Town academy manager Ben Chenery says the Blues will look to recruit more players in the mould of Tudor Mendel, Somto Boniface and Luca Fletcher.

Forward Mendel (below) joined the Blues last summer from Anderlecht having previously been with Chelsea’s youth set-up with left-back Boniface (second below) joining from the West London side in January.

Forward Fletcher was recruited from Manchester City at the end of this summer window, initially on loan but with an obligation to buy.

“Some really good work has been done before my arrival by Dmitri [Halajko, previously academy director, now director of football operations] and the recruitment department in terms of identifying what that player looks like because there are so many players and you have to really identify what it is you’re looking for, what’s going to support your academy at that moment in time at the various ages and stage levels.

“And how they could progress into first team, do they progress into the wider football industry? We need to be really mindful in terms of the player and the person and I think those profiles are really strong profiles.

“You look at Tudor, he was at Chelsea, then he went out to Belgium and Anderlecht reserves and Somto with Chelsea was always very well thought of.

“Luca’s somebody who’s gone through the cat two academy at Reading until he was 16 and was well thought of and well sought-after and at 16s level went to Man City.

“He’s gone there and probably now needed an opportunity and some games, which we’ve been lucky enough to give him. These three have a profile which will benefit our football club moving forwards.

“And that’s probably where our eye now is, looking at these players who have had some of those experiences at a really elite level, who are at a level now where they can go again, they need opportunity.

“I think that’s where we are with those players, giving them the opportunity to play U21s football regularly with a mind towards being around the first team when earnt and hope that accelerates their development.

“When they’re in these big football clubs, the Chelseas etc, it’s extremely competitive, but competition drives performance. If you’re in an environment as a 14 or 15-year-old where there’s a lot of good players, you make each other better.

“And I think that’s what you see from these huge football clubs, these big cat one academies, they make each other better because of the quality of player within the building.

“But these boys will get to a level, then it starts to decrease in terms of opportunity as you go higher. These boys would be a product of that - exceptionally good football players that probably didn’t quite have a pathway at that moment and look at Ipswich Town as having a really strong academy, a cat one academy, an excellent first team with one of the top managers in in the country, who has got an eye for development, who has worked in academies.

“I think that’s a really good, attractive option for these players and I think that’s why we are seeing these players want to come to Ipswich Town to further their careers.”

Over the years, the Blues have lost a number of academy prospects to big clubs, the likes of Calum Logan, who moved to Spurs in 2023, Ben Knight, who left for Manchester City in 2018, Charlie Brown, who joined Chelsea in 2016, Marcelo Flores, who departed for Arsenal in 2018, and Harry Clarke, who previously joined the Gunners in 2015 before returning to Suffolk in 2023.


Asked whether he believes Town will have a greater chance of keeping hold of their top talents now they’re category one, Chenery said: “I think so and I think there’s always timing at football clubs. I think the football club now with where it is, where the academy is, it’s starkly different from when I was here last time in terms of the processes, in terms of staffing, in terms of just the enormity of how big the academy is and in terms of the direction it’s travelling in.

“Those players at that time, that might have been a really attractive opportunity for the football club at the time and good for the player, it might have really worked for both parties.

“But I think now cat one football brings an exceptionally strong, relentless games programme. We can be playing against the best players in this country at that age and I think players want to be on that stage.

“I think now the opportunity is there for those players to come here and want to stay and develop here because we’re at that top level of academy football. That can only bode well for them and for us.”

Recruiting players is always competitive but Chenery says the experiences of the players at the club now can help when it comes to attracting others going forward.

“I think we have a good coverage of recruiters and scouts in local areas and beyond as far as we can fish and look at those talents,” he said.

“We’ve got to make sure that when people come in and train here or come on trial or we bring them into our environment that they’re really well looked after, they have a clear pathway. But that’s both sides, us and them, they have to bring themselves every single day.

“The family's a big part of what we do here, so make sure the family feel really welcome because people’s parents spend a lot of time here and their siblings are here.

“We’ve got to make sure that it’s an environment for them to be here and enjoy their son or daughter’s development. And we’re doing that and I can really see that.

“I think there’s clarity here in terms of us wanting to be a go-to for all these young players, but once they come inside this building, we’ve got to make sure we connect quickly. We’ve got to make sure we understand them and build rapport and then we’ve got to be really competent in what we do to add value and improve the player.

“And I think we're on that journey. We’ve got some really good practice going on here and we’ll only ever get better and better.

“But it’s our job to make sure they want to be here and then they’re our client, they’re our audience. They go and tell everybody to be at Ipswich because of this, this, this and this. And that’s the point where we’re at and we’re going to get better and better.”

Meanwhile, the Blues recently had three players in an England U15s emerging talents squad training and playing games at St George’s Park, which Chenery sees as a feather in the club’s cap.

“In the U15s emerging talents, we’ve had Zac Wattley, Ashton Begg and Tommy McLoughlin which is really big for the football club because you want to be recognised,” he added.

“I haven't been here long and I’ve tried to spend as much time as I can observing training and good practice and we have got some good footballers here in these younger age groups, and I’m really proud and pleased that they’ve been recognised and the club's been recognised.

“And it’s been lovely to see the players post pictures up at St George’s Park and the games and the experiences they’ve had.

“It’s been really powerful and it gives people the opportunity here to go, ‘well, it is possible’. And the staff to go, ‘come on, we’re producing players now’.

“But we can’t stop with that now, we’ve got to go again, we’ve got to keep pushing. But I think it's been priceless for three to be involved in the U15 training camps.

“In addition, we’ve had [U21s keeper] Henry [Gray] away with New Zealand at the U20 World Cup. We’ve had young Jayden [Adetiba], first-year scholar, with the UAE, [U21s forward] Josh Pitts with Malta, so things are happening and that can only be a really good thing for the football club.”

Could the links with those overseas FAs help with academy recruitment? “It’s not as easy looking into Europe because of the current rules after Brexit etc, so you’re looking at 18, but there are other areas, Ireland etc for recruitment, but that's difficult.

“But I think it’s important to have a voice or a conversation with these international FAs because somewhere down the line, it’s a phone call if we’ve got someone we might like or could they come over for trial or could you have a look at them. Of course, those things will happen.

“So it’s a real positive and it’s nice for us to be recognised that we have players of that ilk and that quality, and I think that’s a really big bonus for us, a big plus.”

Photo: TWTD

grow_our_own added 11:51 - Oct 14 "We're an Attractive Option For These Players" - Luke Woolfenden would disagree. Need to resume the famed Ipswich youth conveyor-belt to the first team. Home-grown and long-standing talent should be given equal opportunity with big-money signings. That hasn't always happened in the last 12+ months. High transfer fee does not always equal a "high-ceiling", ie worthy of carrying. I cite Greaves replacing Burgess, or Johnson replacing Clarke last season - these did not work. It's worth having a period of "positive discrimination" the other way, ie prefer home-grown talent so as to be able to tell a better story to parents: choose us, not Chelsea/Man City/Arsenal/Spurs, because we give youth a chance.

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muccletonjoe added 12:30 - Oct 14 Important for young players coming through the academy to push on and improve what we have in the team. We have had little of that for many years now
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flykickingbybgunn added 14:20 - Oct 14 The academy is a long term investment. At least we have started it now properly and hopefully it will pay dividends.
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