Ipswich Town transfer regret issued after £10m John Textor reveal - Nottingham Forest have profited since | OneFootball

The Tractor Boys were the only club in for Brazil international Igor Jesus in January 2025 - he's since gone onto bigger and better things though...

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Ipswich Town's most recent stay in the Premier League was a brief one, but it was the culmination of three years of excitement, drama and a lot of money earnt.

The Tractor Boys finished the 2021-22 League One season in 11th position, but having lost just two of their last 17 matches under relatively new head coach Kieran McKenna that year, the building blocks were being put in place for a dream run for the next two years.

Back-to-back promotions were won with the Northern Irishman at the helm, in a feat that saw Town back in the top flight of English football for the first time in 22 years.

Ultimately, the Suffolk outfit went back down to the Championship along with the two clubs they came up with - Leicester City and Southampton - but they spent quite a bit of money on new recruits in the summer and in January, and despite having Liam Delap at the top end of the pitch, they also went for Brazilian centre-forward Igor Jesus in the mid-season window.

Igor Jesus transfer claim issued amid Ipswich Town, John Textor revelation

It was reported back in January by Alan Nixon that Ipswich were plotting a huge bid for then-Botafogo attacker Jesus, with a fee of up to £30 million touted for a player that had been capped four times by Brazil in late 2024, although he had only scored five times in 22 top flight matches in his country that season.

In the end, Jesus remained at Botafogo, and instead moved to Nottingham Forest in the summer, but for a transfer fee of £10 million - much less than the touted numbers of the previous window.

The 24-year-old has been a hit at the Tricky Trees already, proving especially effective in the UEFA Europa League, and it has led to John Textor - the ex-Crystal Palace owner who is involved with Botafogo through Eagle Football Group - telling all about Ipswich's interest in the Seleção forward, revealing that Town were the only club in for Jesus at the time, but he did not want to leave for a club that were looking like they were almost certainly going to be relegated from the Premier League.

FLW's Ipswich fan pundit Adam Wilkin though thinks that whilst Jesus is evidently a talented individual, the club would have likely not been able to keep hold of him anyway, should they have signed him and then succumbed to relegation - much like what happened with players such as Liam Delap.

"I think it's an interesting link, given the Premier League window that we ended up with when we went up. I think Igor Jesus is a tremendous footballer and clearly he's proving his worth with Nottingham Forest this season,"

"We ended up with Liam Delap instead, who potentially you could argue was even better in our relegation season, so it's one of those where he's clearly a tremendous player, and it would've been great to see him at Portman Road.

"Would we have been able to keep hold of him if we'd gone down, or would it have been a similar situation to Delap? I think it would probably have been a similar situation to Delap.

"So, it's one of those where when you go up you're trying to bid for these players, but are at a disadvantage to all of the other Prmeier League sides, given your stature, and how you might go back down."

Ipswich Town missing out on Igor Jesus may have cost them their Premier League place

Heading into the last January transfer window, Ipswich sat in 18th position in the Premier League with 15 points to their name, and having defeated Chelsea at Portman Road, there will have been some hopeful faces around the place that they could keep their place in the upper echelons of English football.

Unfortunately though, Town won just once in the second half of the 2024-25 league season, and the points gap just kept growing and growing when it came to trying to climb out of the bottom three.

It was more of a leaky defence that sent Ipswich back to the Championship rather than a lack of goals, with Delap ending the season with a very respectable tally of 12 himself, which led to his £30 million move to Chelsea in the summer, but perhaps if McKenna had a stronger alternative to turn to, they could've put together a string of results to put them in a better position.

George Hirst was the man that McKenna had to turn to as a replacement for Delap at times, and whilst he's a very solid Championship outlet at the top end of the pitch, his three goals from 26 Premier League outings spoke for themselves.

Landing Igor Jesus therefore could have eased the pressure on Delap's shoulders to get the goals to keep the club in the top flight, but with Textor's revelation that he didn't want to move to a relegation-threatened club, it appears like the move was somewhat of a non-starter, which is a shame for the Tractor Boys, given what the South American striker is doing now for Forest.