But first off, we have to talk about the departure of Welsh striker Ellis Harrison. Harrison was one of Paul Hursts signings from last summer, arriving from Bristol Rovers for about £750,000. Now he had had an alright season previously for Rovers, scoring 12 goals in 44 appearances which isn't amazing but a decent return. When he signed, most Town fans didn't really know what to expect since he was indeed part of the new transfer strategy of going for lower league players. But clearly he was thought to be a key player since he was handed the no. 10 shirt by Hurst and as you can see from early lineups he was the key man upfront. In the end however, injuries impacted his season with him getting an ankle injury in September and a back problem hit him around February which essentially put him out for a while. He ultimately made only 16 appearances for the blues and scored just one goal - not ultimately being the key player he was thought to be. As such I'll admit I did recon the prospect of him leaving to be fairly likely. My only issue is that he has joined Portsmouth, no doubt one of our main promotion rivals. While I was pretty underwhelmed by the player last year, there is no doubt that he would be a good option in League One since he was a key player and goalscorer for Rovers back in League One. So while he could flop at Pompey like he did for us, I just really hope this decision doesn't come back to haunt us, like letting McGoldrick go did at the start of last season.
I do feel bad for Ellis, he wasn't really given a huge amount of time at the club thanks to his injuries and the one goal he did score for us, was a brilliant goal admittedly - so I wish him all the best for the future, but I do recon that this was a fine decision considering with Norwood now our main striker, he was always gonna get very little opportunities.
Lastly, lets talk about Bart who despite looking set for a move to Millwall, is still an Ipswich Town player. Bart has been our no.1 keeper for a few seasons now, and hes been one of our best players for a long time. Last season was not a great year for him at all in comparison, he made a number of awful mistakes, but he still managed to have at least an alright season once he got over that bad patch. He was always gonna be one of the players that looked the most likely to leave, since he was our highest paid player who was gonna attract interest from other Championship clubs when we went down. And last week it was reported he was close to going to Millwall with terms agreed between both the clubs and the player - but apparently due to a "complication" with his medical, the deal fell through. Apparently he had had a long term issue with one of his knees that hes had for a while, and as such Millwall wanted to reduce their transfer fee but Evans said no and then negotiations broke down just as he was on the verge of leaving.
Now I have mixed feelings on Bart staying. While yes he's still a good keeper and will probably do very well in L1, but on the other hand I do feel it's a missed opportunity to get some good cash in for him and with new keeper Tomas Holy now on the team - I feel it would have made sense to let him go. But of course he could still be sold to another club, an official from the club did confirm that multiple championship clubs have been interested in him (such as Birmingham as rumors suggest), but only time will tell to see whether he stays or leaves, but I recon he will stay for now, but perhaps move in January.
So that's all there really is to say on current Ipswich news, Pre-season will start soon so they'll be off to Germany to play in a friendly tournament - and of course play against our German cousins Fortuna Dusseldorf. Stay tuned over the next week or two as I will have something sightly different to post. See you guys later :)
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