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Thread | Omari - new contract coming his way..?
at 10:46 15 Jul 2025
The club cannot offer him a new deal that removes the current release clause, but if he remains an Ipswich player beyond the expiry of the release clause, then I'm guessing conversations with his representatives will have taken place regarding a new bumper contract to ensure he stays with us?
Keeping Omari will be the best business we can do this summer. |
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Thread | Squad shape up / transfer targets
at 13:48 16 Jun 2025
GK - Palmer / Muric / Walton / Slicker
RB - Tuanzebe (?) / Johnson / H Clarke
RCB - O'Shea / Woolfenden
LCB - Greaves
LB - Davis / Townsend
CM - Morsy
CM - J Taylor
RW - Philogene / Ogbene / Burns
C10 - Hutchinson / Chaplin
L10 - J Clarke / Szmodics / Broadhead
ST - Hirst / Al-Hamadi
It feels like an unbalanced squad at present with a few needing to be moved on to create room for a few brought in to get the 2 in each position McKenna likes. The central midfield needs a couple of solid additions.
Few thoughts...
- Muric or Walton to depart permanently - with Slicker loaned out.
- New left footed CB to join to compete with Greaves. Possibly another right footed CB if O'Shea moves on. Could need 2 CB's this window, but definitely be in the market for 1.
- Two new CM's of starting 11 quality needed. Biggest priority of the window for me. I like Jason Knight a lot so I hope we are in for him.
- Two new strikers/1 striker + 1 versatile attacker. We must get that right this summer. Got away with it before, but can't afford to leave ourselves short again.
- I feel like it's a big pre season for Harry Clarke & Jack Taylor. To me, it feels like their progress is stagnating a bit (though I appreciate last season was a massive step up in quality), both probably on the fringes this summer. Broadhead probably gets moved on in a stacked area of the pitch. Question mark over Johnson's role this season too - not sure the trust is there with him defensively but we'll see - has 3 years left on his contract so need to try and get the best from him somewhere. Al Hamadi to move on permanently later on in the window if we sort ourselves out. Humphreys to be given a chance in pre season, but I think he will find himself back out on loan to a Championship side.
To round up, a minimum of 6 players needed this summer and 4 or 5 to be moved on or loaned out.
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Thread | England
at 09:16 11 Jun 2025
It's definitely been a challenging first couple of camps for Tuchel. Most importantly, they've won the games that they needed to win, but the performances haven't got going yet. I guess Tuchel is learning about the squad but will probably still have a lot of question marks over who could be in his 26 man squad for the World Cup.
I thought Chalobah did well last night - looked comfortable and assured defensively and in possession. I thought MGW looked bright when he came on. He has good movement off the ball, supports the striker well, creative and forward thinking, but is also good out of possession at pressing high. Those two players come away with credit on the night.
What is England's best 11 though? And what would your style of play be? |
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Thread | Omari
at 12:59 20 May 2025
Does he have a release clause?
I remember rumours of a £35m or £36m release clause (was it the Athletic who reported it?). Is there any truth in this figure?
If it is true, as much as I think he's too good to play in the Championship next season, I can't see there being many clubs in a position to pay that type of money yet. |
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Thread | James Hill - Bournemouth
at 11:02 15 May 2025
Could he be someone on the radar this summer for the hybrid right back role if Tuanzebe moves on?
He's made a few appearances for Bournemouth this season, can play right back or centre back and would seem like the type of profile we'd be after.
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Thread | Summer window
at 11:46 12 May 2025
Who stays? Who moves on?
Woolfenden, Davis, Morsy, Burns, Chaplin & Hirst were ever presents under McKenna in the promotion winning L1 & Championship seasons - will most of them be the spine in the Championship again next season as they understand the way we play the most and suit the system? And we look to add a couple of quality additions to the starting 11 and bolster the squad out with more strength in depth, ie, centre midfield and another Hirst.
Personally, I don't see Luongo or Harness here next season. I think Walton, Al-Hamadi and possibly Broadhead might move on in positions where they're quite stacked already. Obviously I don't see Delap or Hutchinson playing Champ football next season, but I think we will do well to hold on to O'Shea and Greaves too, possibly Tuanzebe.
As for players like Jack Taylor, I don't think he will be good enough to nail down a starting role, but as it's an area we will be thin in, does he stay for another year? Or are we ruthless and really upgrade our midfield with a bit of financial power behind us? |
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Thread | Carl Rushworth, Jason Knight & Flynn Downes
at 08:17 29 Apr 2025
There's 3 names that I have a feeling we will be making moves for.
I'm in two minds about Palmer, plus Rushworth has been linked before.
Knight & Downes would be a brilliant engine room in the Championship behind a front 4. |
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Thread | Line up tomorrow
at 10:38 25 Apr 2025
I can't see a thread on this already, but it's quite a selection headache given the LB situation. I don't think we'll throw the young lad in from the off, but we'll pinned back in if Greaves plays there.
Not really sure what we do here to keep the balance of having a left footer. The logical option for me is Godfrey, but I don't know if he will appear for us again despite being on the bench last week.
EDIT: Before someone points it out, I know Godfrey is right footed.
[Post edited 25 Apr 10:39]
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Thread | Wide areas
at 11:57 22 Apr 2025
The threat this season from opposition wide men and the number of chances created from wide areas has probably been the biggest eye opener of the PL for me this season. It sometimes feels like we concede the same goal every week (cut back in the box) but that has been our bread and butter under McKenna in L1 & the Championship, so we know how good the passage of play is.
I thought Arsenal were brilliant at shifting the ball to create a lot of winger vs full back opportunities on Sunday. I thought Spurs (in particular Son) were another team who were very good at it at Portman Road too. Bournemouth were brilliant down their left at Portman Road. The quality we have faced has been unplayable at times.
We haven't had the quality to match that type of play at this level and cause a threat in wide areas. The players we had already and brought in haven't been good enough to step up to this level. It's a hard area to address as it's an expensive position to recruit with quality, but the gap in quality in the wide areas between the PL & Championship is massive.
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Thread | PSG
at 08:28 10 Apr 2025
What football was all about last night. Entertainment.
Wingers getting the ball and looking to beat the man every time - no passing a ball backwards to the full back. Entertaining people and getting you off your seat.
The midfield 3 playing with personality and roaming the middle of the pitch without holding down a systematic position. Playing forwards and not the 5 yard sideways/backwards safety first ball.
Really enjoyed watching them last night compared to the Manchester derby at the weekend. Complete contrast from the robotic game on Sunday, to allowing players to express themselves with personality last night.
A dying art of the game, but it's nice to see it still within the game somewhere.
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Thread | Cameron Burgess
at 08:53 3 Apr 2025
3 of our 4 wins have been with Burgess starting the game alongside O'Shea. If we are to do the unthinkable, he has to stay in the team for the remaining 8 games. These two want to defend and defend well and they look like our best partnership.
11 points won when they've partnered each other in the team, 9 points without.
His passing range down the left channel is brilliant. It's not an easy ball to play that he's executing with ease either. His passing range compared to Greaves is definitely a lot cleaner.
Nothing against Greaves as I think he's been ok overall, but I actually think Burgess is our better option on the left side. I couldn't tell you which one we had spent £16m on if I was a neutral.
[Post edited 3 Apr 8:54]
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Thread | Looking at the results so far this season
at 13:48 2 Apr 2025
Tried to give a fair assessment of the season so far as we approach the final block of games.
Games we were outclassed and went on to lose:
- Liverpool home (the 2nd half)
- Man City away
- Everton home*
- Newcastle home
- Man City home
- Liverpool away
- Forest home
*On the Everton game, I thought they did all the basics really well and were much better than us on the day. Not necessarily outclassed technically, but they did the basics very well
To summarise - Everton aside, the rest of these are the current top 6 in the PL and there's no shame in being outclassed.
Games we were poor
- West Ham away
- Crystal Palace home
- Brighton home
- Southampton home
- Man United away (2nd half)
To summarise - I don't think we did enough in these games to win / we were poor on the day / it ended up being another opportunity we didn't take control of
Games where fine margins have gone against us:
- Brentford away - late goal against us
- Leicester home - late goal against us
- Bournemouth home - late goal against us
- Fulham away - late goal against us
- Southampton home - late goal against us (we didn't do enough to win regardless)
- Palace away - late ish goal against us
To summarise - All evenly contested games where we've just conceded a late goal and dropped points. It's football, but the points gained would've put us in a better position going into the final block of games.
The rest where we've rightly deserved something or rode our luck and been on the fortunate side of the fine margins:
- Fulham home
- Brighton away (rode our luck with their poor finishing)
- Villa home (performance wise we were brilliant, but I think Morsy was lucky not to be sent off)
- Spurs away (best performance of the season for me)
- Wolves away
- Chelsea home (deserved win, would have been annoyed if the Delap penalty was given against us)
- Fulham away
- Villa away (was almost a perfect away result getting the goal with 10 men, superb Palmer save at the death)
To summarise - Some brilliant performances in all of these games, individually or collectively as a team and came away from these games definitely deserving of all 3 points or at least, a share of the points.
Wasn't sure where to put Arsenal away - not outclassed as we were always in the game based on the scoreline, didn't really fall on the wrong side of fine margins as they controlled the game well but also didn't deserve a point or more. Just one of these odd games which is hard to categorise.
I think there's a lot to be pleased with, despite the reality of relegation kicking in for many now. We always had a tough job on our hands but ultimately, we've fallen short because of a lack of quality, but there's games where you look back and appreciate the other team and their class, but there will always be those 'what if' moments where we let ourselves down late on.
[Post edited 2 Apr 13:49]
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Thread | Jens Cajuste - wishful thinking, or a realistic possibility?
at 12:47 19 Mar 2025
Whilst I appreciate the likelihood of Cajuste playing Championship football next season is fairly low, it isn't impossible. If we agreed with Napoli a £10m transfer fee if we stayed up, then I can't see any movement in that increasing this summer, so is a £10m fee in the Championship possible? I think so.
Just based on transfer dealings last summer/January, Joe Rodon joined Leeds for £11m (Archie Gray the other way so perhaps the figure isn't quite a true representation of Rodon's value). Tom Cannon joined Sheff United from Leicester for £10m. Mark McGuinness joined Luton and Morgan Whittaker joined Middlesbrough reportedly for £6m+ as well.
So the fee seems possible in the Championship, but the only thing I'm unsure of is his wages - does anyone know what Napoli pay him and what we are covering in respect of that now? And also, the obvious one being whether Cajuste would want to play for us in the Championship too. Not an impossible deal to do if you weigh it up. Delap sale will generate some extra funds too. |
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Thread | Physicality
at 12:01 17 Mar 2025
I hope one thing we address in the summer is physicality. I looked at our 3 behind Delap at the weekend and never once thought they're going to win this ball back for us. On the contrary, watching Gibbs-White, he won the ball back if he lost it and wasn't afraid to put his body on.
I know he's a player who will split opinions, but I'd love to see Flynn Downes back here. If we want to go back up, we need some steel in midfield. |
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Thread | Adam Wharton
at 08:34 9 Mar 2025
Champions League quality - very refreshing to see a young English midfielder play forwards and wrap a ball into the attackers feet. I’ll be amazed if he is ever dislodged from the England starting 11 once he gets his breakthrough. Once he’s in, he will stay in.
On another thought, watching Wharton yesterday, I saw glimpses of what I thought Andre Dozzell could have gone on to become. Funny old game. |
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Thread | How not to play against 10 men
at 09:38 27 Feb 2025
I thought we ended up frustrating ourselves rather than frustrating the opposition. Golden chance against 10 men for 45mins away at Old Trafford... But we played that second half into United’s hands. I’d be surprised if any of their lot came off that pitch at full time feeling like they had a tough 2nd half and had to really work for that win.
Old Trafford is a big pitch. We lacked touchline width to stretch the pitch, we didn’t move the ball quick enough or play anything penetrating, we didn’t switch play enough to keep them running side to side (if at all?), we didn’t have any runners in behind (I don’t think their back 5 got turned once and had to run back towards their goal in the 2nd half). I’m totally bemused by what we were trying to do against 10 men? Or did their 3rd goal completely rock us and we just panicked knowing our golden opportunity meant we needed at least 2 goals now to win? Either way, we showed everyone how not to play against 10 men last night.
Another thing but I really didn’t understand the Davis sub. You had 2 strikers on the pitch together and you take your best crosser of the ball and player with most chances created off the pitch? Unless he was injured, it seemed odd to me.
Tactically that sub was all wrong for me. I felt we lacked width and needed to overload the play in wider areas, but instead we left Clarke out on the left on his own with no underlap/overlap run and no left back backing him up. That made it comfortable for United to defend down their right and could compact the midfield as Mazrouari could deal with Clarke 1 v 1 and De Ligt didn’t have to be dragged over. Like I said, their back 5 had a very comfortable 2nd half without being dislodged positionally. It was really poor.
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Thread | FA Cup
at 11:10 11 Feb 2025
Tell you what, if I was a Newcastle, Villa, Forest* or Bournemouth fan, I'd be fancying the chances of some FA Cup silverware looking at the draw. All of them have home games to get through to the Quarters as well.
Must be one of the weakest last 16's for some time? Both Manchester clubs are beatable these days and those 4 I've mentioned above are having strong seasons.
*Assuming Forest win tonight |
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Thread | The mystery behind Kalvin Phillips
at 10:09 4 Feb 2025
Apologies if there is a thread on this already that I've missed, but I just want to make a point on our use of Phillips.
Since the sending off against Leicester (2nd November), he's only played 322 minutes of PL football. That's the equivalent of 3.5 games in 3 months. I know he had an injury along the line shortly after the Leicester game, but I can't remember how long it kept him out for.
If you include the FA Cup game, he featured in all the matches in January bar the Man City game he was ineligible for, and had 90mins against Arsenal in late December. It looked like we were starting to give him a run of games that he needed and go with him from the start of matches for the second half of the season.
So why is it, when it looks like we're starting to use him from the off over the past month, that he has no involvement in a must win home game against bottom of the league? I don't understand it.
He's a very experienced player, with international pedigree, a healthy number of appearances at PL level, but why is he not being used in these important matches? Why is he here if he's just going to be an expensive back up? Do the management team feel like he hasn't done enough in those games he's featured in? |
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Thread | Louie Barry & Cameron Humphreys
at 12:57 30 Jan 2025
Watching Villa pull Louie Barry away from promotion chasing Stockport to loan him out to relegation battling Hull, albeit, a league above, is such a poor move. He was flying at Stockport and they'll do well to replace the goals in their promotion bid, but he was playing for a team full of confidence and is not going into a team with a lack of confidence.
I'm pleased to see we haven't interfered with Cameron Humphreys and his loan at Wycombe in order to force the acceleration of his development in the league above. His next steps in the summer will be in the Championship - whether that is with us or out on loan again, but it's good to see we're not interfering like Villa did with Louie Barry.
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