Ipswich Town should launch Nottingham Forest transfer raid after Callum Wilson transfer blow | OneFootball

Ipswich Town should turn their attentions to Nottingham Forest's Taiwo Awoniyi this January

Ipswich Town should look to sign Nottingham Forest's out-of-favour striker Taiwo Awoniyi this January after previous target Callum Wilson looks set to stay with West Ham.

Ipswich Town remain well within the hunt for automatic promotion this campaign, with the Tractor Boys having seemingly finally found their groove.

Their latest 3-0 home victory over struggling Blackburn Rovers was as comfortable as they come, and Kieran McKenna's side looks set to push both Middlesbrough and Coventry City all the way.

However, the striker position has been a particular area of weakness this campaign, with George Hirst, Ivan Azon, and Chuba Akpom all misfiring at various stages of the season.

This led to rumours of interest in West Ham's Callum Wilson, with the 33-year-old former Newcastle United and Bournemouth striker said to be on the verge of an exit from the London Stadium.

However, after Wilson netted a late winner for the Hammers away to Tottenham Hotspur, it now looks as though he could remain with the relegation-threatened side, which is a huge blow for Ipswich.

Following this latest revelation, McKenna's side should turn their attentions elsewhere to another Premier League side, namely Nottingham Forest's Taiwo Awoniyi.

Ipswich Town should target Nottingham Forest's Taiwo Awoniyi after the latest Callum Wilson blow

Despite West Ham signing both Pablo Felipe and Valentin Castellanos to reinforce their striking options, it now appears as though the veteran Wilson is set to stay with the Hammers, much to Ipswich's dismay.

With Hirst, Azon, and Akpom having scored just ten goals between them across 62 total league appearances this season, it's clear that the centre-forward role has been a particular area of weakness for the club this campaign.

With strikers hard to come by, especially in the January window, Nottingham Forest's Awoniyi could be made available this window.

The Nigerian has played just 182 minutes of Premier League football this season, and with Napoli's Lorenzo Lucca seemingly set to join the club, Awoniyi could be allowed to leave this month.

At 28, Awoniyi ought to be entering his prime, and if Ipswich can pull off this deal and get him fit and firing, he could prove to be an incredible pick-up at Championship level.

Taiwo Awoniyi would stylistically be a good fit for Kieran McKenna's Ipswich Town

McKenna has consistently preferred a more physical presence up front during his time in charge of Ipswich.

The likes of Hirst, Kayden Jackson, Ali Al Hamadi, Kieffer Moore, and Liam Delap have all played up front for the Tractor Boys over the past few years, and Awoniyi would add a superior level of physical presence to their forward line.

Indeed, Awoniyi has tended to be injury-prone throughout the entirety of his career, having barely featured in much of the previous two-and-a-half years at the City Ground.

His first season at the club, the 2022/23 season, was his best with the club to date, scoring ten and assisting once in 27 top-flight appearances.

In that season, according to FBref, Awoniyi ranked in the 99th percentile among players in the Premier League for both goals per shot (0.29) and goals per shot on target (0.67), making him one of the most clinical forwards in the league that season.

With the amount of high-quality chances Ipswich create, if they had him at the end of chances, the data suggests that he is more than capable of finishing those chances off to a higher degree than that of Hirst, Azon, or Akpom.

His defensive work from high up the pitch was notably impressive too, averaging 1.15 blocks per 90 minutes and 1.28 clearances per 90 minutes, proving he can do the hard work off the ball as well.

The Nigerian is an excellent physical presence and is exactly the type of striker that McKenna has found success with during his time as a head coach.

Whether they can get him fit and keep him fit would be the main challenge, though, but if they can do that, Awoniyi could be the man to fire Ipswich back to the Premier League.

Ipswich's ambitions heading into this season were clear, and they will not have changed.

Promotion, by any means necessary, is the minimum expectation at Portman Road this campaign, and having slowly closed the gap to Middlesbrough and Coventry, who sit just ahead of them, they will be targeting the title.

Indeed, they have done the double over Coventry already this season, being the only club to do so thus far, cementing themselves as serious promotion contenders.

The addition of a centre-forward such as Awoniyi could be the final piece of the puzzle that McKenna is missing in Suffolk, and they should do everything they can to bring the Forest outcast to the second tier this month to drastically boost those aspirations.