Two Strikers Who Ipswich Town Should Sign This Summer
Ipswich Town are one of a host of clubs that are just a few signings away from being in and around the play-offs next season.
The league, with three strong promoted teams now gone, is looking wide open and this is reflected in the early betting with the bookmakers struggling to separate the top 4 or 5. Ipswich have some good players at their disposal and a fine manager at Championship level. All they need now is the firepower to turn themselves from mid-table fodder to top 6 candidates.
Here are two strikers who Ipswich should target this summer.
Daryl Murphy
The former Ipswich Town player did not receive a lot of game time at Newcastle under Rafa Benitez, perhaps not surprisingly, and despite his quality, he is not a player who would be en vogue with Premier League clubs and is likely to stay at this level.
Hard working, good in the air, and deceptively good on the ground too, Murphy is a proven goal scorer in this league and would most likely guarantee Ipswich 15 goals plus should he play every week. Given that he had Dwight Gayle and Aleksandar Mitrovic ahead of him at the St James’ Park pecking order, he did very well with the opportunities he was afforded and scored some crucial goals, such as his cute finish away at Huddersfield Town.
Joe Garner
Having not looked prolific at all in his early career, Garner predictably started to hit somewhat of a peak at around 26-years of age. Having not reached double-figures in the league since his earliest days at Carlisle, Garner suddenly hit form at Preston in 2013/14 when he banged in 19 goals in 37 league games. Proving this was no one-off, the man from Blackburn followed that up with another 26 Championship goals the following year, proving that given the chance up front, he will get goals.
Quieter spells have since followed. Although the Scottish Premiership is not competitive these days, playing for Rangers brings its own pressure and it has to be said that it may need broader shoulders than he’s got to live up to the expectations that come from the Ibrox crowd.
His goals at Championship level in England though show that for whatever reason, this is the level and environment for him. Ipswich could bag the forward for a relatively cheap amount and would be getting a player playing, in theory at least, in his peak years. Those kind of guarantees are extremely hard to come by and should be pounced on by the club.