‘It’s a challenging window and market,’ McKenna on January transfers

Ipswich Town boss Kieran McKenna is optimistic that attracting players would be easier this month than it was last summer.

The Blues persuaded Harry Clarke, Massimo Luongo, Nathan Broadhead, and George Hirst to join them in League One last January, and all four played vital roles in the club’s eventual promotion charge.

The club therefore didn’t do much in the summer transfer market, with Hirst and Jack Taylor being the largest permanent acquisitions at £1.5m each, with many targets possibly wondering where the squad would be competing.

However, a well-bonded and well-coached group extended their momentum into the next season, and Town now sit second in the Championship table at the start of 2024.

“To be honest, last January wasn’t too hard to sell,” McKenna added. “The more difficult one was probably the summer of 2022 (when Ipswich were about to begin their fourth consecutive League One season).”

“It’s harder to sell it when you’re building your style, team, and developing before there’s a large body of evidence out there.” So it was simpler to convince people last January that the playing style would be excellent.

“We’d been getting full stadiums and playing really good football at the top end of League One, scoring a lot of goals and looking like an exciting team to play for.”Hopefully, it will be the case again in January.

“Of course, as a newly promoted team, we had confidence in how we’d go about things and full conviction in how we’d approach the season.” But it’s not always simple to… not to convince, that’s the wrong term, but to have the same conviction outside. That, I believe, is typical.

“But, yes, I think the style of play is pretty clear now, and the atmosphere in the stadium is pretty clear.” The energy in the room is palpable, which makes things much simpler than if you’re at the wrong end of the table. So that’s a plus.”

Jeremy Sarmiento, a talented winger on loan from Brighton, became Town’s first January signing this morning. McKenna still wants to bolster numerous areas, most notably up forward following George Hirst’s long-term injury and Dane Scarlett’s loan recall by parent club Tottenham. A center-back and central-midfielder are both possible targets.

“I know we had a fantastic last January, but that was in a different division,” McKenna remarked. “It’s still a really difficult window to find players who are fit and available to come in and help the team in the short term.”

“It’s also a difficult market, depending on your position as a football club and where you sit within the football structures.”

“We’re going to do everything we can to improve the squad.” We’ve done it in every window so far, and let’s hope that by the conclusion of this one, we’ll be in a better position than we are now.”