Luke Woolfenden has just put pen to paper on a new four-year deal but as Stuart Watson of the East Anglian Daily Times found out, he is anything but saintly. As he talked about his school days, it was clear that he stood out at school for all the wrong reasons. ” I’d get the bus at half eight every morning, always praying it would be late. I’d start walking, look at the time, and think ‘ah, I’d better pick up the pace here’. I did miss it a few times on purpose and then the next day I’d give it the old ‘ah, sorry Miss, I missed the bus.”
As a kid, he was a real mischief-maker and I suppose the question is, has he grown out of it? At the age of 21, he has just signed a new four-year contract with the Blues until 2024. He is a Chantry boy but went to school in East Bergholt because his mum was fearful that too many of his friends were going there and they may have had a bad influence on him. Woolfenden explains, “I was always that guy who – I wasn’t the main cause of trouble, but if there was trouble I was always in and around it. I was a good kid though. I wasn’t overly naughty, but I wasn’t the teacher’s pet either.” And that just about sums up this 6ft 4inch colossus who has been with the club since he was twelve years old and reminds me in many ways of former Blue Terry Butcher.
I think all of us would agree that Luke Woolfenden is the future of Ipswich Town football club and it is imperative that owner Marcus Evans mustn’t see the pound signs over his head. He has terrific potential and is improving all the time and I genuinely think he wants to stay at the club. The same goes for our other rising star Flynn Downes and he said on their rise to fame that although they have different personalities they are good for each other. “He’s not like me. He’s not as laid back as me. He does think a lot. It’s just a matter of time for him. Even when he went out on loan to Luton he was killing it there. We can probably learn a lot from each other in many ways. We balance each other well. It is special for us playing for our boyhood club. Growing up here, seeing how close we were to the Prem a few years ago… Getting us back there is my biggest aim.”
As a young man, he had an Ipswich season ticket but his father is from Manchester so they would often go to Old Trafford together but when Ipswich came calling his focus changed back again to his home town club. If the Red Devils don’t come sniffing around then I think we have a chance of keeping him a little longer and if we could free ourselves from the purgatory of League One, then who knows, maybe even longer still.
