I think you can probably guess who this article is about – especially, when I suggest he is a current Town player. Make no mistake, Macauley Bonne is a prized possession, and we must make sure we keep him at all costs! Since he rejoined the club on loan from QPR, he has scored 9 goals in just 10 games, and his goals per minute ratio are at 84! He is the division’s joint top scorer too!
These are phenomenal stats, and his goal against Shrewsbury at the weekend was pure genius! It was a great corner from Lee Evans, but the way Bonne got his head to the ball and direct it expertly into the far corner of the net was truly amazing! He was surrounded by a group of hard-headed defenders, so where he managed to find the space from – let alone the direction, is mind-boggling stuff. Most of his goals are instinctive strikes, and when he fluffs his lines it is usually because he has too much time to think. He is an old-fashioned forward. Strong in the air and powerful on the ground.
Bonne was born in Ipswich and that is where his heart is. He began his football career here in 2003 at the under 8 level and progressed to the under 14’s before he was told he was not good enough. So, fully 6 years after signing on for the Blues, he left them in tears with his dream of playing for his favourite club in ruins. It reminds us all how cruel football can be, but Bonne never lost belief in his ability and moved on to the Colchester United Academy, where Bonne scored an impressive 46 goals in just 54 under-18 appearances! That’s a fantastic return.
He stayed with The U’s for four years but was less successful in the first-team, and was loaned out to Lincoln City and Woking Town on loan before being sold to National League side Leyton Orient in 2017. Following a successful debut campaign for the O’s, Bonne signed a new two-year contract with the club – just one year into his existing deal, and he scored 45 goals in 90 appearances for the club.
In 2019, Charlton Athletic bought him, and he signed a three-year deal with them, and although he was down the pecking order in the striking department, he still managed to score 11 goals in just 36 appearances. In 2020, another London club, QPR, came knocking, and he signed a three-year deal with them for an undisclosed fee said to be around 900,000 pounds.
That is the story so far but every goal he scores for Town increases his value and QPR manager Paul Warburton’s interest in his player. He is, without a doubt, the most committed Town loan player on record, but does that mean we have any chance of keeping him?
I will give you three good reasons why we might succeed.
1. He loves this club and is probably determined to prove that Town got it so badly wrong the first time around when he was shown the exit door at just 14 years of age.
2. QPR manager Warburton has a wealth of attacking talent with former Premier player Charlie Austin, Scottish international Lyndon Dykes, Jamaican international Andre Grey and 23-year-old Chris Willock, who has played for England at all levels from 16 to 20.
3. QPR play in the Championship which is a league above us, and just one step away from top-flight football. As things stand, they are in sixth and in those play-off places!
And I suppose, if you want another good reason to think that Macauley Bonne would want to stay with us, it is because leaving his home town club again would surely be a huge disappointment to the player, and I don’t think more money is his driving force. He just loves Ipswich Town!
I hope I am right, and I hope that this time, he sees out his career with Ipswich Town football club. It is what we all want, and I guess it is probably what he wants too.
