Ipswich have been linked with a transfer bid for a free-scoring striker from the continent – but is he the man to keep them in the Premier League?
Ipswich Town have already done something truly remarkable in getting promoted to the Premier League last season, but now the Tractor Boys face an even tougher task – staying there. That will almost certainly necessitate some clever work in the transfer market this summer, and reports suggest that they’ve already identified their first target in the shape of free-scoring Panathinaikos striker Fotis Ioannidis.
Ipswich reportedly had a €22.5m (£19m) bid turned down by the Greek side for their 24-year-old international striker, who scored 23 goals in 44 matches for his club last season and netted twice for the national side, including a goal against France. An improved bid may well be forthcoming, but Ipswich could face some stiff competition – both West Ham United and Portuguese champions Sporting have been rumoured to be looking at a bid, with the latter recently suggested by Portuguese media outlet O Jogo to be Ioannidis’ own preferred destination. In other words, Ipswich may well miss out on their man.
Ioannidis hasn’t been doing much missing over the past year. Never prolific before the 2023/24 season – his best return before the recent campaign was seven goals in 42 games – something clicked for the striker this year and he was suddenly scoring goals he may not even have contemplated beforehand. His first touch, movement and passing have all improved considerably, too, and he also picked up seven assists, mostly by dropping deep to come and find possession and sliding his fellow strikers in to score.
His off-ball qualities are noticeable, and he’s happy to find spaces all over the space in front of the penalty box from one flank to the other in order to provide a passing option – and now he’s taking full advantage of those positions both to create and score goals in a way he wasn’t doing before. He can’t be described as a first-rate technician, but he’s beating defenders far more often and generating far more chances for himself than he could before.
Hence all of the interest in securing his services. Panathinaikos have him contracted until 2027 and clearly aren’t in a rush to sell, but Premier League sides will likely have the financial muscle to twist their arm at some point. But while Ipswich will need to find a new source of goals to supplement the work of players like Conor Chaplin – along with Nathan Broadhead, their top scorer last season with 13 in the Championship – there is at least some chance that missing out on Ioannidis won’t be such a bitter blow.
For starters, nine of his 23 goals came from the penalty spot. An expert penalty taker isn’t to be sniffed at, but there is still only a small body of evidence to suggest that he can be prolific from open play – just 15 goals in the last two years in the Greek Superleague. Given that there is unquestionably a gulf between that level and the Premier League, it’s reasonable to question whether he would be the 10-15 goal striker a newly-promoted team often needs to survive.
It doesn’t help that, for all their fast-moving attacking play and direct running, Ipswich aren’t a team who win too many penalties – they earned promotion despite being awarded just three spot-kicks in the entire campaign. Champions Leicester City, by way of comparison, were given 13.
And one wonders whether Ioannidis’ technique would still be found out at the highest level. Although he is improving in that regards, he still only beats his man around a third of the time on the ground and his first touch can still be a little loose in a way that world-class defenders would likely seize upon.
He may well prove that he can step up one more gear, but for a club who need to nail their transfers to be able to endure a season in such a fiercely competitive league, it would be a risk to spend so much money on a player with plenty of question marks around his game. He has plenty of qualities, an impressive work ethic and has the strength and passing quality to be an effective link-up man, but the jury is out on whether he can be the man to score the goals to keep a team up.
Perhaps Ipswich will get the chance to find out next season, and perhaps Ioannidis’ burgeoning confidence in front of goal will see him blossom into an even stronger all-round striker over the coming years. Maybe Ipswich would regret not spending the money required to bring him to Portman Road – but Ioannidis is far from a sure thing, and this might be a transfer that Kieran McKenna will be OK with missing out on.
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