Ipswich Town officially announced this afternoon, that all three of their potential signings are now members of the Blues squad. Three down. Two To go. Well, I would hope so at least, because although Oli Hawkins can cover as a centre half, his principal goal should be to score – or at least make it easier for others to score. That means that we still require another central defender, and ideally a winger too, but much will depend on the comings and goings of the next few days.
If Town can off-load some of the dead-wood then there may be some more room for further recruitment. Let’s be honest, all three of our new signings are hardly the kind of players to get bums off seats, and of course, part of owner Marcus Evans five-point plan is to develop a team who can play attractive and exciting football. Not much sign of that yet is there. Toto Nsiala is a bit of a liability at the back and I will like to see him depart – along with Alan Judge, to make space for other potential signings because if we are to progress in this division we need to score more goals.
Back to our latest recruits, and all three players have joined as free agents. Stephen Ward has been handed the number 3 shirt, David Cornell the number 28, and Oli Hawkins will have 32 on his back.
As for Oli, I do admire his honesty. Speaking of his time with Portsmouth he said bluntly, “I suppose supporters want skilful players who score bags of goals and do great celebrations. They don’t want a 6ft 6in striker that may miss a couple of chances and get taken off at half-time – or come on for five minutes here or there. I would say 40 per cent respected me and knew what I was capable of. The other 60 per cent saw me as nothing exciting or not good enough.” At least here, he will get a fair hearing. Blues fans are some of the most tolerant around and if a player tries his damnedest then supporters will back him. He has been given a two-year deal with a 12-month option.
As I suggested earlier, Stephen Ward, by contrast, has signed a one year deal with a one year option pencilled in and goalkeeper David Cornell has signed a two-year deal with a possible one-year extension. It will be interesting to see how they all perform, and as there will be no great expectations, I suppose they could surprise a few people – me included!
