Blackburn Rovers fans will be puzzled at current Sammie Szmodics, Ipswich Town situation | OneFootball

Sammie Szmodics was a sensation for Blackburn in the 2023-24 season, but he hasn't caught light for Ipswich in the Premier League or the Championship.

Sammie Szmodics was a sensation for Blackburn Rovers during the 2023-24 season, and produced the type of numbers that are normally only reserved for top, top talents.

However, fast forward two seasons, and the same player is struggling to make much of an impact in an Ipswich Town team that are one of the favourites for promotion straight back to the Premier League.

The Tractor Boys have had a difficult start to life back in the Championship following their relegation from the Premier League at the end of the 2024-25 season, and one of the players who's been struggling to find his feet has been attacking midfielder Sammie Szmodics.

Blackburn Rovers supporters could be forgiven looking on at Szmodics' struggles with a degree of puzzlement.

Szmodics left Ewood Park for Ipswich Town towards the end of the summer 2024 transfer window, but he was electric for Blackburn in his final season with their club, he's failed to replicate anything like that sort of form at Portman Road.

Since Ipswich spent last season at the foot of the Premier League, this might not have been much of a surprise throughout the 2024-25 season, but he's now made eight appearances back in the Championship - a division in which he has more than proved himself before - and has failed to find his feet back in a division with which is very familiar as well.

Sammie Szmodics was the difference between Blackburn staying up and going down in 2023-24

When Sammie Szmodics left Blackburn Rovers for Ipswich for an undisclosed fee reported to be around an initial £9 million, disappointment was understandable on the part of Rovers fans.

Szmodics had scored 33 goals in 48 appearances in all competitions for their team the previous season, of which 27 came in the league, leaving him as the Championship's top scorer by six goals from former Rovers forward Adam Armostrong of Southampton.

These figures are all the more impressive when we remember that Blackburn finished that season in 19th place in the division, that Szmodics is an attacking midfielder rather than a striker, and that the calibre of players that he beat in that top goalscorers list included Crysencio Summerville, Jamie Vardy and Josh Sargent.

Rovers finished that season three points above the relegation places, and his contribution was essentially the difference between Blackburn getting relegated that season and staying up.

Blackburn were never going to stand in the way of Szmodics realising his Premier League ambitions if they were to receive the right fee, although some would say that they didn't get enough for their talisman when it was all said and done.

Injuries blighted Sammie Szmodics' 2024-25 season with Ipswich - 2025-26 has been a disappointment so far too

That Smzodics wasn't a prolific goalscorer for Ipswich Town throughout 2024-25 wasn't a huge surprise.

Ipswich only scored 36 goals in their 38 Premier League matches, throughout the entire season, only three more than he had managed in all competitions for Blackburn a season earlier.

Szmodics started that season well enough, bagging the first Premier League goal of his career in a 4-1 defeat at Manchester City on the 24th of August, and even though his final tally for the season was just four top flight goals, this only came from 20 Premier League appearances for the Tractor Boys after injuries blighted the second half of his season.

In a team that finished the season with just four league wins, that's not a completely disastrous record, and with a return to the Championship, there had been hopes that the drop in level should suit him better, given his record in 2023-24.

But so far, this season has continued very much as last season ended. He's failed to score in any of his eight appearances for Ipswich so far this season, with the Suffolk outfit sitting in mid-table, having drawn four of their first seven league matches of the season.

Szmodics' appearance in Ipswich's last match against Bristol City was brief, coming on with 11 minutes to play in place of Ajax loanee Chuba Akpom.

Four of his appearances in the league so far this season have come in the starting 11, while the other three have all come from the bench.

Sofascore stats confirm that he's missed two big chances for Ipswich so far this season, while his shots on target score of 0.4 per match is underwhelming. His xG for the season so far is 1.14, which indicates that he's had the chances to find the net, but has so far failed to do so.

There are several reasons why this might be. The injuries that he picked up throughout the second half of last season may well have had a disruptive effect on him, while being a smaller fish in a bigger pond at Ipswich than he was at Blackburn may also be a factor.

Rovers fans may well be forgiven thinking that he is being wasted at Portman Road, and that he could have had a more successful time of things had he stayed at Ewood Park, but when it's all said and done, he was able to taste Premier League football for at least one year of his career.

Now that he's back in the Championship though, there will be some bemusement from Rovers fans at how ineffective he's proving to be at Portman Road, and after they handed the attacker a polite welcome back to Ewood Park recently in the match that was abandoned after 80 minutes due to a waterlogged pitch, Blackburn fans will no doubt be confused as to why it's not currently working out for their former favourite.