Please Play Away And Don’t Come Back

Rekeem Harper has joined League One rivals Exeter City, and I say good riddance. The 22-year-old midfielder has failed to live up to expectations so I for one won’t miss him.

You might think I am being a little harsh, but he has been one of former boss Paul Cook’s worst buys. Coming from West Brom you might have thought this was a good investment, but the undisclosed fee for his services was said to be in the region of 500,000, for a player who made his Premier League bow and became only the second Premier League player at that time, to have been born at the turn of a new century.

Conor Chaplin recently disclosed that there are “no bad apples” in the squad, so we can assume that the reason he has been sent out on a season-long loan to League One rivals Exeter has nothing to do with his character. That, at least, is one redeeming factor. The trouble with Rakeem is that in an Ipswich shirt he has nearly always performed poorly. His best performance was arguably against Doncaster Rovers last season when he hit the post, which ought to have been his debut goal. He replaced hat-trick hero Lee Evans on 82 minutes but Town were already 6-0 up so he should not have felt any pressure to score. Every time I have watched him he has disappointed me.

I think new boss Kieran McKenna viewed him more as a defensive midfielder, and once again, at the start of the new campaign, McKenna was patient with him and experimented a little with his best starting spot. The final straw was against Colchester United when his horrendous error saw the visitors win by a single goal, and knock the Blues out of the Carabao Cup!  Now you might say that this has been a blessing in disguise, as we now top the league and have won our last four matches – three of them away! That’s true, but nobody is thanking Rakeem Harper for it. Certainly not me!