Ipswich Town transfer regret outlined - £5m man would have been a "Kieffer Moore style signing" | OneFootball

FLW's Ipswich Town fan pundit has admitted he is disappointed the Tractor Boys missed out on the signing of Nashville striker Sam Surridge.

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...

It is fair to say it was a relatively quiet January transfer window for Ipswich Town.

Ipswich are aiming for an immediate return to the Premier League after their relegation from the top flight last season, and they currently sit fourth in the Championship table, seven points behind second-placed Middlesbrough and leaders Coventry City.

After a summer of significant spending, the Tractor Boys brought in just two new signings during the January window, with midfielder Dan Neil arriving on loan from Sunderland and winger Anis Mehmeti making a £3 million move from Bristol City.

In fact, much of the transfer activity at Ipswich was focused on outgoings, with the likes of Harry Clarke, Cameron Humphreys, Finley Barbrook and Sammie Szmodics all making loan moves away from Portman Road.

It could have been different for the Tractor Boys had they managed to land more of their reported targets, and as well as having multiple bids rejected for Millwall winger Femi Azeez, Nashville striker Sam Surridge is believed to have been another player on the radar of the Suffolk outfit.

Surridge joined Nashville from Nottingham Forest in the summer of 2023 for a fee of £5 million, and he has scored 51 goals in 87 games during a prolific spell with the MLS side so far, including netting 31 times in just 40 appearances last season.

Ipswich Town frustration revealed over Sam Surridge transfer miss

When asked if he was disappointed at missing out on Surridge, FLW's Ipswich Town fan pundit Adam Wilkin admitted he would have been excited by the 27-year-old's arrival, and he claimed he could have had a similar impact to Kieffer Moore, who scored seven goals after joining in the January window of the club's previous Championship promotion-winning campaign.

"The move for Sam Surridge was one that I was really excited about given his pedigree in the Championship and his goalscoring exploits before he moved to the MLS," Adam told FLW.

"He's been a pretty big success in the MLS as well.

"The move back to England seemed to appeal, and it seems like we got quite close so it was disappointing in that sense.

"However, it looks like Nashville offered him way bigger wages and a lot more money to stay in the MLS, and, from that perspective, I'm glad we didn't break our wage structure just to sign him.

"The proof will be where we finish at the end of the season, but I do think George Hirst and Ivan Azon have enough in them to get us where we need to be.

"Sam Surridge would have been that Kieffer Moore style signing to push them over the line.

"I think Dan Neil is probably our biggest addition in that sense, hopefully he can be the man to help fix some of our midfield issues."

Surridge was not particularly prolific during his previous spells in the Championship with the likes of Bournemouth, Stoke and Nottingham Forest, so there is no guarantee that he would have been able to deliver for Ipswich, but his outstanding record in the MLS suggests he could have added plenty of firepower to Kieran McKenna's side.

The Tractor Boys are firmly in the automatic promotion race, and their attacking options are the envy of many in the division, but the failure to bring in a clinical striker could be costly in their pursuit of a return to the Premier League, with George Hirst and Ivan Azon scoring a combined total of just eight goals between them so far this season.

With Ipswich's main source of goals coming from the wide areas, McKenna will hope that the likes of Jack Clarke and Jaden Philogene can maintain their impressive form for the remainder of the season, but the addition of a proven number nine in January could have been the final piece of the puzzle.