Ipswich Town will try to add this exciting starlet to their squad ahead of entering into the Premier League.
Ipswich Town won’t just be targeting flashy additions ahead of their voyage into the Premier League, with a focus on adding in future talents also on the agenda at Portman Road.
Kieran McKenna will be content with the main components of his squad currently, knowing that the back-to-back promotions that were achieved was due to having a tight-knit group moving up to League One and then the Championship, but that doesn’t mean the Tractor Boys won’t seal some incomings soon.
One potential incoming won’t instantly break into the first-team, considering Ipswich are entering into an almighty tough season ahead as underdogs in the elite division, but he could end up being a Wes Burns repeat, who joined from lowly Fleetwood Town in 2021 and is now a key first-team performer.
Ipswich looking at exciting non-league starlet
According to a report by football journalist Graeme Bailey, Ipswich, alongside a whole host of other clubs up and down the English leagues, are eyeing up 18-year-old centre-back George Nevett from Rochdale this summer.
Crystal Palace and Southampton have allegedly been looking at Nevitt since January, according to Bailey, whilst the likes of Queens Park Rangers, Blackburn Rovers, Millwall and Peterborough United are also keeping tabs on the Dale youngster.
Calm on the ball when playing out from the back for the National League side this season just gone, as can be seen in the video above, Nevett would go on to amass 34 league appearances.
It would still be a gigantic leap up for Nevett if Ipswich were successful in winning his services, however, considering this was his first full senior campaign.
Yet, Burns was playing at the same level for Forest Green once upon a time, with the Welsh winger now immortalised into the Ipswich hall-of-fame after bagging versus Huddersfield Town on the final day of the campaign, in a match that saw automatic promotion be clinched.
His compatriot in Nevett would be some way off becoming a hero in the first-team ranks if he does join, but he will take inspiration from Burns’ ascent, as well as looking at Luke Woolfenden’s rise, who was once a youngster learning the ropes at Portman Road himself before becoming a promotion-winner.
Why Nevett can look at Woolfenden for inspiration
Woolfenden is a story of perseverance paying off, with the 25-year-old very much contemplating an exit from his hometown club before McKenna’s arrival on the scene, having found his first team opportunities limited.
It was a breakneck start to his senior career, making his Championship debut when just one year older than Nevett for the Tractor Boys back in 2018, before opportunities began to dry up in the first-team mix.
| Woolfenden’s career at Ipswich to date | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Games played | Goals | Assists |
| 23/24 | 42 | 1 | 1 |
| 22/23 | 47 | 2 | 1 |
| 21/22 | 38 | 0 | 0 |
| 20/21 | 28 | 1 | 0 |
| 19/20 | 36 | 1 | 2 |
| 18/19 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 17/18 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Sourced by Transfermarkt | |||
Making a combined 89 appearances over the last two campaigns in all competitions, with McKenna at the helm, Woolfenden will hope he’s still a vital name on the team sheet for the move up to the Premier League, having worked hard to get to this point.
Nevett will strive to be as patient if he ends up leaving the comforts of Dale behind for Suffolk soon, having been tipped to go “right to the top” by football analyst Tom Williams, when being linked with a switch to Oliver Glasner’s Eagles back in January – having also been lauded as a “highly-rated” by journalist Pete O’Rourke.
This could end up being a major transfer battle, as Nevett weighs up whether a move to the Premier League early into his fledging career would be beneficial, or a switch that could be detrimental to the teenager.
