Ipswich Town may be looking for early exit route from £7m deal | OneFootball

Ipswich Town fought off plenty of competition to sign Chuba Akpom in the summer, but the forward has failed to deliver at Portman Road so far.

It has been a mixed start to the season for Ipswich Town in the Championship, and the form of one summer signing will be particularly frustrating for manager Kieran McKenna.

After relegation from the Premier League last season, Ipswich lost a number of their key players in the summer, including the likes of Axel Tuanzebe, Cameron Burgess, Sam Morsy, Omari Hutchinson, Nathan Broadhead and Liam Delap.

However, the Tractor Boys spent big as they rebuilt their squad, with big-money signings such as Darnell Furlong, Azor Matusiwa, Marcelino Nunez, Kasey McAteer and Sindre Walle Egeli arriving at Portman Road, along with high-profile loan additions Cedric Kipre, Jens Cajuste, Chuba Akpom and Ivan Azon.

With their squad considered to be the strongest in the division, Ipswich were widely tipped to win the Championship title this season, but as the campaign reaches the halfway point, they are currently trailing Coventry City and Middlesbrough in the race for automatic promotion.

Inconsistency has been the biggest problem for McKenna's men this season, and that has been reflected in the performances of many of their new signings, but the lack of goals from forward Akpom will be a major cause for concern.

Ipswich Town fought off Birmingham City, Middlesbrough competition to land Chuba Akpom coup

In Akpom's last season in the Championship over two years ago, he finished as the division's top scorer after netting a stunning 28 goals in 38 appearances to help Middlesbrough to a play-off finish.

That form earned Akpom a move to Dutch giants Ajax in the summer of 2023 in a deal worth up to £12.2 million, but despite a decent goal record of 23 goals in 68 appearances for the club, he failed to establish himself at the Johan Cruyff Arena, and he spent the second half of last season on loan at French side Lille, where he scored three goals in 16 games.

After being deemed surplus to requirements by Ajax, Akpom was made available for transfer once again in the summer, and it looked as though he was heading to Birmingham City amid reports that the Blues had agreed a season-long loan for the 30-year-old, with an obligation to buy if they were promoted to the Premier League.

In what became something of a transfer saga, it was then claimed that Akpom's former club Middlesbrough had entered the race for his signature, with the Teesside outfit said to have been in advanced talks to bring him back to the Riverside Stadium.

However, it was eventually Ipswich who stole a march on their Championship rivals and landed Akpom on a season-long loan, with an obligation to buy him for £7 million if they win promotion back to the top flight this season at the first time of asking.

Given the level of interest in Akpom in the summer, Ipswich had to make an attractive offer to fight off competition from his other suitors, and it is easy to see why they were so keen to sign him after his previous Championship exploits.

However, there was always an element of risk to the deal given that Akpom's 28-goal season for Middlesbrough was the first time he had ever produced such high numbers, and he has struggled to replicate that form since, while there is no guarantee that he would be able to make the step-up to the Premier League if the Tractor Boys were to win promotion.

Despite those red flags, McKenna would have been confident that Akpom could at least help Ipswich back to the top flight this season, and he looked like another strong option to add to an attack that already possessed plenty of star quality.

Akpom thrived in the number 10 role for Boro two seasons ago, and with Conor Chaplin departing for Portsmouth in the summer, it looked as though the former Arsenal man was set to battle it out with Sammie Szmodics for a spot in McKenna's starting line-up.

However, it is fair to say that it has not worked out for Akpom at Portman Road so far, with the forward scoring just one goal in 17 appearances this season, and of those, only six have come from the start.

After finally breaking his duck for the Tractor Boys in the 2-0 win at Hull City last month, Akpom admitted he was getting "a bit frustrated" and "over-thinking stuff" as his goal drought continued, but almost a month on, that remains his only goal for the Suffolk outfit, and he has only started one of the subsequent five games.

Even with Szmodics being sidelined through injury in recent weeks, Akpom has still not managed to break into the team, with McKenna preferring fellow summer signing Nunez in the number 10 position, and with George Hirst and Azon ahead of him in the pecking order, he is unlikely to receive too many opportunities to show what he can do as a number nine.

Given that Ipswich have an obligation to buy Akpom in the event of promotion, there may be no way for them to terminate his loan deal early, but as his Portman Road nightmare goes on, they will surely be searching for a possible escape route to prevent them from having to splash out £7 million if they reach the Premier League.

McKenna will be reluctant to write Akpom off as a transfer flop just yet, but there is no doubt that he has failed to live up to expectations during his time with the Tractor Boys so far, and the club may be having serious regrets about agreeing to pay such a hefty fee.