It has been a simply outrageous few years for Ipswich Town and their fans.
Kieran McKenna has led the club from the depths of League One to the heights of the Premier League, and while it’s too early to say, their performances thus far suggest that they could stay up this season.
Moreover, the club went big in the summer and brought in several talented first-teamers to ensure that even if they do go down, coming back up should be much more straightforward.
However, while buying gifted players is certainly one way to help the club grow, the Tractor Boys will want to start producing more of their own talented prospects in the academy, as doing so in the past has made them a pretty penny, especially one gem who was once compared to Alan Shearer.
Notable Ipswich academy players
Okay, before we get to the star who earned the club a hefty sum of money, let’s start with another academy product who might’ve done the same had he not been released before making a first-team appearance: Nick Pope.
Yes, the English shot-stopper, who supported the Tractor Boys, was part of the club’s youth set-up as a teenager but moved to non-league outfit Bury Town at just 16 years old in July 2008 before moving to Charlton Athletic in 2011, where his professional career kicked off with several loan moves.
Nowadays, the Soham-born star has 201 Premier League appearances to his name between Burnley and Newcastle United and has represented the Three Lions on ten occasions – so it would be fair to say that releasing him was probably a minor mistake.
However, spotting young talents is an incredibly difficult thing to do, and for every player a club releases too soon, there is usually another gem they can cash in on, and in the Blues’ case, that gem was Connor Wickham.
Unlike Pope, the Hereford-born poacher made it into the senior side and became the club’s youngest-ever player when he debuted in April 2009 at 16 years and 11 days old.
Over the next few seasons, the tremendously exciting prospect would score 15 goals and provide four assists in 72 games and win the EFL’s Young Player of the Season and Championship Apprentice Award in 2011 before earning an £8m move to Sunderland that same summer, which was a record sale for Ipswich.
Now, while fans would probably have rather kept the up-and-coming striker at the time, the following years would show that the ownership was 100% correct in their decision to take the profit and run.
Wickham’s post Ipswich career
Now, the most important thing to mention when discussing Wickham is that, unfortunately, his has been another career ravaged by injury, as in the 13 years following his departure from Portman Road, he has missed a staggering 170 games through problems with his hamstrings, ankles, calves, knees, thighs, groin and back.
Not only was the promising centre-forward beset by physical issues, he also had to deal with unfair expectations during his stint at the Stadium of Light, as during one of his very few hot streaks in 2014, Black Cats legend Niall Quinn made the frankly insane claim that the then 21-year-old could be “Sunderland’s Alan Shearer” – talk about setting someone up to fail.
During his time as a Sunderland player, the former Ipswich prospect was sent on loan to Sheffield Wednesday and Leeds United, and when he was finally sold to Crystal Palace for just £7m in August 2015, he had 15 goals and three assists to his name in 91 appearances.
| Wickham’s senior career | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Appearances | Goals | Assists | Goal Involvements per Match |
| Ipswich Town | 72 | 15 | 4 | 0.26 |
| Sunderland | 91 | 15 | 3 | 0.19 |
| Crystal Palace | 50 | 11 | 5 | 0.32 |
| Sheffield Wednesday | 30 | 11 | 3 | 0.46 |
| Forest Green Rovers | 20 | 9 | 0 | 0.45 |
| Leeds United | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0.20 |
| Cardiff City | 12 | 1 | 2 | 0.25 |
| MK Dons | 15 | 1 | 0 | 0.06 |
| Charlton Athletic | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0.50 |
| Preston North End | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Total | 301 | 64 | 19 | 0.27 |
| All Stats via Transfermarkt | ||||
The same poor form and poor luck followed him to Selhurst Park, and over his six years with the Eagles, he racked up 11 goals and five assists in 50 appearances while also spending another season on loan with Wednesday.
Following the expiration of his contract with Palace, Wickham has spent the last few years on short-term deals with Preston North End, MK Dons, Forest Green Rovers, Cardiff City and, most recently, Charlton, but as of July, he has been without a team.
Ultimately, Wickham has been extraordinarily unlucky with injuries throughout his career, and with that in mind, it would be hard to deny that Ipswich did very well to get £8m for him back in 2011, as had he stayed in Suffolk, they may well have struggled to get anything from him in the long run.
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