main worry regarding the club’s current situation, FLW’s Ipswich Town Fan Pundit, Adam Wilkin, revealed, “I think the biggest concern is the amount of new players and the amount of turnover thats come through in the summer window.”It’s not news that Town lost arguably their best players from their Premier League campaign, with Liam Delap departing for Chelsea in a £30m deal and Omari Hutchinson joining Nottingham Forest for £37.5m.
These departures, alongside the exits of captain Sam Morsy and several others who have played a decent part in their success, like Nathan Broadhead, have definitely altered the look of McKenna’s squad.”I think like a lot of newly relegated teams there was a lot of uncertainty around players and that has seen a struggle in results on the pitch, we’ve only got three points from our first three games and there’s a lot of new faces in the door,” Wilkin continued.”Those new faces aren’t exactly like-for-like changes, a lot of the players who have come in will play the roles that they’ll end up playing in, in slightly different ways to the old McKenna style.Sindre Walle Egeli’s record-breaking £17.5m signing from Nordsjaelland and Marcelino Nunez snubbing Norfolk in a £10m deal are examples of how the players brought in to replace the old by McKenna aren’t exact swaps.
Ipswich Town need to “start getting results quickly”
Wilkin acknowledged, “Obviously, things need to adapt and it’s a different challenge, different season, so time on the training pitch will be important, which we’ll have had over the international break.”But, it’s a tough league and you need things to gel quickly and start getting results quickly,” he continued.Out of all the relegated Premier League sides from the 24/25 season, Leicester City are the best performers prior to the international break ending, currently sitting in 4th-place on nine points.Ipswich are the only one out of the three yet to win a game, although Southampton aren’t exactly off to a flyer either – they only have two more points than Town.”So, that’s my biggest concern that, all of the new players won’t gel into an effective team until a bit later on in the season, by which time may be too late,” Wilkin concluded.As pointed out by Wilkin, the international break obviously provides crucial time on the training pitch, but the schedule of the Champuonship means there’s not loads of time to get things perfect once the season restarts.
However, you could argue that September’s fixtures are easier on paper than that of their first four games. They’re at home to bottom of the league Sheffield United on Friday before travelling to currently 19th-placed Blackburn Rovers. This could mean that Ipswich fans like Wilkin may not have these concerns for long.
