Town forward Sone Aluko has revealed that he, skipper Sam Morsy and other senior players sought to instil a squad culture at Portman Road after the summer of change at the club.

Aluko was one of 19 new additions in the close season as almost 30 players, including most of the established senior players, moved on.

The 33-year-old has been one of the Blues’ standout performers this season, seemingly settling into the club comfortably, however, he says it wasn’t as easy as it might have appeared.

“It’s been trickier than maybe it’s looked from the outside,” he told TWTD. “It wasn’t easy to come and settle here. Everyone was new, all the players were new, there wasn’t like a set culture here and obviously I’m the oldest player.

“What is Ipswich Town going to be as a squad of players? Me, Sam Morsy and some of the other senior players, we spoke a lot, we texted a lot about how were going to turn this from potential at the club we think it can be, from a squad point of view. So it’s not been easy.

“And then in my very first game in the Carabao Cup I got injured, so then I missed the next four or five games, so then your fitness drops straight away because you’ve not got a lot of match fitness from pre-season. The initial transition was tricky, so I’m glad it’s looked easier from the outside.”

He says establishing cohesion within the squad was vitally important: “I think that was naturally what was going to be missing. You usually join a club and you’re one of maybe two or three new players each window. I think I was the 12th or 13th signing and then there were 19 in total.

“So there was just no squad culture. Everyone was new, everyone was learning about each other’s personalities, learning about what people want from the game, their desires.

“What I and what a 21-year-old want from the game are very different, so it was how we were going to bring all that together.

“And then obviously everyone wants to play. When you come to a club and you’re a new signing, you want to play regularly, you want to show the management what you can do, but when there are 19 signings, that can’t happen for everyone, so it’s just keeping everyone on board, keeping everyone in the same direction.

“And I think that as a squad we’ve done a really good job of that, keeping everyone together because it can fracture very easily.”

Looking back, the Blues’ slow start to the campaign was perhaps an illustration of that missing squad culture.

“It showed in the early days with our results,” he continued. “We’d score a goal and then we’d concede a goal straight afterwards or we’d be up in games and lose a game, then we didn’t win for a while.

“The cohesion wasn’t there and the club must have known that with signing all those players it wasn’t going to click straight away.”

The Covid situation didn’t make matters any easier as the new players got to know one another: “It makes everything trickier, for sure.”

Despite results not always having been what was hoped for in the early stages of the season, the incoming players still forged strong relationships with the Portman Road crowd.

Aluko says Town fans have been terrific all season: “Since I’ve been here, the fans have been incredible. That’s the other thing I’ve noticed. I’ve been at big clubs before, I played at Rangers and the fanbase there is incredible, but after that, this could be the next most impressive.

“The last away game [at MK Dons] there were 7,000 away fans and they really come and make noise. It’s humbling to play for a club of this size.

“You really have to say, ‘OK, people are spending hard-earned money, they’re travelling up and down the country to follow us, we have to give them something to really be proud of’.”

Photo: TWTD

itsonlyme added 17:50 - Feb 21 Fantastic player! Deserves, along with Burns and Edmundson to be player of the year! Getting all those players in and shifting the other ones out was always going to be tricky but we've come through it and will be disappointing now if we don't make the playoffs. That's how far we have come since KM came in. COYB!😎
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Stato added 18:10 - Feb 21 Walton player of the season by a mile
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Dab added 18:15 - Feb 21 Or maybe Donacien... When was the last time we had a few decent options to choose from?
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Saxonblue74 added 18:16 - Feb 21 Great to hear. At 33 years old he could so easily have turned up as a journeyman looking for his last good pay days. Good to know he cares!
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Bazza8564 added 18:17 - Feb 21 "It's humbling to play for a club of this size" I always love these little snippets because they give you such an insight into what the guys are thinking. KM uses "humbling" a lot too, it shows how much they appreciate it, and how the modern world allows these bonds between fans and players to develop. How we could have done with that type of feeling between the club and players in the Robson era, it was like we were on different planets compared with today

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Mariner1974 added 18:19 - Feb 21 Surprise Surprise no Squad Culture, when they were all tossed to one side! Woolfie one of the last men standing might have liked a few of his mates like Dozzell, Bishop and Downes around for starters. Just should have ditched Cook in the summer, and spared us the demolition man.
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PortmanTerrorist added 18:39 - Feb 21 Player of the year will be the one that stands up in coming weeks and gets us to or close to promotion....and Sone is as likely as anyone to be that guy. Top guy as well as performer.
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PositivelyPortman added 18:42 - Feb 21 Bazaar I don't understand that last sentence. There was great feeling between club, fans and players when Robson was manager.
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PositivelyPortman added 18:43 - Feb 21 *Bazza
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Europablue added 18:58 - Feb 21 Sounds like we're going to have a difficult time choosing player of the season. It beats other years where the number one pick was not to have the award!
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mike added 19:01 - Feb 21 What a strange thing to say Bazza!!
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Europablue added 19:02 - Feb 21 Mariner1974 Totally agree. It was never going to work for anyone to have a change of ownership, a change of manager with a whole new coaching team, a change of off the pitch management, and 19 new players. I imagine KM would have kept a fair few more of the players we shipped out. Jackson should have been one of those to leave, but now look what he's doing. To be fair to PC he did bring in some great players, it's just the squad was completely unbalanced. Anyway, it's all good now!

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NthQldITFC added 19:04 - Feb 21 Sone's interviews are always interesting, thoughtful and positive. Think he might have a good career as a coach ahead of him. But not yet! Great player, great bloke.
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Mariner1974 added 19:12 - Feb 21 BeattiesBackPocket said I was delusional to think that Dozzell and Downes would have stayed. They'd have both loved to have been at the club under the right ownership that were forward thinking and with a manager in place like McKenna who they could learn from and develop into better players. Imagine what McKenna could have done with their skillsets alongside Bishop? Paul Cook didn't like them, and they sure as heck didn't like Paul Cook. As you say Europablue - Jackson would definitely have been one of those to go with Norwood, if we could have got rid of them, and some fans wouldn't have blinked an eye. Love that we've brought in the likes of Walton, Edmondsen, Morsy, Burns, Celina, Chaplin, Bonne and co, but I'll keep banging on about how nice it would have been to have some of the academy guys along for the ride as well. The only 'he's one of our own' songs to be sung is in the direction of Woolfie and Bonne (and Bonne is of course on loan). I could totally see Downes alongside Morsy, and Bishop linking up with Celina, Chaplin and Burns.

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Len_Brennan added 19:33 - Feb 21 He's been a very good signing; we've seen what Sone can do on the pitch, & interviews like this give us an insight into the benefits of having him around the squad from day to day too. One of Paul Cook's best decisions to be fair.
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itfchorry added 19:33 - Feb 21 Had the great pleasure meeting him on the train back from Sheffield- Could not have been nicer -Top Man.
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Cakeman added 19:46 - Feb 21 Has been an excellent signing. I think his technical ability with the ball at his feet is second to none at our club. I sense he is a really decent chap who is very keen to help those around him too. All very positive.
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terryf added 20:26 - Feb 21 Cook may have his faults. Too many signings and rigid formation, but he did bring in some very good players. Some like Fraser and Barry didn't work out, but after a patchy start Aluko is really proving his worth to the Team. As for player of the year there are several contenders. Walton, Edmundson, Burns and Bonne, but to date for me Mr Consistency has to be Janoi, particularly if you take into account his appaling treatment by previous Managers. I still remember as a RIGHT BACK MR LAMBERT, how he played Albert Adomah off the Park. It beggars belief that Lambert never recognised him as a right back and loaned him out. Our New Manager by contrast has certainly identified players strengths very quickly and utilised them effectively for the benefit of the Team. Long may it continue.

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Veggie added 20:35 - Feb 21 @Mariner1974 Please stop trying to rewrite history. The old squad was awful. I remember watching us is under Lambert thinking what awful football we played. No pace, no passion, no skill. Nothing. You keep on harping on about Downes, but everyone knows he wanted out and Dozzell was ineffective (can't get into the QPR squad now). Bishop played a handful of games in 2-3 seasons. Look at Colchester for a true reflection of how bad most of them really were. Whatever you might think of Cook, he made it exciting to be an Ipswich fan again. McKenna has taken his squad and made it, to use Cook's word, ‘gel'.

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Steelmonkey added 20:40 - Feb 21 Excellent player, a really exciting, full of running, dependable and sounds like a nice bloke. I'm not that angry that Cook got rid of so many players when you see how many are at Colchester and where you see they are in their league but I would really liked to have seen Downes retained I think we have lost a real gem there.
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billlm added 21:20 - Feb 21 Love watching his craft, talented footballer, I hope he stays at least another year,
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Sharkey added 22:19 - Feb 21 'What I want and what a 21-year-old wants from a game are very different". The interviewer missed a trick by not asking him what he meant by that, but i guess it was that young players are basically selfish.
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Mariner1974 added 22:47 - Feb 21 Veggie - I'm not rewriting history my non meat eating chum. Just that it appears I have a a better memory for recent history more than yourself and many others. Start of last season Bishop, Dozzell, Nolan & Gwion were all playing well. That 4-1 win over Blackpool was slick, passing football. Yeh we were carrying some old timers and some players that no longer cut the mustard like Chambers, Skuse, Sears, Judge & Hawkins. I swore at the TV every time Judge was given the ball! It went well off the rails in the winter and when they all got Covid, but my point has always been, why did we have to get rid of ALL of them? Lambs to the slaughter. Even James Wilson. Player of the season, and didn't put a foot wrong. He'd have been a great back up to what we have and wouldn't have needed Burgess. Someone like McKenna putting his arm around Downes, with his Man Utd credentials could have kept him onside, Dozzell benefitting from the coaching and nurturing his passing ability. Bishop I consider the best of the bunch, and had finally had an injury season. Why sell him then,when he's fit and able to contribute? All the Paul Cook lovers goes on about Colchester. Yes the old guard are there and past their sell by date, but I and others are talking about the likes of Bishop, Downes, Dozzell and Lankester. The youngsters we could have made into better players under McKenna. Cook chucked out all the old players because he couldn't get a tune out of them & they couldn't stand to listen to his foghorn mouth, and the new owners I'm sure were more involved in bringing in Celina, Chaplin, Aluko, Burns, Edwards, Harper and Bonne, than Cook was. Cook give him his due pulled in some of his best previous players like Morsy, Walton, Evans. He obviously had a rapport with them. I just think he didn't have the nous and technical intelligence to take a team forward. Especially not helped by being surrounded by Gary Roberts and Franny Jeffers. All of those players will improve under McKenna.

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ArnieM added 23:52 - Feb 21 And if that interview doesn't underline why it's taken half to three quarters of this season for the new squad to bed in ,”gel” then I do t know what will convince some people. Whilst it is obvious we now have a much better coach/ manager , it is also true that Cook wasn't given a fair length of time to get this squad to work. But it is also clear that he probably would not have achieved the results McKenna has. So whilst we accept that McKenna is by far the better coach, I'd also say Cook has a point when he says he wasn't given anywhere near enough time with the then,” brand new squad”. And that the dropping of something like 15 points over those initial 6-7 games was not unexpected given it was a Brand. New. Squad! Let the down arrows begin ….

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grumpyoldman added 09:44 - Feb 22 I do enjoy reading the comments, “if this hadn't happened, if that had happened” it would have different in people's opinions. To use an old expression “if your aunty had balls she'd be your uncle!” Trying to justify your opinion with other opinions is a waste of time. Live in the here & now, accept it nothing is going to take it back unless somebody invents a time machine.

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