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Town Confirm Bakinson Loan Signing - Ipswich Town News

Town have completed the signing of Bristol City midfielder Tyreeq Bakinson on loan for the rest of the season with the Blues having the option to make the move permanent in the summer.

The 23-year-old, who will wear the number 12 shirt, is delighted to join Town having been impressed by the ambition at Portman Road.

He is the Blues' second signing of the January window after keeper Christian Walton, whose loan from Brighton was turned into a permanent switch yesterday.

"It’s a massive club which is going in the right direction, so I’m buzzing to be a part of it,” Bakinson told the club site. "Everyone at the club is very ambitious so it’s definitely something I’m very excited about.

"I’m a hard-working player who likes to get on the ball. I’m a box-to-box midfielder and hopefully I’ll get a goal or two. I want to play as many games as I can and help the team as much as possible.”

Manager Kieran McKenna added: "It was really important that we kept Christian Walton and Macauley Bonne at the club. Once we had done that, we knew that we would look at some areas in the squad to see where we may be able to strengthen or add depth.

"Tyreeq is a versatile midfielder who can play across the pitch and cover a number of positions. He offers us something different and is at an age where he has lots of years ahead to improve further.

"We really like Tyreeq as a player. He’s young, hungry, athletic and technical. He is fit and has played plenty of games already this season, so it won’t take him long to get up to speed.

"He needs to meet the group and settle, but it shouldn’t be long before we see him in action.”

Blackpool and Hull City are also understood to have shown interest in Bakinson but with the Robins preferring central midfielder to join a club outside the Championship.

London-born Bakinson came through the youth ranks at Luton before joining City - where Town CEO Mark Ashton was then in charge - in October 2017 having made four senior starts and two sub appearances for the Hatters.

Since then Bakinson has made 33 starts and 20 sub appearances, scoring five times, while also spending spells out on loan at Newport County in 2018/19 and Plymouth Argyle in the second half of the following campaign.

Towards the end of last year, the Robins activated an additional one-year option in his contract in order to protect their asset taking his deal to the summer of 2023.

Bakinson is Town’s fourth current loan player - alongside Bersant Celina from Dijon, Macauley Bonne from QPR and Hayden Coulson from Middlesbrough - with Walton having signed on a permanent basis and Louie Barry returning to Aston Villa earlier in the month.

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