Town have confirmed the loan signing of Brighton & Hove Albion’s Paraguayan international forward Julio Enciso.

Enciso, who celebrates his 21st birthday today, was first mentioned as a target of the Blues and Leicester by media in his home country last week when TWTD confirmed he had been a player Town had eyed in the previous couple of windows. News that he was set to sign emerged from Paraguay on Tuesday evening.

According to reports in Italy and Paraguay, Valencia, Atalanta and Borussia Dortmund all showed interest in taking Enciso on loan, while it’s claimed Manchester United made an approach to Brighton after the deal had been done with the Blues, eyeing the Caaguazu-born attacker as a potential replacement for Alejandro Garnacho, who is expected to depart Old Trafford.

“I am so happy to be here,” Enciso told TownTV. “The conversations with the manager have been good. I am very grateful to him and the club for believing in me. I can’t wait to get going. I’m a real fighter and I will do my best in every game.”

The new recruit, Town’s third of the window, will join up with his new teammates in the days to come and may be involved at Liverpool on Saturday.

Enciso, who is 5ft 8in tall, joined Brighton from Club Libertad in his home country for £9 million in 2022.

He has made 22 starts for the Seagulls - 14 in the Premier League - and 33 sub appearances, scoring five goals.

One of those goals was a superb strike against Manchester City in May 2023 which sealed Brighton’s place in the Europa League and was selected as both the Match of the Day and Premier League Goal of the Season for the 2022/23 campaign, and was also nominated for the FIFA Puskas Award.

Capped 23 times by Paraguay, scoring twice, Enciso is contracted to Albion until the summer of 2026.

As he is 21, the club’s first ever Paraguayan international doesn’t count towards the 25-man Premier League squad, which has to be resubmitted shortly after the transfer window closes. The Blues are understood to be covering his wages in full.

Town and the Seagulls did January loan business for a South American attacker last year, Ecuadorian international Jeremy Sarmiento coming in and playing a big part in the promotion to the Premier League and creating one of Portman Road’s most memorable moments with his last-gasp winner against Southampton.

The Blues have been after three attacking players in this window, forwards Enciso and Jaden Philogene, who joined from Aston Villa last week, and a number nine, who they now have just under a fortnight to recruit before the Monday 3rd February deadline.

Having added Enciso and Philogene, Blues boss McKenna now has an abundance of options for the roles behind number nines Liam Delap or George Hirst, particularly on the left side.

Whether he might look to move anyone on before the window closes remains to be seen. Nathan Broadhead’s former loan club Sunderland were keen to bring him back to Wearside late in the summer window, while we understand Middlesbrough have more recently been keeping tabs on the Wales international.

Jack Clarke could only return to Sunderland having played for the Blues and Black Cats already this season.

Photo: Matchday Images/ITFC

Mariner1974 added 12:02 - Jan 23 Yeh great signing. Will add plenty of guile to our attacking midfield options and provide a spark when any of our usual guys are off colour. Looking forward to seeing him play with Omari, Philogene and Delap! You'd think if we can do the business and bring in that extra striker up top to bolster the forward line with Delap and Hirst, it would be Ogbene (whilst injured), Harry Clarke, Edmundson, Al Hamadi to make way to make the 25. If we bring 2 more players in, then possibly Luongo to miss out, though I'd rather have him than Wesley!

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SickParrot added 12:05 - Jan 23 Kieran and Mark Ashton did very well to convince him to come here given our position in the league and having just been thrashed by City. I think what happened to City last night shows that what happened on Sunday was more about our inadequacies than City having returned to top form.
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victorysquad added 12:06 - Jan 23 Looking forward to seeing him play, hopefully on Saturday. We are starting to build enough quality up top to bring on the subs and keep the same level. Hopefully this should give us more confidence, that the starting 11 do not have to do it every game, and the subs can start to make more of an impact.
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billlm added 12:08 - Jan 23 If broadheads goes that's criminal,
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blues1 added 12:15 - Jan 23 People saying we'd be 1 over the 25 are actually wrong. As Cajuste doesn't count as part of the squad. As loans from abroad do not have to be named in the 25 man squad. We have to move a few on tho bcse of the psr.
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blues1 added 12:21 - Jan 23 Bluewhiteboy. " If we don't stay up, it will be poor". Are you for real? U need to get things into perspective. If we stay up it will be great. If we do go down then will simply be, to be expected, taking into account we still have lge1 players in the squad. Yes, Mckenna has been backed, but tge amount of money we habe spent, is still a drop in the ocean compared to most teams in the pl.

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Northstandveteran added 12:34 - Jan 23 If we avoid the drop this will be a far greater achievement than the last two promotions combined. Posters need to remember that this is still a learning curve for our manager as well as the players.
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RegencyBlue added 12:39 - Jan 23 Good signing but am I alone in thinking midfield is a problem? Phillips was obviously signed to bring quality to the middle but doesn’t really look half the player he was before Man City ruined him. Cajuste looks good but managing this knee injury is restricting his minutes on the pitch. Morsey has been much better in the PL than I expected but there are signs he’s beginning to be found out by opposition teams. We can have the best forward line going but if we can’t get control of the ball and feed it to them we still have an issue.

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Leejames99 added 12:40 - Jan 23 Welcome Enciso, what a great signing and beating off clubs mentioned is a real credit to Mckenna. It seems some from this post and others want us to stay up, want us to evolve, want us to sign players but under no circumstances move on any of the old guard, it's football, players come and go, none of those lads want to sit in bench or not be in squad it's better for their careers to go and we can't loan all of them, are squad be huge in Summer. Jack Clarke won't go, he was bought as a future star, he breezes through defenders, he just needs to bulk up and get better at defending and mckenna will do that, aside that a previous poster is right he can only go to Sunderland and they don't need hin now nor would we loan him to help them go up. We will be looking at who is top of Championship as whoever goes up or stays in will impact next season for us. I still think 2 more signings will come in, a midfielder and a striker. Berahima is being rumoured. Broadhead might go out on loan but I hope not but his playing time will be reduced so he might want to go and play. I think Luongo will have contract terminated, Ohbene out of squad, Burns and Chaplin, Hamadi sold, Morsy will be kept but not play much now, Woolfeden and H Clarke loans, Edmondson may stay as we will need cover in case of injuries and he can only go to Boro or play for us. Interesting that Muric is still the third highest keeper for making tge most saves in Prem behind Forest keeper and Pickford and hasn't played for a few games. Be an interesting 10 days to see who Mckenna and Ashton conjour up but I think we have had an excellent Jan window so far. Still Southampton, Leicester and Wolves to go down for me but the Southampton game is a real 6 pointer. COYB

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Dissboyitfc added 12:48 - Jan 23 Excellent news! An upgraded version of Celina!
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mathiemagic added 12:50 - Jan 23 Where has the Broadhead being sold/loaned come from ? - He is one of our players that is actually of Prem quality (Not being played nearly enough IMHO) - Surely he has to be kept on?
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IpswichT62OldBoy added 13:00 - Jan 23 He looks pleased,,,,,,good
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Churchmans_crate added 13:08 - Jan 23 From what I hear from Brighton fans, we have got a real talent who could do very well for us. He will definitely be leaving Brighton in the summer (only a year on his contract as of this summer, and he has not signed a new one before joining us), and he is very ambitious. I'm not being funny, but his next permanent transfer will not be to Ipswich. Following this summer, he will also qualify as a homegrown player in England.

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PortmanTerrorist added 13:20 - Jan 23 Sarmiento 2.0 !
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Marinersnose added 13:21 - Jan 23 Fantastic addition who will compete for the number 10 role. As other posts have mentioned Broadhead is one of our star players who is clearly PL ready so hopefully the Sunderland links are just media hype. Another striker and a number one would be excellent. We need a strong spine and imo Hladky hasn’t been adequately replaced.
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scooby added 13:32 - Jan 23 Broadhead plays that left side position better than anyone and its not even close
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Gforce added 13:41 - Jan 23 Welcome aboard Julio,hope you can enjoy the Same success as your team mate achieved last season,another goal on your home debut against Southampton would be very nice indeed. Who knows if you have a successful 5 months here,a permanent deal might be on the horizon,although the better you do,the more difficult this could be,as other clubs will no doubt be sniffing. It's a catch 22 situation really.

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Leejames99 added 13:54 - Jan 23 @marinersnose I completely agree, I think Broadhead stays if he is happy to be a squad player but that's modern football now, many top players are on bench and he can make an impact. I think Burns, Chaplin, Morsy etc will all go before Broadhead unless he wants to be a starter elsewhere then maybe a loan. I agree new striker and I also think a new keeper will come in, I have hunch Slicker will go on loan and we will bring inna number 1, Nick Pope maybe if Newcastle get Trafford, I think with our team rejuvenating a keeper will be in the mix, but Walton has done well, I also think in time Muric will be a beast of a keeper, still 3rd most saves this season, needs to improve his composure that's all imo. Maybe a right winger to cover Hutch but Szmodicks did well there vs Fulham, can Broadhead play right wing? COYB

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poet added 15:11 - Jan 23 Superb signing. Just what we need.
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Eeyore added 17:53 - Jan 23 Look forward to seeing him skipping past Trent at the weekend. Enciso, Philogene, Hutchinson and Delap all to start ? Cant see the Liverpool back line liking the look of that.
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fifeblue added 22:04 - Jan 23 Top photo looks photoshopped. Either that or he is a thunderbird puppet. 5' 8" - not exactly a target man so he must come with other benefits.
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