Town captain Sam Morsy has hailed Massimo Luongo as his favourite midfielder he has played with ahead of Luongo’s final game for the club this weekend.
Morsy and Luongo formed a formidable partnership in the centre of the Blues midfield from the Australian’s arrival in January 2023 until promotion to the Premier League in May 2024.
The duo were virtually ever-present for that 16-month period and achieved successive promotions from League One to the top flight.
With Luongo’s minutes limited this season, manager Kieran McKenna announced on Friday that he will be leaving the club this summer following Town’s final league game of the season against West Ham United on Sunday.
Morsy paid tribute to his midfield partner, insisting the Blues would not have achieved their success if it was not for Luongo’s free transfer two-and-a-half years ago.
"Incredibly important,” he said. "I remember when he signed mid-January, I don’t think we would have got promoted without him for the League One campaign. The Championship campaign as well, he was brilliant and instrumental in what we did.
"He’s a player who you don’t fully appreciate until you’ve played with him and how much he helps the team. A lot of his outstanding qualities and attributes are things you probably can’t see – controlling the rhythm, when to do things, when to move and he’s fantastic like that. He’s probably my favourite midfielder I’ve played with in my career.
"I always knew he was a really good player. At Middlesbrough he hadn’t played when he came in. Mass at times can be very relaxed so when he started training he wasn’t playing for a while, he’d have his pants on and long trousers in training and go through the motions a bit but we could see the quality.
"He came on against MK Dons away for Cam Humphreys and he completely changed the game and won the game. From then, his performances have been so consistent.
"I knew he’d do well but you couldn’t imagine what he’s done for a free transfer and to be such a vital part of getting back-to-back promotions is historic.”
Picking one memory from the pair’s time together proved a difficult task for Morsy, with the consecutive promotions being a choice deemed too obvious.
Instead, the former Egypt international opted to pick out two matches from Town’s Championship campaign last season.
"Two promotions but he’s had some fantastic games,” he considered. "Blackburn at home, Swansea away last year was a bit of a flat game and he really took the game by the scruff of the neck.
"He’s been brilliant, we wouldn’t have done it without him and I genuinely believe that, he’s been a massive part of it.
"We signed Tayls [Jack Taylor] for a bit of money in the Championship campaign and there was probably an expectation for Tayls to play, but Mass kept his levels so high and went on to play the majority of the games.”
Many supporters rank Morsy and Luongo’s partnership as one of the most important of recent years, but the Blues have found forming connections more difficult in the Premier League this season.
Morsy said: "That’s what we’ve built our success on with our structure and style of play. We’ve still got it but the connections and partnerships are so important.
"Mass probably helped me last season do my bit as well because he’s such a complementary player. You need players like that and you need really unselfish players and the unsung heroes in the teams, they’re really important and that’s what Mass is. Next season we’re going to need those relationships again to work.”
While the Australian international will be moving on, Morsy says he expects to remain at Portman Road to forge those relationships with whoever might come in over the summer: "As it stands, I’ve still got another year left on my contract.”
Luongo believes he still has something to give to the game, albeit away from Portman Road. That is something Morsy echoes, while also admitting he has missed playing alongside Luongo over the last year.
"Yeah, I’d say so,” he said. "We had a really good relationship, we understood how each other operate and he’s a really good team player.
"Again, I don’t think people understand how good he is until you’ve played with him and what he does for the team.
"You get some players who may be outstanding players but don’t help the team as much, and you get other players who, not only are they good players, but also help the team enormously and he’s one of them. Any good Championship team should be looking at him.”