Fuller Flavour: Ignore our start, focus on what has happened at our club!

What a banger of a transfer deadline day for us Ipswich fans. I cannot remember there ever being a time when the window shut with such a pleasing outcome.

Never mind what the whole window beforehand brought us too. Last week, I suggested that we needed to take Vaclav Hladky out of goal after his less than convincing start to life as Town’s number one.

I had not really considered that meant replacing him with a new goalkeeper and that we would have to trust Tomas Holy to step into the breach.

Once fit, Christian Walton will be putting pressure on Vaclav Hladky to start in goal for Ipswich Town. (Image: ITFC)

I therefore felt that the move towards deadline day touch paper was lit on Monday with the announcement of the loan signing of Christian Walton. Tuesday’s business was outstanding.

It only ever felt like a pipedream throughout the summer that we could bring Bersant Celina back to the club.

That dream evaporated when news of his heart problems broke and we wished him well in his recovery as we moved on to more realistic chances of landing other signings.

To have finally secured Celina was both unexpected and quite simply for our level, phenomenal.

He certainly has the ‘wow’ factor as we saw from his previous loan spell with us. And once he is up to full fitness, if he can replicate what we saw before, he should be far too good for League One.

Bersant Celina could make his second Ipswich Town debut at Lincoln tomorrow. (Image: ITFC)

If Celina’s signing wasn’t enough for some deadline day excitement at last, then capturing Sam Morsy certainly rounded the day off superbly.

Again, I go back to last week’s column, and the headline stood out quite damningly: ‘There’s a big hole which the Blues still have to fill’.

It has been plain to see that to date, one of the few areas areas that we had not covered off with any satisfaction was filling the space in front of the defence with a ball-winner, someone to do the dirty side of the game and someone with captain material.

Rather like Celina, Morsy was rumoured to be a target early on in the window and also like Celina, was someone that it seemed we had little realistic hope of landing. Indeed, even last Sunday, we were told that a deal was ‘unlikely’ to happen.

When his signing was confirmed, I was like a kid at Christmas if I am totally honest. Of course, I have now tempered my elation with a sprinkling of caution.

Morsy is not available for our next three games, Celina will need time to get to full fitness and then both will need to go through the process of ‘gelling’ as much as our other 17 new recruits have had to do.

Sam Morsy became Ipswich Town's 19th signing of the summer late on deadline day. (Image: ITFC)

We could be another six weeks further into the season before everything settles as we hope.

But ignore our start to the season for a moment, ignore the muttering about whether Paul Cook is the right man already, and focus for one moment on the last three months and what has happened to us as a club.

It has been a transfer window like no other. 19 new signings is massive in itself. But a huge number of those signings have either joined from a level above, ignored interest from clubs a level above or have left clubs at our level with their previous idolisers bemoaning how they’ve lost one of, if not, their best player.

On paper, the quality has pretty much matched the quantity. Our new owners have simply delivered on their promises.

Time will tell what happens from here on in. Wins need to be found quickly to start the climb up the table. Cook somehow has to find his best XI and get it settled. It will certainly be interesting to see how it all develops.

Finally for this week, the club has released its four contenders for the August goal of the month.

And what four corkers they were. I cannot remember another month in any of the last few seasons which had as many excellent goals to consider.

My vote went to Macauley Bonne for his first goal against MK Dons. The ball form Vincent-Young, the touch from Bonne and the finish. Perfect!