Kieran McKenna fell flat with one Ipswich Town deal - Plymouth Argyle laughed loudest | OneFootball

Midfielder Panutche Camara had impressed in the lower divisions prior to his arrival at Portman Road, but it all went wrong when he got there.

Ipswich Town have been transformed since Kieran McKenna was appointed as their manager, but that doesn't mean that he's called every transfer decision right.

Following years of stagnation under previous owner Marcus Edwards, Ipswich Town have had a busy last few seasons under the ownership of Gamechanger 20. And perhaps the most important decision they've taken in that time was to pluck McKenna from the coaching staff at Manchester United and offer him his first managerial position at Portman Road.

Since McKenna's appointment, Ipswich have been on quite a ride. They were promoted for two successive seasons to get from League One to the Premier League, and while their stay in the top flight only lasted for one season, and had a mixed start to 2025-26, they've started to look capable of reclaiming a place in the top twenty in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

McKenna has undoubtedly been a huge hit for Ipswich, but that doesn't mean that every transfer decision under him has been a hit, and in the case of one particular player the club ended up wasting half a million pounds on someone who only ended up making one League appearance for them.

Panutche Camara had impressed prior to going to Portman Road

At the point of his signature for Ipswich Town in September 2022, there was little reason to believe that Panutche Camara would be such a flop at Portman Road.

Camara had started his career in the non-league game with Dulwich Hamlet before attracting the attention of Crawley Town, who signed him in 2017. At the end of his three-year contract at Broadfield Stadium, he turned down a new contract with the club and signed for Plymouth Argyle on a free transfer.

Over the next two seasons, he became a mainstay in the Plymouth team, making 80 league appearances in that time, and at the end of the summer 2022 transfer window, Ipswich stepped in and offered £500,000 to take the forward to Portman Road.

Camara's time at Ipswich turned out to be an injury-plagued disaster

The problems to come had already started before Camara signed for Ipswich, with a groin injury having kept him out of the start of the season with Plymouth Argyle.

It wouldn't be until the middle of October before he made his Ipswich debut, coming on as a half-time substitute in a 1-0 defeat away to Cambridge United. It would be another three weeks before he appeared in a blue shirt again, again coming on as a substitute in an FA Cup First Round match away to non-league Bracknell Town.

And this time he marked his appearance with a goal, scoring the final goal in a 3-0 Ipswich win. Five days later he made his League debut for them, again coming on as a substitute at Portman Road during a 1-1 draw with Cheltenham Town.

But that groin injury hadn't fully recovered, and in December he found himself needing surgery on it. He didn't reappear until March, and when he did, it was playing with the Ipswich under-21s as the first team fought their way to second place in League One and a return to the Championship following an absence of four years.

Promotion to the Championship marked the end for Camara as an Ipswich player. As the club prepared for their return to the second tier, he was sent on a season-long loan at Charlton Athletic in League One. He made 13 appearances for the Addicks, but again injuries were a frustration.

He missed the first part of the season with a foot injury, briefly returned, and was then out for another four months from the end of October to March with a torn hamstring, and when he returned, he only made a further five appearances for the club and was left out of their squad for the final stages of the season.

That summer, Ipswich didn't renew his contract, and Camara returned to Crawley Town, the club at which he had started his professional career. With the injuries having subsided, he put in 42 appearances for Crawley before heading north to Scotland, after signing for Dundee United.

Still only 28 years of age, Camara still has plenty of years ahead of him, but his time at Ipswich was accompanied by catastrophic bad luck. He managed just 17 appearances in all competitions that he was under contract at Portman Road, and 13 of those came for Charlton Athletic.

Ipswich did fine over those two seasons, with two successive promotions from League One to the Premier League, but it might have been Plymouth, who made half a million pounds on a player they'd picked up for nothing and who may not have played much for them had he stayed, who probably enjoyed Camara's time in Suffolk the most.