The words “missed and target” have become something all too familiar recently at Ipswich Town, but I’m not talking about the inconsistent shooting on the pitch but more the inability to secure transfer targets.
A few weeks ago Paul Jewell’s number one summer target Joel Ward turned down a move to Portman Road and eventually signed for Crystal Palace.
This week it appears that the same may have happened again as Tomasz Kuszczak signs for Brighton despite being strongly linked with Ipswich.
Personally, I find it hard to understand why a player would want to chose a smaller and less established club like Brighton over Ipswich. The training facilities at Ipswich are surely superior to that of most Championship clubs and we have been in the division long enough to offer stability in that sense.
It can’t be a matter of money either as I am sure Ipswich would be able to offer just as much in terms of wages than most Championship clubs.
However, this is not the only time that Ipswich have missed their first choice transfer targets. Roy Keane openly stated when he was in charge of the team that he could not persuade certain players to join Ipswich because of the clubs geographical location. A lot of the players that Keane brought in were often at least his second or third choice signings which left him with a team very different from what he ideally wanted.
It does look like Jewell is encountering the same problems that Keane did and is struggling to get his first choice.
The current favourite to be playing in goal for Ipswich next season is Scott Loach who lost his place in the Watford team to Kuszczak when he joined them on loan last season. Certainly at Watford they rated Kuszczak over Loach so it does seem that Ipswich would be getting the worse of the two players available.
Every manager has to work with what he has though and right now Jewell has to get around this problem. Plenty of other clubs in poor geographical locations still manage to pull off ambitious signings and make decent teams. The trick is obviously having the right manager to persuade players that Ipswich is a great place to live as well as to play football for. Many doubt whether Jewell is the right man to do this job but he still has a lot of time left this summer to secure signings.
Losing Ward and Kuszczak hopefully won’t be too much of a blow as there are still good players available for a decent price. Ipswich were always going to miss out on a few targets and as long as they can secure a few decent signings then losing Ward and Kuszczak won’t be a huge problem.
As I have said before I think Coventry City’s Richard Keogh would be a great defensive addition to the team and there are still good goalkeepers available. Although he might be a bit of an ambitious signing, Brad Guzan is available on a free transfer and it would encourage other good players to join if he did.
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