Ipswich Town spent approximately 100 million in this summers transfer window (2nd most in the Premier League this window), 12 players coming through the door for Ipswich Town’s first season in the Premier League for 22 years, I am going to rate the moves we have made on value, experience, and there performances so far heading into this weekends fixture against Brighton & Hove Albion.
Omari Hutchinson – 8/10
This was our first deal of the summer and the right one at that, an unbelievable asset to our promotion team last season with 16 G/A in the championship (10 goals 6 assists) bare in mind also that this was his first season of professional mens football, first experience of the first team, and when you watched him play it looked like he had been playing for years in this division, signing him on a permanent was a no brainer.
The cost of the transfer was around about 25 million pounds with add ons included according to Fabrizio Romano, it took a couple weeks of negotiations before getting the deal done, also rumoured to be a 20% sell on clause for Omari if he does move onto a new club, which I personally think Is a little bit much but if it was the deal breaker then I understand the reasons to accept those terms
Omari has started well in the premier league, no goals or assists yet but has looked very promising when played, in the first half against Liverpool we saw for the first time Omari really show off how talented he is with the ball at his feet and soon enough it will fully flow for him, and when that happens we could have a very promising player on our hands.
Jacob Greaves – 9/10
Exactly what we needed, an unbelievable centre back who was more then ready to make that step up to the Premier League, rumoured fee of around 20 million pounds but right now he is showing that the price tag was too low for him.
So far he has played every league game for Ipswich and stood out in every single one of them and most certainly been our best defender, he looks unbelievably comfortable on and off the ball and has made some crucial blocks that have saved goals, he looks like he has played in the Premier League all his life, and it is a beautiful thing to see and exactly what we needed.
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Liam Delap – 7/10
Liam signed from Manchester City for 15 million pounds plus 5 million in potential add ons, at the time of the confirmation of the signing a lot of Ipswich fans stated that it might have been too big a price for a player who did not set the championship alight on his 2023/24 loan spell at Hull City (scoring 8 and assisting 2), but going off the first 3 games he has done a solid job as being our target man/striker, grabbing a goal that has been nominated for goal of the month for August in our 1-1 draw with Fulham, time will tell if this price tag was a steal or a waste.
Jack Clarke – 8.5/10
Jack was one of the best if not the best player in the championship last season, being the star man in a mediocre Sunderland side that fell off a cliff at the turn of the new year, Ipswich were interested in bringing him in since the start of the window and didn’t get the deal done until middle of august where a deal of 15 million plus 5 in add ons was agreed, which for a player of his calibre is one of the steals of the window, only played 1 game in the league so far as he came on in the 81st minute against Fulham and played against Wimbledon in our penalty shoot out defeat in the carabao cup.
Ben johnson – 5.5/10
A free transfer after Johnson ran out his contract at West Ham looking for first team football and he is getting that at Ipswich Town, there was no risk with this move as it was not setting Town back any money. However so far each time Ben Johnson has played he has not been great in my opinion, apart from a good pass to set up Sammy Szmodics to give us the lead against Manchester City there has been countless times he has been caught out of position and costing us to concede, considering the first 3 games it is harsh but it is the Premier League, no such thing as being let off.
Sammie Szmodics – 9/10
It took a very long time, and Blackburn being very very difficult but eventually a deal was made to bring Sammie to the better side of East Anglia, goal on his debut against the champions Manchester City and he is always giving 110% whenever I have seen him on the pitch so far this season, exactly what we needed as well, a known goalscorer.
Sammie was top goalscorer in the championship last season with 27 goals and 4 assists in a Blackburn side that would’ve been down by Christmas if it was not for him (Szmodics was involved in over half of Blackburns goals last season) so bringing him in no matter the cost was a must, and so far he is showing everything to prove he will be a great player for us over the next few years
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Kalvin Philips – 7.5/10
no risk in this deal for a Ipswich Town perspective, loan deal and giving a chance for Philips to find himself again with Kieran McKenna, he will start most games and all Ipswich fans know what Philips is capable of, we need to give him time and I’m sure he will become that player he was before joining Manchester City.
My other ratings for the other signings.
Chiedozie Orbene – 7/10
Arjanet muric – 4.5/10
Jens Cajuste – 6.5/10
Conor Townsend – 6/10
Dara O’Shea – 6.5/10
Overall rating – 8/10
This was a transfer window that was bound to have incomings going into the double digits, it is what you have to do in order to have a chance to survive the Premier League, we unfortunately could not get a striker in before the window shut which is slightly frustrating after all the rumours of different Strikers coming to Ipswich, being able to get none of them is frustrating.
Also think we could have gotten a better Goalkeeper then Muric, after losing Hladky it was beneficial to get a goalkeeper that could fill the boots he did last season and so far he has had a horrific game against Manchester City and he was not much better against Fulham with his distribution being god awful.
But many positives to take from this window, can we stay up with this window? Time will tell but I believe we will stay up… just.
