Town boss Mick McCarthy says the impact made by a number of youngsters during pre-season has been an upside of the Blues’ lack of success in the transfer market this summer.
Andre Dozzell, 17, has continued his progress having broken into the first team at the end of last season, while 18-year-old James Blanchfield (above) has featured regularly throughout Town’s friendly programme and Tristan Nydam, 16, made his first appearance for the senior side at Cambridge on Saturday.
"That’s been good, the performances from some of them,” McCarthy said. "Tristan was good [at Cambridge], I thought James Blanchfield was excellent and Dozzer’s come on and played his usual game, scored his goal. That for me is a real positive, that’s nice.”
Born in Southend, central midfielder Blanchfield, who signed a one-year deal with an option for a further season earlier in the summer, was with Arsenal’s youth set-up for eight years before joining the Blues in July 2014, having previously spent time on trial with Manchester United.
Zimbabwe-born, Colchester-raised box-to-box midfielder Nydam, who was on standby for the England U17s squad for the European Championships in June, only starts the first year of his academy scholarship this summer, but McCarthy says he is in his thoughts for the season ahead.
"He’s got a chance because there’ll be no emergency loans,” the Town boss added. "And I don’t want to take somebody else’s kids when we’ve got our own talented quite prodigious kids. Tristan is one of them.
Nydam
"I think James Blanchfield is as well, I thought he was excellent in the first half and we know Dozzer is.
"I’d like to give them their heads rather than take somebody else [on loan] and find they’re not quite up to it because very often we take them and they haven’t played in the Championship, although I would say Ainsley [Maitland-Niles] was great for the first half of the season, I think he just ran out of gas.”
Also involved throughout pre-season has been Irish U18 international striker Shane McLoughlin, 19, while 17-year-old Ben Morris also featured in the earlier games.
Skipper Luke Chambers says the youngsters have benefited from being given their chance in pre-season and believes Portman Road is a great place to be for young players.
Dozzell
"James Blanchfield has done well, they’ve all done well and they’re thriving with the opportunity they’ve been given,” he said.
"All you can do is chuck them in. No one had heard of Teddy Bishop before he played at Derby [two years ago]. The lads had trained with him three or four times, he came in and he was an absolutely world beater.
"It’s a fantastic opportunity for the boys to take because the squad’s not the biggest and if you’re a young player at Ipswich Town and you’re good enough, you’re going to get an opportunity. I wouldn’t really want to be anywhere else if I was a young player at the moment.”
Town play their final away game of pre-season at Charlton this evening (KO 7.45pm). They complete their friendly programme with Saturday's home match against Belgium second division side Royale Union Saint-Gilloise (KO 3pm).
Meanwhile, the club will announce the squad numbers for the season ahead later today.