Hackney turning us down in August is not the complete rejection of Ipswich Town F.C. that it is often made out to be on here. I think it is almost certain that he would have joined us then, had we been in the position that we are now; he wasn't looking to leave Middlesbrough, his home town club, he wanted to play Premier League football. When we matched their valuation, it put him in a difficult position, as moving here would not match his footballing ambitions anymore than staying where he was, but would see him having to move away from home & the club he supports.
If any of us were blessed enough to be playing for Ipswich, would we willingly leave to go to a rival club in the same league, a club that had recently spent a number of seasons in the league below? He clearly saw Middlesbrough as having a good chance of promotion & wanted to be part of that.
Of course we looked like we would have a better shot at it, but from his prospective, he was likely to be playing Premier League football come next August anyway; he clearly believes in himself, rightly so, and saw no immediate gain in coming to us.
If Middlesbrough had gone up, and there is a strong chance they would have had he not gotten injured, what an achievement that would have been for a local boy, one that he would have been gutted to have missed, even if we went up with them.
So I would expect us to go back in for him, as he is certainly PL class & is the kind of player we need in our midfield, and while I don't expect us to get him now that he is Championship player of the season & will have many suitors, I don't think he reject us out of hand on the basis of his visit last August. |
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